GOP's Brand of Fiscal Restraint is Really Expensive

House Republicans are all about saving taxpayers' money, right? Right? Well, actually not so much. It would be more accurate to say House Republicans are all about talking about saving taxpayers' money, while doing nothing but collecting it in the form of congressional paychecks. And what they don't pocket themselves, they blow on boneheaded fiscal ideas.

There is a cost to a do-nothing congress. And this is definitely a do-nothing congress. Oh sure, they pretend to accomplish things, but mostly they just dick around with PR stunts that even they know are doomed. And they don't pay for their own PR -- you do.

Take for example the repeated votes to repeal Obamacare. Those bills go nowhere in the Senate -- they aren't even brought up for a vote -- yet John Boehner has wasted 80 hours worth of taxpayer money on these election year stunts. That ain't free and that ain't hay.

Huffington Post:

According to a report by CBS News, these efforts, widely viewed as symbolic political maneuvers, come with a high price tag.

CBS' Nancy Cordes reported Wednesday that Republicans' many fruitless attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act have taken up at least 80 hours of time on the House floor since 2010, amounting to two full work weeks. As the House, according to the Congressional Research Service, costs taxpayers $24 million a week to operate, those two weeks amounted to a total cost of approximately $48 million.

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The Media's Daily Search for a 'Game Changer'

It's generally the case that presidential campaign coverage is dominated by brainless non-issues. This is of course largely the fault of the candidates, but the media share some of the blame. Because of networks' ratings-bias, there is no such thing as a minor controversy -- everything is of earth-shattering importance and any little slip could destroy a candidate's chances at the presidency.

As a result, the media portrayal the campaign news of the day and reality are two entirely different things. Minor issues and trivial embarrassments get blown entirely out of proportion -- not because the media misunderstands what constitutes "big news," but because they hope to inflate fumbles into flaming wrecks.

In a piece for FiveThirtyEight on spring polling and their ability to predict nothing, Micah Cohen brings up exactly this problem:

Already, partisans and pundits are criticizing individual polling samples and pollster methodologies. Entire “-gates” – Rosen-gate and dog-gate, for example – have erupted, been fought over and then forgotten in mere days, and each poll is scrutinized to see how the latest controversy has affected the race.

Oops, guess we're not supposed to notice that the big, all-consuming stories-of-the-day tend to go absolutely nowhere. Hilary Rosen disses Ann Romney and everyone's supposed to be outraged. It totally shifted the "War on Women" dynamic -- except it didn't. The needle on the public outcry meter didn't so much as quiver. Mitt's big counter-offensive in the War on Women was a bust and Republicans in general find themselves just as unpopular with women as they were before -- if not worse off.

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