Annoying

A big Newsweek article tells us “What Republicans would do if given carte blanche to run the country?”
As Digby points out (scroll down), why is there a need to ask the question? Republicans had carte blanche for eight years, surely they gave us a pretty good indicator under Bush? And sure enough, most of their dream program sounds familiar: Big tax cuts, more war, no Constitutional rights for accused terrorists, sell insurance across state lines, gut Social Security and Medicaid—stuff they either carried out under Bush or were yearning for.
Then we have a comment by the authors in response to Republican claims that Obama is shutting them out: “This isn’t true, of course—any more than it was true when the Democrats said the same thing as they dedicated themselves to thwarting George W. Bush.”
And when, exactly, was this? They didn’t thwart the rush to war, the Patriot Act, the warrantless eavesdropping, the tax cuts for the rich, the gutting of state environmental regulation, the massive, red-ink defense spending, the gutting of federal regulation … How exactly does this compare to the Repubs under Obama?
The fact is, we know exactly what the Repubs would do if they had power. They did it. And we’re all worse off for it.