New York Times columnist David Brooks said on Sunday that it was "insane" for Republicans in Congress, including every GOP member of the House, to support a spending freeze in the middle of a recession.
Tying such proposals to an intellectual simplicity exhibited by Rush Limbaugh, the conservative scribe also said the party was too obsessed with pursuing the legacy of Ronald Reagan in a drastically different time.
"The problem with them and the problem with Limbaugh in terms of intellectual philosophy is they are stuck with Reagan," Brooks said during an appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "They are stuck with the idea that government is always the problem. A lot of Republicans up in Capitol Hill right now are calling for a spending freeze in a middle of a recession/depression. That is insane. But they are thinking the way they thought in 1982, if we can only think that way again, that is just insane. And there are a lot of Republicans like David Frum ... who are trying to say Reagan was right for his era, but it is time to move on. And there are just not a lot of them on Capitol Hill right now, and I think the party is looking for that kind of Republican."
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Earlier in the week, House Minority Leader John Boehner urged President Barack Obama to work with Republicans to impose a spending freeze until the end of this fiscal year. Introduced as legislation, the measure failed when it came to a vote, with every Republican but only eight Democrats supporting its passage.