NYT editorial: Deficit Hypocrisy
It was not long ago that Republicans succeeded in holding unemployment benefits hostage to a renewal of the high-end Bush-era income tax cuts and — as a little bonus — won deep estate tax cuts for America’s wealthiest heirs. Those cuts will add nearly $140 billion to the deficit in the near term, while doing far less to prod the economy than if the money had been spent more wisely.
That should have been evidence enough that the Republican Party’s one real priority is tax cuts — despite all the talk about deficit reduction and economic growth. But here’s some more:
On Dec. 22, just before they left town for the holidays, House Republican leaders released new budget rules that they intend to adopt when they assume the majority in January and will set the stage for even more budget-busting tax cuts.
First, some background: Under pay-as-you-go rules adopted by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2007, tax cuts or increases in entitlement spending must be offset by tax increases or entitlement cuts. Entitlements include big health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, for which spending is on autopilot, as well as some other programs for veterans and low-income Americans. (Discretionary spending, which includes defense, is approved separately by Congress annually.)
(More here.)
That should have been evidence enough that the Republican Party’s one real priority is tax cuts — despite all the talk about deficit reduction and economic growth. But here’s some more:
On Dec. 22, just before they left town for the holidays, House Republican leaders released new budget rules that they intend to adopt when they assume the majority in January and will set the stage for even more budget-busting tax cuts.
First, some background: Under pay-as-you-go rules adopted by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2007, tax cuts or increases in entitlement spending must be offset by tax increases or entitlement cuts. Entitlements include big health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, for which spending is on autopilot, as well as some other programs for veterans and low-income Americans. (Discretionary spending, which includes defense, is approved separately by Congress annually.)
(More here.)
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4 Comments:
Deficit hypocrisy or deficit sincerity - both are leading our country to finacial ruin. Does the NYT think more spending is the way out? Why no mention of the numerous suspensions of the pay-as-you-go rules by the last Congress?
"Cut-Go" has its problems ... besides what the NYT editorialized it also may result in more manipulation of the tax code with more cuts to pay for more spending ... for example, the House wanted to put a Chiropractor in every VA medical center (there's over a hundred facilities that do not currently have one on staff) ... it would add a $46 million per year ... so how do you pay for it ... simple, enact medical malpractice reform ... both may be good ideas, but they should stand individually on their own merits.
There is one very interesting proposal that the Republicans have made ... each appropriations bill will create a "spending reduction account". The intent is that any spending reduction in the bill that is cut through the amendments process will go towards deficit reduction, and not to offset new spending elsewhere. That will be the first test of whether we can really "Cut" our way to fiscal balance.
Interestingly, they also intend to offer legislation to reduce MRA (member's reimbursement account which is used to pay salaries, offices, frank mail, etc.) ... Obama has put a freeze on Executive Branch employees (except the military) ... so let's see how much they believe can be squeezed.
Tom - haven't you read Paul Krugman reprinted in Vox Verax? Krugman has argued that our problem is not that we have borrowed and spent enough at government, but that we haven't borrow and spend enough at government. Krugman thinks our economic woes are rooted in not enough borrowing and not enough government expenditure.
Thankfully, the rest of the country saw the economic carnage caused by unchecked liberalism and fired the 111th Congress. Krugman is a man in the wilderness shouting to the wind because Americans don't believe his remedy which is an even larger orgy of debt-fueled government spending.
Tom - and the hope I have is that the Republicans learned their lessons from their failures during the Bush years of governing like Democrats. I don't trust John Boehner because he's a card carrying member of the Republicans For Big Government and is all in favor of bribing voters with subsidy after subsidy after subsidy. But, if he learned the lesson in which the country yelled in one overwhelming voice 'stop the borrowing and stop the spending' we may have a chance to save this country after all.
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