The G.O.P.’s Spending Addiction

By JULIET LAPIDOS, NYT

If Congress cuts federal spending, does that help or hurt an economy in recession? The Republicans say it helps. What if Congress cuts federal defense spending? In that case, the Republicans say it hurts.

Senator Harry Reid won’t back off the $600 billion or so in automatic defense cuts imposed as part of last year’s debt-ceiling deal—not without an agreement to raise taxes—which is infuriating the G.O.P.

Senator Jon Kyl, the minority whip, said “the whole point here is to try to get some economic growth, job creation, to get out of this recession.” Citing a Congressional Budget Office report that spending cuts and tax hikes would stall the recovery, Mr. Kyl added: “Why would we risk going backward with policy that even CBO says would be the wrong prescription right now?”

G.O.P. senators say they are also worried about national security—John McCain, for example, said Mr. Reid “doesn’t understand the devastating effects on our nation’s security”—but it’s the emphasis on the economy that interests me. By accepting the argument that spending cuts could deepen or prolong the recession, Mr. Kyl and other Republicans are also tacitly accepting Keynesian economic theory.

(More here.)