The GOP: Paradoxical or . . .?
The idea that the GOP does not abjure deficits at all, they actually encourage them. (see my post on GOP Courting A Depression)
Krugman’s observation does not go far enough:
It’s a point barely worth making, but the tax cut deal demonstrates, for the umpteenth time, that self-proclaimed deficit hawks are frauds. We can’t afford unemployment benefits or public investment, the fake hawks say — but when it come to cutting taxes on the rich, money is literally no object.
It’s just possible, as Atrios says, that some journalists don’t understand this; if you do up-close-and-personal reporting, judging politicians by what they say and how they come across rather than by the content of their proposals, you might actually be snookered. But again: none of the people who claim about the deficit actually view it as anything more than a stick with which to beat down progressive ideas. [My italics]
Their selective deficit “hawkiness” is calculated to fool the electorate. In fact, they are blind to deficits when wealth is transferred to the wealthiest. They are hawks when deficits take business from the private sector and when they assist/empower the poor, and lately, the middle class. Their purpose is to destroy much of the federal sector by starvation through spending reductions, revenue decreases, and their phony “deficit-busting.”
America, however, cannot afford to make those cuts permanent. We’re talking about almost $4 trillion in lost revenue just over the next decade; over the next 75 years, the revenue loss would be more than three times the entire projected Social Security shortfall. So giving in to Republican demands would mean risking a major fiscal crisis — a crisis that could be resolved only by making savage cuts in federal spending.
And we’re not talking about government programs nobody cares about: the only way to cut spending enough to pay for the Bush tax cuts in the long run would be to dismantle large parts of Social Security and Medicare.
Bingo!
