A real smart friend pointed me to a recent NYT Op-Ed by David Brooks titled The Mother of All No-Brainers … suggesting that it well summarized the destructive idiocy of the GOP for refusing to raise taxes in light of the debt crisis.
Oh, my …
Brooks general premise: “If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred billion dollars of revenue increases.”
A couple of Brook’s arguments supporting the premise – with my take…
* * * * *
“The Democrats have agreed to tie budget cuts to the debt ceiling bill.”
Ken: For months, Obama demanded “a clean increase in the debt level” unencumered by spending cuts to narrow the deficit.
Even now, the Democrats have agreed to nothing.
A few floated leaks do not constitute an agreement … especially when Schumer & Pelosi run to the mics to say “over their dead bodies”
* * * * *
“Democrats have agreed not to raise tax rates.”
Ken: Au contraire.
First, there is the Dem obsession with pushing the upper brackets back “to the Clinton levels”.
An obsession as deep as the GOP’s obsession to just say no.
Second, it’s just semantics if you pare deductions (oops, I mean “loopholes”).
May be a good idea, but the point just isn’t true.
* * * * *
“Democrats have agreed to a roughly 3-to-1 rate of spending cuts to revenue increases.”
Ken: Again, Dems have agreed to nothing. It’s vapor.
Further, the President’s last offer – according to him in his presser – was a 1 to 1 ratio.
* * * * *
“The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has talked about supporting a debt reduction measure of $3 trillion or even $4 trillion.”
Ken: Agree: “talked about supporting”.
Let’s see walk not talk.
And, don’t forget: “A federal budget compromise that was hailed as historic for proposing to cut about $38 billion (with a B) would reduce federal spending by only $352 million (with an M) this fiscal year, less than 1 percent of the bill’s advertised amount, according to the Congressional Budget Office.”
Fool me once … then don’t expect me to trust you next time.
* * * * *
“There are some Democrats in the White House and elsewhere who would be willing to accept Medicare cuts if the Republicans would be willing to increase revenues.”
Ken: Yeah, and there are some Republicans who support jacking up taxes.
To be fair, Dems did partially fund ObamaCare with $500 billion in Medicare cuts, demonstrating a willingness to whack away at the program.
But, I haven’t seen any specifics re: what they’re willing to cut this time around.
* * * * *
“The members of this (no new taxes) movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities.”
Ken: English translation – “We’re smarter than you and we know it because, well, we’re smarter than you”.
How do jabrones who have never worked in the private sector, who sit relaxed in protected jobs-for-life, or who – in some cases – haven’t taken a single course in economics or business — qualify as “intellectual authorities”?
Geez.
* * * * *
“The members of this (no new taxes) movement have no sense of moral decency. A nation makes a sacred pledge to pay the money back when it borrows money.”
Ken: Excuse me ?
Remember the auto bailout?
The Administration subordinated secured creditors beneath their unsecured union cronies, making a complete mockery of established bankruptcy laws … and, oh yeah, violating a sacred pledge.
And, the President “can’t guarantee” Social Security Insurance payments to be disbursed from a Social Security Trust Fund.
So much for sacred pledges.
* * * * *
“The members of this movement have no economic theory worthy of the name.”
Ken: How did that Keynesian Stimulus work out for you?
I know “we averted a catastrophe” (or did we “dodge Armegedon” that time, I forget).
The Stimlus was costly for sure — adding a TRILLION dollars to the debt.
The results were equivocal, at best … over $250,000 per job saved or created based on the Administration’s flakey numbers.
Question: If the Administration’s economic theory is so “worthy”, why did Summers, Romer, Goolsbee, Bernstein, and Orzag jump (or get pushed) off the ship?
Hmmm.
* * * * *
“To members of this movement, tax levels are everything. They are willing to cut education and research to preserve tax expenditures.”
Ken: OK, keep education – even though tens of billions of spending doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere.
Question: Do we really need 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality?
And, keep research, except, maybe for studies like “$2.6 million studying why Chinese prostitutes don’t drink more responsibly on the job”.
But please, at least read the GAO report that uncovered billions of dollars in “wasteful spending by the U.S. government due to duplicate work done by dozens of overlapping agencies on redundant and ineffective federal programs”.
* * * * *
“The GOP has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation.”
Ken: I especially like the part about “normal governance”.
I guess the new normal is vilification of all dissenters as evil and stupid, “gun-to-head” problem-solving to avert catastrophes — real or imagined, closed door decision-making by a handful of smarter-than-you politicos, and “pass it to see what’s in it”.
Maybe we need a new new normal.
* * * * *
“Independent voters will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern.”
Ken: As the President used to say “elections have consequences”.
Last November, they voted that the Dems were’t fit to govern and elected a GOP-majority Congress that pledged not to raise taxes.
Now, those Congressmen are being demonized for keeping their pledges and promises.
Go figure …
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