Why Does America Have a Budget Problem. Republicans and Some Democrats Still Love Disastrous Voodoo Economics
Republicans figure that if they can’t sell the pig, they’ll just put lipstick on it and find some suckers who will think it’s something else.Moderate Republicans? Remember them. If you were around in the 1970s or even early 1980s there were still some around. There distinguishing characteristic was they could count and they didn't think it was a good idea to solve any budget shortfalls by taking money away from children and seniors to pay for the screw-ups of Wall Street's handmaidens. Now we have nothing but radical right-wing conservatives and a hand full of conservative Democrats who have bought into voodoo economics the way a screwy kid buys into the garbage spouted by a cult. The voodooists think if we just cut taxes and cut some more there we can still have good schools, a great environment for our families to enjoy, Medicare and all the other services a government by and for the people should provide. Clinton's tax rate was a few points higher than now and yet he created more jobs than Bush. There is no reason to think low taxes equals more jobs or that low taxes equals keeping America academically competitive. Yet the radical Right stills mindlessly worships the idea. We do not have much of a budget problem, we have a failure to rise revenue problem. People should be asking why the Senate is not pushing the People Budget. It saves Medicare and provides much needed educations funds, and it will create jobs.
That’s the proposal emerging in the Senate from Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee and also Democrat Claire McCaskill of Missouri. It would get the deficit down not by raising taxes on the rich but by capping federal spending.
If Congress failed to stay under the cap, the budget would be automatically cut.
According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the McCaskill/Corker plan would require $800 billion of cuts in 2022 alone. That’s the equivalent of eliminating Medicare entirely, or the entire Department of Defense.
Obviously the Defense Department wouldn’t disappear, so what would go? Giant cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and much of everything else Americans depend on.
It’s the Republican plan with lipstick. It would have the same exact result. But by disguising it with caps and procedures, Republicans can avoid saying what they’re intending to do.
The McCaskill/Corker spending cap would also make it impossible for government to boost the economy in recessions. Which would mean even higher unemployment, lasting longer.
Other Senate Dems are showing interest in the lipsticked pig, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin. Not surpringly, Joe Lieberman is on board.
But don’t be fooled, and don’t let anyone else be. McCaskill/Corker is the same Republican pig.
