JONATHAN CHAIT FEBRUARY 21, 2011
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House Republicans have been describing their $61 billion in cuts to the domestic discretionary budget a down payment, merely a start, and so on. But then you see that they've cut even programs like border security, which they see as utterly vital:
For instance, the bill would cut at least $272 million in border security and immigration enforcement, including fencing and surveillance technology. A Democratic analysis shows this would scale back the number of agents patrolling the Mexican border from 21,370 to 20,500.
A couple points here. First, Republicans almost surely made cuts like this (and others to things like cancer research) in the assumption they wouldn't come to pass. Democrats control the Senate and White House, there will be negotiations, so Republicans can make cuts they don't want to actually take place and still retain support from their base.
But second, this shows again how utterly at odds with reality the conservative view of the budget is. There just is not a lot of waste to be found. Republicans like to say they've just made a first step, but if the first step means weakening the government function they've been demanding to strengthen, then you have to wonder how many other steps there could be.
Most of what government does is either necessary, popular, or both. Now, people don't understand that -- they think there are huge savings in foreign aid, welfare, and useless bureaucracy. Republicans can win power by appealing to popular misunderstandings of the budget, but actually implementing a program on the basis of a misunderstanding of reality is quite hard.
9 comments
They're running with scissors.
- Nusholtz
February 21, 2011 at 10:40am
People think there's HUGE SAVINGS available from waste, fraud, and abuse, because for decades that's what Republicans have been telling them. And because that message feeds the wishful thinking point of view. Maybe you CAN fool some people all of the time. But you'd think after decades of being told the same thing, people would wake up and realize it's bogus. Maybe this time they will, because this time the Republicans actually ARE making concrete proposals. So the disconnect can become very blatant and obvious.
- AllanL5
February 21, 2011 at 10:54am
There is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. But the GOP won't try to go after that since they won't touch farm support programs, the pentagon nor the fossil fuel bidness.
- tnmats
February 21, 2011 at 11:17am
Well, this country is paying an awful price for Ronald Reagan. He put into the air the silly right-wing economic orthodoxy that has time and time again prove false: 1. There is so much waste, fraud, and abuse in budget it will be easy to balance. 2. Rasing taxes increases the Federal budget deficit. 3. If top marginal rates go up, it will kill all job creation. 4. A national budget is the same thing as a household budget. 5. Income is purely a measure of how hard someone has worked and how productive they are. People are still buying it, so a majority in the House buys it. And lo and behold it will drive us into a ditch again!
- MikeB.
February 21, 2011 at 11:29am
"but if the first step means weakening the government function they've been demanding to strengthen, then you have to wonder how many other steps there could be." Very well put. This is why you have the reputation you have; strong important logic clearly and accurately conveyed is a lot more valuable to smart decision making than flowery, abstract, cool sounding prose.
- RHSerlin
February 21, 2011 at 12:20pm
MikeB is right about Reagan. Right now the tax rates are anti small business. For investors, we have a 15% tax rate on dividends and stock gains and a top 35% rate on business earnings. And for those who work in their own business, married couples are a smidgeon under a 40% bracket on the first 106,800.00. Why is this being tolerated?
- Nusholtz
February 21, 2011 at 1:05pm
Well, Mike, RR did dial back somewhat on supply-side economics. He raised taxes several times during his presidency.
- liberalref
February 21, 2011 at 1:38pm
Libref-- What you say is true, of course, but this was never reflected in his rhetoric, which stayed about the same--and it's largely the consequences of Reagan's communication, I think, that MikeB is concerned with; as many have noticed, the right has no problem with ignoring reality (I.e. that Reagan raised taxes a bunch of times), and sticking to their illusions. Well, Reagan had a big role in creating some of those illusions.
- Curran1
February 21, 2011 at 2:56pm
Libref, You are right, and everything Ronald Reagan did was not wrong. (Though far more was wrong than right.) However, where the damage was done was rhetorically. Look at how popular Medicare was when introduced in the 1960s, as compared to today's health care law. Arguably Medicare was much more socialistic than the ACA. Regan popularized the notion that "Government IS the problem!" So now when there is an attempt to reform health care by the state it is not because there needs to be an honest attempt to reform a broken system. It is to kill your grandma! We see in Chait's post above, a remnant of Reagan's rhetoric. I was a kid when he was President. However, I do recall him saying something like there was so much fat and waste in the government that if the fat could be rendered into soap it could clean the entire country, or some such nonsense. The GOP voter is still buying into this nonsense. Cutting government spending is so simple and will have no real effect. We are drowning in madness and silly economic right wing orthodoxy that Reagan's rhetoric seemed to make bullet-proof.
- MikeB.
February 21, 2011 at 4:10pm