JONATHAN CHAIT JULY 25, 2011
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In reference to my previous argument about how sheer partisan animus complicates any debt ceiling agreement, consider the sample case of Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post conservative blogger. Rubin is the paradigmatic case of a conservative whose positions on these issues is driven almost entirely by partisan heuristics. Today, for instance, she spits contempt upon Harry Reid's plan to pair a debt ceiling hike with $2.7 trillion in spending cuts and no revenue increases:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is devising a sham that will never pass muster in the House. A Capitol Hill source with knowledge of the plan tells me: “It includes $1.2 trillion in OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations] savings . . . which was assumed anyway, $1.2 trillion (over $1.1 trillion less than [Majority Leader Eric] Cantor identified in the Biden talks) and $300 billion in interest savings.” A Senate aide says dryly that Reid “has about a trillion in ‘savings’ from ending the war in Iraq that’s already going to end.” And a disgusted House adviser bluntly tells me that Reid’s plan “isn’t real.”
Okay, so her view is that Reid's plan is phony because it includes savings from drawing own the Afghanistan war. You know who else had a budget that included those exact same savings? Paul Ryan. Here's Rubin defending Ryan against the accusation of budget gimmickry. Here she is imploring him to run for president.
A couple weeks ago, Mitch McConnell leaked to Rubin a plan to hike the debt ceiling with no deficit reduction at all. Here's Rubin defending that plan to the hilt.
Can you think of any reason why Reid's plan would be terrible and McConnell's plan wonderful? McConnell's plan does require two extra votes in Congress, though nobody has even pretended to come up with an actual public policy rationale for that (as opposed to a partisan rationale.) I suppose Rubin could concoct one if need be. But that still leaves the matter of Reid requiring $2.7 trillion in cuts, and McConnell requiring zero. Now, $1.2 trillion of those cuts are indeed a gimmick, just as they were in Ryan's budget. But that still leaves $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. That's a lot of money! Is the Republican goal of forcing two extra debt ceiling votes really more valuable than those cuts? Can anybody possibly imagine that if Reid had proposed McConnell's plan, and McConnell had proposed Reid's plan, that Rubin would still hold the same position on the two proposals?
(In case you're wondering about my own view, I'd take Reid's deal but I prefer McConnell's.)
8 comments
It doesn't matter what Democrats propose, Republicans will be against it. When Republican legislators told their constituents that they would go to Washington and fight on their behalf, they meant they woud just fight over whatever was put in front of them like some kind of toy robot.
- Nusholtz
July 25, 2011 at 5:45pm
Who cares? Democratic politicians and commentators need to stop marveling at conservatives' craven disregard for the truth and instead figure out how to beat them at their own game.
- AaronW
July 25, 2011 at 6:10pm
Yeah, because America needs to be ruled by an entire caste of politicians, not just half, suffering from a craven aversion to truth and intellect. The efforts of democrats to draw out America's suffering shall not be appreciated. Because that's the America we deserve.
No thanks.
Jon, it's nice to see you finally acknowledging what so many of us have argued for so long. The GOP have left no small sum of evidence in their wake, showing exactly where their intentions lay. And you do very well in presenting the information and drawing the connections clearly. Keep up the good work.
- GSpinks
July 25, 2011 at 6:26pm
$2.7 trillion. Am I the only one who sees the irony that the amount needed to lift the debt ceiling is exactly the same amount that is owed the social security trust fund? In other words, if we hadn't been stealing form the trust fund since 1983 we wouldn't need to raise the debt ceiling today. Is it possible, remotely possible, that the Republicans never intended to repay the trust fund? That McConnell's pledge not to use income tax receipts to repay the amounts borrowed from the trust fund might, just might, have something to do with the hostage crisis?
- rayward
July 25, 2011 at 6:40pm
I second your fine comment, GS.
- liberalref
July 25, 2011 at 7:24pm
That's all you ever do, lib...second other people's comments. Republicans lie. Are you surprised? People believe their lies. Are you surprised at that? I'm not advocating that Democrats should take up lying, but wringing your hands saying "How can Republicans be so stupid/crazy/venal/dishonest?!?" and "How can voters be so credulous?!?" is not a political strategy. Obama should go on tv with a PowerPoint presentation entitled How Republican Lies Are Destroying America.
- AaronW
July 25, 2011 at 8:05pm
Aaron didn't say you have to lie like Republicans. He said you have to figure out how to fight them and win, and then do so.
- Curran1
July 25, 2011 at 8:52pm
(Oh. My bad. For some reason Aaron's 2nd comment wasn't showing up at the time)
- Curran1
July 25, 2011 at 8:54pm