"More than 25 years ago, Representative Jack Kemp told me, In the past, the left had a thesis: spending, redistribution of wealth and deficits. Republicans were the antithesis: spending is bad.
He went on to explain, Ronald Reagan represented a breakthrough for our party. We could talk about lower taxes and more growth. We didnt have to spend all our time preaching austerity and spending cuts. The question now is: Do we take our thesis and move it further, or do we revert to an anti-spending party?
We now have the answer. Republicans have reverted to an anti-spending party. Their latest cause? Austerity. Their argument? A shrinking economy is better than big government.
President Barack Obama tried to call the Republicans bluff in his State of the Union Address. Deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan, the president said. He didnt come out against deficit reduction. He said it should not be given a higher priority than economic growth. There are many reasons why it is important to reduce the national debt. Short-term economic growth is not one of them.
Theres little argument that the impending sequester across-the-board government spending cuts scheduled to begin March 1 will slow the nations economic growth. In fact, its already happening. The nations economy shrank in the last quarter of 2012. Economists attribute it to cutbacks in defense spending in anticipation of the sequester. More cutbacks will give us exactly what the country doesnt need right now austerity.
The American people dont believe in these austere things, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said.
Among the austere things could be an additional million Americans thrown out of work. There is no reason, Obama said, that the jobs of thousands of Americans who work in national security or education or clean energy not to mention the growth of the entire economy should be put in jeopardy.
Yes there is, Republicans say. Its to make a point: We have to shrink government. If that means some economic pain, well, No pain, no gain, as they say in sports.
Republicans are gambling that voters will take the spending cuts in stride. Then Republicans can say, See? We can live with smaller government. The financial markets have already absorbed the spending cuts and are hitting record highs. Safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare are protected from the cuts. Taxes are not going up.
Americans who live in areas hard hit by spending cuts near military bases, for example are likely to squawk. But Republicans think they can blame the president.
Hes in charge, isnt he? Why didnt he do something to stop us? Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the military situation desperate but then added, Its not desperate enough to raise taxes.
Democrats believe this will be like the government shutdown in 1995, which discredited the Republican Congress and helped get President Bill Clinton re-elected. Its not likely to be that dramatic at first because the cuts will not occur all at once. But there is another looming deadline at the end of March, when the federal government really could shut down if Congress doesnt pass a budget.
Tea Party Republicans are willing to take that risk. They want to demonstrate that government spending is so out of control that extreme actions must be taken to cut it back. Most of them, however, werent in Congress in 1995.
Obama learned something in his first term. He learned from bitter experience particularly the debt ceiling episode in 2011 that you cant make deals with Tea Party Republicans. You cant be reasonable with unreasonable people, one White House adviser told the Financial Times. How unreasonable? In the January Pew poll, 59 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents said I like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. Only 36 percent of Republicans felt the same way.
The president is now taking his case directly to the American people, rallying supporters around the country and keeping his 2012 campaign operation going. Hes making the case for government, something he started doing in his second Inaugural Address and in his State of the Union speech. Government should not just keep the economy growing, Obama argues, but also fix problems that the market cant solve like our increasing economic inequality or the declining competitiveness of U.S. workers.
Republicans believe that if they keep Congress fixated on an unending fiscal crisis first the sequester, then the federal budget, later the debt ceiling they wont have to pay attention to the programs Obama proposed in his State of the Union speech. Like raising the minimum wage to lessen inequality. And universal pre-school to help make American workers more competitive. Republicans believe they can just run out the clock."
Reuters Editorial
He went on to explain, Ronald Reagan represented a breakthrough for our party. We could talk about lower taxes and more growth. We didnt have to spend all our time preaching austerity and spending cuts. The question now is: Do we take our thesis and move it further, or do we revert to an anti-spending party?
We now have the answer. Republicans have reverted to an anti-spending party. Their latest cause? Austerity. Their argument? A shrinking economy is better than big government.
President Barack Obama tried to call the Republicans bluff in his State of the Union Address. Deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan, the president said. He didnt come out against deficit reduction. He said it should not be given a higher priority than economic growth. There are many reasons why it is important to reduce the national debt. Short-term economic growth is not one of them.
Theres little argument that the impending sequester across-the-board government spending cuts scheduled to begin March 1 will slow the nations economic growth. In fact, its already happening. The nations economy shrank in the last quarter of 2012. Economists attribute it to cutbacks in defense spending in anticipation of the sequester. More cutbacks will give us exactly what the country doesnt need right now austerity.
The American people dont believe in these austere things, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said.
Among the austere things could be an additional million Americans thrown out of work. There is no reason, Obama said, that the jobs of thousands of Americans who work in national security or education or clean energy not to mention the growth of the entire economy should be put in jeopardy.
Yes there is, Republicans say. Its to make a point: We have to shrink government. If that means some economic pain, well, No pain, no gain, as they say in sports.
Republicans are gambling that voters will take the spending cuts in stride. Then Republicans can say, See? We can live with smaller government. The financial markets have already absorbed the spending cuts and are hitting record highs. Safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare are protected from the cuts. Taxes are not going up.
Americans who live in areas hard hit by spending cuts near military bases, for example are likely to squawk. But Republicans think they can blame the president.
Hes in charge, isnt he? Why didnt he do something to stop us? Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the military situation desperate but then added, Its not desperate enough to raise taxes.
Democrats believe this will be like the government shutdown in 1995, which discredited the Republican Congress and helped get President Bill Clinton re-elected. Its not likely to be that dramatic at first because the cuts will not occur all at once. But there is another looming deadline at the end of March, when the federal government really could shut down if Congress doesnt pass a budget.
Tea Party Republicans are willing to take that risk. They want to demonstrate that government spending is so out of control that extreme actions must be taken to cut it back. Most of them, however, werent in Congress in 1995.
Obama learned something in his first term. He learned from bitter experience particularly the debt ceiling episode in 2011 that you cant make deals with Tea Party Republicans. You cant be reasonable with unreasonable people, one White House adviser told the Financial Times. How unreasonable? In the January Pew poll, 59 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents said I like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. Only 36 percent of Republicans felt the same way.
The president is now taking his case directly to the American people, rallying supporters around the country and keeping his 2012 campaign operation going. Hes making the case for government, something he started doing in his second Inaugural Address and in his State of the Union speech. Government should not just keep the economy growing, Obama argues, but also fix problems that the market cant solve like our increasing economic inequality or the declining competitiveness of U.S. workers.
Republicans believe that if they keep Congress fixated on an unending fiscal crisis first the sequester, then the federal budget, later the debt ceiling they wont have to pay attention to the programs Obama proposed in his State of the Union speech. Like raising the minimum wage to lessen inequality. And universal pre-school to help make American workers more competitive. Republicans believe they can just run out the clock."
Reuters Editorial
