Conservative Budget Lunacy

As you read this, remember what Republicans did just a few weeks ago to force huge tax cuts for the wealthy, adding as much as $900 to budget deficits. Also, keep in mind that we spend more on military than every other country combined.

People Want Job Creation Not Cuts more »

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With the submission today of the President’s proposed budget for next year (FY 2012), Washington descends further into the furious debate about less. How much less will government do? The president pledges to freeze domestic spending for five years, reducing it to a portion of the economy not seen since Eisenhower, while investing in areas like infrastructure vital to growth. more »

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Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure the American people didn't vote last November for fewer jobs, teachers and cops and more sickness, pollution and hunger. more »

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Yesterday, House Republican leaders tried to tamp down a conservative revolt within the caucus, explaining that to support deeper cuts than initially proposed would mean destroying jobs. NYT reported: more »

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The country has been waiting for the promised action on jobs and unemployment since the new Congress came in. Nothing yet. We've had the show-vote on health care, we've had abortion, we've had silly conservative fluff bill after sily conservative fluff bill, but nothing at all on the important issue: JOBS!

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Slasher-Movie Economics

A vicious, savage, axe-wielding killer stalks the political landscape, yearning to draw blood, slash victims, and amputate limbs. That's not my description of austerity economics - that's how its fans talk about it.

"Austerity" is defined as "the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)." Austerity economics, on the other hand, is the practice of denying others things that they need while at the same time ensuring your own continued privilege and comfort. This practice is usually accompanied by a round of self-congratulation for showing such courage and discipline. Its usually sinister spell has seduced Republicans into aiding and abetting felons with budget cuts that would make them de facto accomplices to a thousand crimes. And what the president's about to do will literally send chills down a million spines.

Anne Applebaum nearly worked herself into a case of the vapors when Austerians got elected in Great Britain, when she palpitatingly repeated the phrases used by journalists there to describe the new government's budget. The new British leaders, said journalists, were "axe-wielders" who were inflicting "vicious," "savage," and "swingeing (sic) cuts." (Is that what "bangers and mash" really means?)

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Whatever you may think of him, you've got to give Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) credit. He said he would present his own budget, and now he's done it. He's even taken to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to defend it, and challenge Republicans and Democrats to: find other places in the budget where cuts can be made, to replace particular programs; consider whether it is worth "borrowing billions from foreign nations," to fund programs "that could be administered better at the state and local level, or even taken over by the private sector."

Paul's challenge underscores the dishonesty of his budget, as well as those proposed by other conservatives. Paul and other conservatives wear their proposed budget as badges of honor, but they lack the courage to state clearly the human impact of their budget cuts, and the candor to confess the unreality of their proposals.

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