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(The "pundocracy" is wagging its collective finger against "blaming" Bush and the GOP for the present economic collapse. The fact is, their policies are directly responsible for it.
- promoted by Jennifer Daler)
.... remember that he and all 39 of his GOP colleagues voted yesterday AGAINST reestablishing the fiscal discipline tool known as "pay-go" . The pay-go amendment passed anyway, and requires every spending increase in the budget to be offset by either a tax increase or an equivalent spending cut elsewhere in the budget.
Pay-go is recognition that there is no such thing as a free lunch: You want to spend more on the NSF? Fine, but you need to cut money from the Post Office budget or reduce education money that goes to the states. It is something we all do in our day-to-day financial decisions, and is the only way to make meaningful budget choices.
Now the GOP doesn't have too much of a problem with requiring new spending to be paid for- they think it will deter spending on infrastructure or limit assistance for people in trouble. What they really have a problem with is that pay-go also requires every tax cut to be paid for by an equal spending cut or a tax increase somewhere else.
The GOP knows they cannot justify to the voters the kind of budget cuts they would need to make to offset their enormous tax cuts. The people wouldn't stand for it, and would rightly rise up against the tax cuts. The GOP rhetoric of downsizing government sounds great when it leads to lower taxes. It's not so great when it means no road repairs, fewer police, less education aid, Medicare and Medicaid cuts, or ending unemployment insurance.
Why the media allows Judd Gregg to speak as an expert on fiscal discipline is a mystery. He has no real interest in lowering the deficit. He didn't under Bush when he had power, and he doesn't today. His budget-hawk shtick is a political trick to get his party back in control.
