DC’s deficit frenzy By Heather "Digby" Parton - 04/12/11 05:26 PM ET
The entire political world has descended into a deficit frenzy that rivals the mass hysteria of the Salem witch trials. The mania has been growing for months, but exploded last week when D.C. heartthrob Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (R) unveiled what was widely received as the most important document since the Emancipation Proclamation and the entire political establishment started babbling about “brio” and “courage.” Nothing else matters at this point — not anemic economic growth, not sustained, shockingly high unemployment, not a Middle East uprising of world-changing consequence — not even an epic nuclear catastrophe. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said on CNN this week that the deficit is “the most significant national security interest that the United States is facing today.” And that’s with the U.S. currently involved in three wars! (Well, two wars and one “kinetic military action.”) Oddly, even with budget terror consuming every waking moment, many insist on tackling a projected shortfall in Social Security that will not materialize until 2037. In fact, it is currently in surplus, safely invested in U.S. treasury bills that help finance the government. Nonetheless, they insist that this potential problem far into the future must be dealt with immediately. Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) explained Monday, “What we want to make sure is that there’s going to be Social Security 75 years from now, and the idea that we should just punt on this problem because there is still some money left in the trust fund makes no sense to me.” Considering the lack of interest in the job-creation crisis or the looming catastrophic future crisis of climate change, this nonsensical insistence on injecting Social Security into the mix can only be seen as another symptom of the deficit delirium that has overtaken the Capitol. It reached such a pitch that last week the government was nearly shut down over spending on Pap smears and the president, a man commonly accused of being a socialist by political rivals, rushed to take credit for the largest spending cuts in history. One would have thought that would break the fever, but it shows no signs of abating. Today the political world anxiously awaits the unveiling of the president’s plan for long-term deficit reduction, rumored to be based upon the recommendations of the co-chairmen of his deficit commission when they could not find consensus among members. Nobody knows specifics, but everyone agrees that he must cut “entitlements,” the specter that haunts the febrile dreams of everyone in Washington. Unless some old and sick people are thrown onto the bonfire, they believe we will never purge the deficit demon from our body politic. There are those who seem to be immune. Investors appear unmoved by the frenzy, buying U.S. treasury bonds even at historically low interest rates. Respected economists aren’t affected either, pointing out that the more immediate concern for our economic health is slow growth and high unemployment. According to Paul Krugman, more than half the deficit was caused by the plunge in tax receipts and the need to stimulate the economy, so big deficits at a time like this are both appropriate and necessary. Government spending didn’t cause our economic problems, and it’s delusional to think cutting it will solve them. But the powers that be are apparently going to forge on and try to immediately “reform entitlements” to prove that they are Very Serious about purging the phantoms the moneyed interests have created to explain why the American Dream is turning into a nightmare. Let’s hope this fever burns itself out before it causes permanent damage. *Heather Digby Parton writes the Santa Monica-based liberal political blog Hullabaloo. You can follow the blog at **http://digbysblog.blogspot.com*<http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/> *.* Source: http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/155627-dcs-deficit-frenzy ----------------------------------------------- http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/tim-murphy/ House Republicans Nervous Over Ryan Budget Vote<http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/13/house-republicans-nervous-over-ryan-budget-vote/> By: David Dayen <http://news.firedoglake.com/author/dday/> Wednesday April 13, 2011 9:10 am The GOP is so proud of the Paul Ryan budget and wants such a grand discussion about it that they scheduled a House markup within a couple days and a full vote in the House this week. In other words, they want to fast-track the budget resolution, get it done so they can use it as a lever to pull the conversation to the right in the upcoming debate. The only problem with that is that a substantial number of House Republicans are uneasy about passing the bill<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53075.html>, particularly because it privatizes Medicare and cuts Medicaid. They’ll all vote for it, of course, but it doesn’t mean they have to be thrilled about it. Whether they’re new lawmakers in formerly Democratic seats or House veterans who represent districts with large elderly populations dependent on Medicare, a significant number of Republicans realize that embracing the Ryan plan may be one of the most treacherous votes of the year. Rep. Tim Murphy, a fifth-term Republican who represents a western Pennsylvania district south of Pittsburgh with roughly 17 percent of residents older than 65, is still undecided. Susan Mosychuk, Murphy’s chief of staff, said it’s a “high-profile vote” that they are “still taking a look at.” Rep. Gus Bilirakis, a Republican from western Florida with a district in which roughly 20 percent of its residents are older than 65, is “still looking it over and trying to decide.” [...] Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), one of the most high-profile freshmen, said he’s undecided. Rep. Steve Southerland, a Republican who took Democrat Allen Boyd’s northern Florida seat, is in the same place as Bilirakis. So is Ohio freshman Rep. Jim Renacci. My mother-in-law lives in Murphy’s district. Republicans in Pennsylvania and Florida are going to have a tough time with this budget. It’s simply a fact that it shifts public debt onto private debt, by burdening seniors with the rising cost of health care and providing nothing to lower that cost. Seniors would pay twice as much <http://twitpic.com/4k5h05> under Medicare with the Ryan budget. What’s more, this looks like the kind of mistake that Democrats did when they pushed through the cap and trade bill in summer 2009, when it didn’t have a chance of becoming law due to the Senate. The same thing applies here: Republicans will take a tough vote that won’t end up becoming law. It will simply go into the election ads of their 2012 opponents. Democrats have already gotten these ads ready<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/us/politics/12repubs.html> . A fund-raising e-mail sent Monday by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee warned recipients that the Ryan budget would “end Medicare as we know it and force seniors to clip coupons if they need to see a doctor.” It added, “Meanwhile, the wealthy would receive another tax cut.” Other Republicans are putting on a brave face, saying that the conversation around spending has changed and isn’t so politically fraught. This of course depends on the quality of the opposition and whether they will get a clean shot at them. A lot depends on that speech in just over an hour. [image: read post]<http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/13/house-republicans-nervous-over-ryan-budget-vote/> [image: comment on this]2 Comments<http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/13/house-republicans-nervous-over-ryan-budget-vote/#comments> [image: spotlight] Spotlight<http://www.thespotlightproject.org/tsp.php?blogUrl=http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/13/house-republicans-nervous-over-ryan-budget-vote/> Tags: Republicans <http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/republicans/>, House of Representatives <http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/house-of-representatives/>, federal spending <http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/federal-spending/>, budget<http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/budget/>, Medicare <http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/medicare/>, Medicaid<http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/medicaid/>, entitlements <http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/entitlements/>, Paul Ryan<http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/paul-ryan/>, Tim Murphy <http://news.firedoglake.com/tag/tim-murphy/> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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