Why The Budget Debate Will Be Endlessly Stupid

No.  There is no escape.

Obama and the House GOP leadership have unveiled their budget proposals.  Both have spoken sternly about the need for deficit reduction in the coming years, for indeed looming deficits are a real issue.

Obama's priorities seem to be winding down some programs and funneling resources into his "WTF" package (that's Win The Future) of high speed rail and more education funding.  Some of the program cuts will really hurt some poorer Americans.  Cuts in LIHEAP seem especially cruel, given the winter we're having around here.

But Obama's proposals are a teaspoon of Robitussin compared to the GOP's quart of Cod Liver Oil, application of leeches and a boric acid high colonic.

The GOP is not really interested in addressing the deficit.  They never have been.  They are interesting in cutting programs that they don't like.  Cutting these programs will not make any real difference in deficits going forward.  The President's cuts will likewise only make a small dent.

There are only two things that will reduce the deficits: broad based economic growth and increased revenues. The only way to CUT your way to fiscal sanity is to get rid of things people like: Medicare, national defense, highways, schools, things like that.

Until the economy starts growing again, we are not going to see much reduction in long term debt.  Until we start taxing higher income earners at levels closer to their historical norms, we are not going to see much reduction in long term debt.

Instead - and I got a gander of this on NPR this morning - we are going to get the worst sort of "He Said, She Said" journalism.  I had to listen to Mitch McConnell pontificate about how Obama wasn't serious about the deficit.  This from a sluglike creature man who held up a necessary nuclear arms reduction treaty so he could extend tax cuts for Lloyd Blankfein.  I heard Paul Ryan talk about how Obama isn't serious about the deficit because he doesn't mention Social Security.  Maybe because Social Security DOESN'T ADD TO THE DEBT, PAUL!  Maybe because Social Security in fact pays for much of the rest of government, including that fantastic war in Iraq you voted for a few years back.  Remember that little trillion dollar spending spree?

And the news program will not say things like, "Despite Mr. McConnell's statements, GOP proposals also fail to make much of a dent in the deficit."  Or "Social Security is, in fact, paid for through 2037."

Because budget stuff is HARD.  Waaaahhh, says the reporter - who was a "Communications" major in between games of beer pong **- this is complicated.  I can't begin to understand the effect of budget cuts in terms of real people's lives!  I'll just report  both sides of the controversy and duck out on interpreting the validity of it.

Also, too, there is the fact that the DC press corps is made up of wealthy, privileged people.  Wealthy, privileged people are "serious" people and "serious" people are very "serious" about austerity.

Austerity means forcing pain on the population in the name of balanced budgets.  It is being done in Ireland with absolutely disastrous results.  It's the sort of "serious" plan that the IMF kept forcing on countries like Argentina or Thailand in order to protect the bottom lines of huge global banks like Citicorp or Bank Suisse.  These austerity plans usually led to social turmoil and the collapse of standards of living across huge swaths of the population.  Eventually, the institutions of government were shaken if not upended.

Austerity is good for people who already have a ton of money. It sucks for everyone else.  The DC press have money.  Head Start or home heating is not a concern for them.  But they can show that they are "serious" by calling for painful measures that will hurt people they don't know.

So we will not be getting any real explanation of what is being debated in DC over the budget.  We will get a horse race, because that's easy to cover.

**As an aside, I went to college with a prominent member of the White House press corps.  He was an English major with a speciality in creative writing.  He's a great guy and I like him.  But I would prefer a government or econ major doing some of this work, if you know what I mean.