signalmankenneth
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Even by the standards of current political rhetoric, the Republicans’ new campaign manifesto, “The Pledge to America,” is disingenuous. But it might well work in the short run because many voters would prefer to express simple anger than to look at the arithmetic (and lack thereof) of this carefully vague package. Such rhetoric is so much more soothing than fiscal reality.
The Pledge would fight waste, freeze the hiring of federal employees and cut back all “discretionary spending” to 2008 levels. Naturally, it promises to protect programs that assist the elderly, who vote a lot — to protect their benefits. Of course, military spending would continue to surge. And, congressional Republicans’ greatest love, all the Bush tax cuts, would roll on. And so the deficits would continue to swell. This is not a fiscally “conservative” document.
Most federal spending consists of Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and military spending. The rest, “discretionary spending,” includes such things as National Parks (maybe just sell them off to Donald Trump?), the National Science Foundation, health-related stuff, the Small Business Administration, college scholarships and transportation and other public infrastructure (now the most decayed in the developed world) and so on.
We suspect that many folks don’t realize what “discretionary” means.
And, sorry, while government (and private-sector) waste, fraud and inefficiency are problems, and should be rooted out, they account for a small percentage of total federal government costs.
The Pledge carefully avoids saying which “waste” or “discretionary spending” the party would cut because even many of its “anti-big-government” zealots benefit from these programs. The exception is a specific promise to get rid of the rest ($16 billion) of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) — that unpopular Panic of 2008 creature from Wall Street’s dark lagoon.
We recall the rage of some elderly opposing any changes to the out-of-control Medicare, the most “socialist” part of our health-care “system,” while fighting the “socialism” involved in extending such coverage to the uninsured.
There are, it is true, a couple of reasonable ideas in this alluring collection of generally fiscally illogical pronouncements. For instance, the government should indeed with all deliberate speed get out of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac swamps! And something needs to be done about reducing the outrageous lawsuits that drive up medical costs.
But all in all, this Pledge is a remarkably dishonest attempt to gain power from a recession-weary electorate wherein the middle class continues to shrink as the very rich get richer. It might work on Nov. 2, though the GOP would then, after the election, have to deal with voter rage itself if programs that the public has come to see as essential parts of government are slashed and the deficit still swells.
The most serious thing in The Pledge is the desire to regain power at almost any cost.
Editorials: 01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Pledge would fight waste, freeze the hiring of federal employees and cut back all “discretionary spending” to 2008 levels. Naturally, it promises to protect programs that assist the elderly, who vote a lot — to protect their benefits. Of course, military spending would continue to surge. And, congressional Republicans’ greatest love, all the Bush tax cuts, would roll on. And so the deficits would continue to swell. This is not a fiscally “conservative” document.
Most federal spending consists of Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and military spending. The rest, “discretionary spending,” includes such things as National Parks (maybe just sell them off to Donald Trump?), the National Science Foundation, health-related stuff, the Small Business Administration, college scholarships and transportation and other public infrastructure (now the most decayed in the developed world) and so on.
We suspect that many folks don’t realize what “discretionary” means.
And, sorry, while government (and private-sector) waste, fraud and inefficiency are problems, and should be rooted out, they account for a small percentage of total federal government costs.
The Pledge carefully avoids saying which “waste” or “discretionary spending” the party would cut because even many of its “anti-big-government” zealots benefit from these programs. The exception is a specific promise to get rid of the rest ($16 billion) of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) — that unpopular Panic of 2008 creature from Wall Street’s dark lagoon.
We recall the rage of some elderly opposing any changes to the out-of-control Medicare, the most “socialist” part of our health-care “system,” while fighting the “socialism” involved in extending such coverage to the uninsured.
There are, it is true, a couple of reasonable ideas in this alluring collection of generally fiscally illogical pronouncements. For instance, the government should indeed with all deliberate speed get out of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac swamps! And something needs to be done about reducing the outrageous lawsuits that drive up medical costs.
But all in all, this Pledge is a remarkably dishonest attempt to gain power from a recession-weary electorate wherein the middle class continues to shrink as the very rich get richer. It might work on Nov. 2, though the GOP would then, after the election, have to deal with voter rage itself if programs that the public has come to see as essential parts of government are slashed and the deficit still swells.
The most serious thing in The Pledge is the desire to regain power at almost any cost.
Editorials: 01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, September 28, 2010
