cawacko
Well-known member
Excellent article by Kimberly Strassel. I haven't read all the details of this semiconductor bill (I'm guessing supporters will say it's standing up to China but I don't know that) but it looks like massive corporate welfare. And granted COVID and the shutting down of our economy threw everything into a tail spin but those who thought we could borrow and spend as much as we wanted and interest rates would stay low forever were clearly wrong. Hopefully what we're going through will open people's eyes to that but very doubtful.
The GOP’s Self-Defeating Spending Habit
The party can’t run credibly against profligate Democrats if it is complicit.
What do you get when you cross a Republican with a tech lobbyist? A bipartisan boondoggle. The question is how long the GOP can get away with its posturing on fiscal restraint.
The Senate voted 64-34 to proceed on a semiconductor welfare bill sporting a fictitious $76 billion price tag. Before the vote, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer broadcast his intention to lard it up with billions more in government spending if he crossed the 60-vote filibuster mark. Sixteen Republican senators signed up.
It’s possible the bill could hit $250 billion, all vaguely aimed at promoting U.S. “innovation.” The legislation directs government agencies to assist in the “development” of tech sectors, meaning bureaucrats will funnel the dollars to private companies—chip makers, telcos, cybersecurity outfits, artificial-intelligence shops. Why bother raising capital privately when you have the American taxpayer? Or rather future taxpayers, since the bill’s supporters aren’t even pretending they intend to cover the cost. We’ll borrow from the nation’s toddlers to cut checks to Intel.
This is Republican business as usual. The GOP that is assisting in this quarter-trillion-dollar spendathon is the same GOP that last year provided the votes for a $1 trillion infrastructure boondoggle. The same GOP that in 2020 signed on to not one, not two, three or four, but five Covid “relief” bills, to the tune of some $3.5 trillion. The same GOP that smartly cut taxes in 2017, but pretended it didn’t and blew through discretionary spending caps. The same GOP that has unofficially re-embraced earmarks. The party occasionally takes a breather—say to gripe about the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion Covid bill in 2021—but then it’s right back to the spending grindstone.
When was the last time anyone heard a Republican talk about the need to reform Social Security or Medicare? That disappeared with the election of Donald Trump (opposed to both) and the retirement of Speaker Paul Ryan and never reappeared. Instead, a growing faction of the party sees a future in buying the votes of working- and middle-class voters with costly new entitlement proposals of their own, such as expanded child tax credits. Who wants to dwell on painful budget or welfare reform when Republicans can promote their values by doling out federal cash?
Some will note that “only” 16 Senate Republicans voted to advance the new “innovation” blowout—that the significant majority of the 50-strong GOP caucus remains opposed. But 16 is still a lot. Especially for a party that claims a core belief in “limited government.” The number is a function of a party leadership that is no longer making a top priority of fiscal restraint, giving license to its spenders. That, and outside conservative groups that are increasingly focusing on the culture wars rather than the threat of big government.
Yet the political risks of this GOP spending habit are huge, both in the short and the long run. Republicans correctly blame the Democrats’ 2021 spending for today’s inflation, and public fury over high prices makes for their best shot at retaking the House and Senate this fall. But the potency of the inflation argument will dissipate if the GOP joins yet another spending frenzy. The next time a Republican runs an ad hammering a Democrat for inflation, the target will simply remind voters that it was a bipartisan effort that produced the vast majority of Covid-and-beyond spending.
Some Republicans will argue that Americans—even conservative voters—are less worried about federal spending or the deficit than they were a decade ago. But Gallup reported in March that 75% of Americans still worry about those issues “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” An Ipsos poll from last year similarly found 75% of Americans are worried about the national debt and its effect on the economy.
It played in GOP primaries—where voters are sending a message. The media put down Illinois Rep. Mary Miller’s victory in June over fellow incumbent Rep. Rodney Davis entirely to Mr. Trump’s support of her. Less noticed was the contrast on spending. Mr. Davis signed up for millions of dollars worth of earmarks; Ms. Miller none. A similar dynamic played out in a West Virginia primary between two incumbents. Rep. Alexander Mooney (who supported no earmarks and voted against the infrastructure measure) beat Rep. David B. McKinley (who supported both).
The Biden inflation is educating new generations about the real-world costs of loose government money. In the next presidential election and beyond, those voters will look for an alternative to the progressive left that dominates the Democratic Party and wants to double the size of government. A complicit Republican Party isn’t credible in its claims of fiscal discipline, or any sort of an alternative. It’ll be Democrat Lite.
The GOP still has the ability to restore its reputation on spending, but it needed to start yesterday. A good first step would be saying no to any form of Mr. Schumer’s corporate-welfare blowout.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-go...taxpayers-11658439991?mod=opinion_featst_pos2
The GOP’s Self-Defeating Spending Habit
The party can’t run credibly against profligate Democrats if it is complicit.
What do you get when you cross a Republican with a tech lobbyist? A bipartisan boondoggle. The question is how long the GOP can get away with its posturing on fiscal restraint.
The Senate voted 64-34 to proceed on a semiconductor welfare bill sporting a fictitious $76 billion price tag. Before the vote, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer broadcast his intention to lard it up with billions more in government spending if he crossed the 60-vote filibuster mark. Sixteen Republican senators signed up.
It’s possible the bill could hit $250 billion, all vaguely aimed at promoting U.S. “innovation.” The legislation directs government agencies to assist in the “development” of tech sectors, meaning bureaucrats will funnel the dollars to private companies—chip makers, telcos, cybersecurity outfits, artificial-intelligence shops. Why bother raising capital privately when you have the American taxpayer? Or rather future taxpayers, since the bill’s supporters aren’t even pretending they intend to cover the cost. We’ll borrow from the nation’s toddlers to cut checks to Intel.
This is Republican business as usual. The GOP that is assisting in this quarter-trillion-dollar spendathon is the same GOP that last year provided the votes for a $1 trillion infrastructure boondoggle. The same GOP that in 2020 signed on to not one, not two, three or four, but five Covid “relief” bills, to the tune of some $3.5 trillion. The same GOP that smartly cut taxes in 2017, but pretended it didn’t and blew through discretionary spending caps. The same GOP that has unofficially re-embraced earmarks. The party occasionally takes a breather—say to gripe about the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion Covid bill in 2021—but then it’s right back to the spending grindstone.
When was the last time anyone heard a Republican talk about the need to reform Social Security or Medicare? That disappeared with the election of Donald Trump (opposed to both) and the retirement of Speaker Paul Ryan and never reappeared. Instead, a growing faction of the party sees a future in buying the votes of working- and middle-class voters with costly new entitlement proposals of their own, such as expanded child tax credits. Who wants to dwell on painful budget or welfare reform when Republicans can promote their values by doling out federal cash?
Some will note that “only” 16 Senate Republicans voted to advance the new “innovation” blowout—that the significant majority of the 50-strong GOP caucus remains opposed. But 16 is still a lot. Especially for a party that claims a core belief in “limited government.” The number is a function of a party leadership that is no longer making a top priority of fiscal restraint, giving license to its spenders. That, and outside conservative groups that are increasingly focusing on the culture wars rather than the threat of big government.
Yet the political risks of this GOP spending habit are huge, both in the short and the long run. Republicans correctly blame the Democrats’ 2021 spending for today’s inflation, and public fury over high prices makes for their best shot at retaking the House and Senate this fall. But the potency of the inflation argument will dissipate if the GOP joins yet another spending frenzy. The next time a Republican runs an ad hammering a Democrat for inflation, the target will simply remind voters that it was a bipartisan effort that produced the vast majority of Covid-and-beyond spending.
Some Republicans will argue that Americans—even conservative voters—are less worried about federal spending or the deficit than they were a decade ago. But Gallup reported in March that 75% of Americans still worry about those issues “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” An Ipsos poll from last year similarly found 75% of Americans are worried about the national debt and its effect on the economy.
It played in GOP primaries—where voters are sending a message. The media put down Illinois Rep. Mary Miller’s victory in June over fellow incumbent Rep. Rodney Davis entirely to Mr. Trump’s support of her. Less noticed was the contrast on spending. Mr. Davis signed up for millions of dollars worth of earmarks; Ms. Miller none. A similar dynamic played out in a West Virginia primary between two incumbents. Rep. Alexander Mooney (who supported no earmarks and voted against the infrastructure measure) beat Rep. David B. McKinley (who supported both).
The Biden inflation is educating new generations about the real-world costs of loose government money. In the next presidential election and beyond, those voters will look for an alternative to the progressive left that dominates the Democratic Party and wants to double the size of government. A complicit Republican Party isn’t credible in its claims of fiscal discipline, or any sort of an alternative. It’ll be Democrat Lite.
The GOP still has the ability to restore its reputation on spending, but it needed to start yesterday. A good first step would be saying no to any form of Mr. Schumer’s corporate-welfare blowout.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-go...taxpayers-11658439991?mod=opinion_featst_pos2