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Why I am so Cynical About Politics

Sep 6, 2010
Politics

Republicans say:

President Obama’s spending spree is pushing our deficit to record levels, and the enormous national debt that he is heaping on this country jeopardizes our very future. Getting our deficit under control is the most important thing we need to do right now.

BUT…we should extend all the tax cuts, even on those earning over $250,000, even though it will cost us $70 billion per year for the next ten years.

Democrats say:

The Republicans don’t really care about the deficit and are fiscally irresponsible — after all, they had no problem passing Medicare Part D even though it wasn’t paid for. Giving continued tax breaks to the wealthiest among us is going to cost $70 billion per year , and we can’t afford that.

BUT…we have no problem using that same $70 billion for different kinds of tax cuts and spending increases that we like.

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6 Comments

  1. King  •  Sep 6, 2010 @3:51 pm

    Dave, on the tax cuts, is the $70b/yr including any additional tax revenue collected from expanding supply of goods and services? I.e., dynamic scoring?

  2. ProfSwitzer  •  Sep 6, 2010 @6:03 pm

    No idea, King. It’s from Geithner’s speech on it, where he said the cost would be $700 billion over 10 years and it’s not the government’s job to borrow money from our children to give it to rich people. I have no idea what models they use — and I don’t put much faith in the ones they do, given how incorrectly they estimated the economy when they took over and how they’ve cooked the numbers to try to make the stimulus look like it had the predicted impact. Knowing the administration, I’d presume they are not using dynamic scoring, as they’ve said that “tax cuts for the rich” have negligible impacts on output. (Or as Pelosi said, “I don’t see any reason why we should renew a tax cut that only gives a tax cut to the wealthiest people in America, increases the deficit, and doesn’t create jobs.”)

  3. Benjamin Seghers  •  Sep 8, 2010 @12:42 pm

    I see how Republicans are being hypocritical, but how are Democrats? Are they claiming to be fiscally responsible? They usually don’t. If they don’t, I don’t think it’s so hypocritical for them to spend money on things like health care, education, and infrastructure, or giving tax breaks to poor people.

  4. ProfSwitzer  •  Sep 8, 2010 @8:09 pm

    I didn’t say they were hypocrites. But I do think they’re disingenuous. They pretend to be outraged at the fact that Republican policies would have us borrowing more money from China, but their policies don’t have us borrowing any less money.

    Both parties say they’re more fiscally responsible than the other guys (or at least the Democrats say they’re no less fiscally responsible than the Republicans), but ultimately neither party in Washington gives a whit about the debt.

  5. Benjamin Seghers  •  Sep 8, 2010 @10:12 pm

    “neither party in Washington gives a whit about the debt.” I certainly agree with that. And, yeah, I think both parties are disingenuous. I think the biggest difference is in how both parties cost Americans money. There’s a lot of double talk in party politics and lots to be cynical about, which is why I usually try to avoid it.

  6. Nik Drescher  •  Sep 10, 2010 @8:09 am

    “ultimately neither party in Washington gives a whit about the debt”

    That is a pretty good summation of our political system right now Dave. I think had you prefaced it with “Say what the people want to hear, and then do what you want” you would have described almost every politician in the US.

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