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April 12, 2011

Tony Blankley On Obama's Pretend Budget Cuts

In his piece at The Washington Times titled Obama's pretend budget cuts, in which he offers a broad assessment of the fast-emerging debt- and deficit-reduction fight strategies, he begins by stating the obvious cold hard fact ... that spending is the lifeblood of the president's party, before getting down to the how and why politics is about to get much uglier - but possibly more productive.

Here's an excerpt to pique your interest (emphasis is mine):

The Republicans have bet the farm that the American public will more likely punish them for inaction than action. Good. The president seems to have come to the same conclusion regarding his chances with the 2012 electorate. So a fight over something that looks like real legislative action on the deficit crisis is going to be joined by the two parties.

But the nature of the Democratic Party's coalition for power must drive it to protect the excessive spending at all cost. The Democratic Party coalition since Franklin D. Roosevelt has been premised on the concept of "tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect." The phrase was first reported in the New York Times by reporter Arthur Krock in 1938, allegedly as a quote from FDR's closest adviser, Harry Hopkins. Hopkins denied having said it at the time, but it encapsulated the Democratic Party's successful method of getting elected by taxing the rich and upper-middle class, spending on the poorer public and thereby getting re-elected by that public.

If the Democratic Party gives up the vast spending that is driving the nation to fiscal catastrophe, that undermines its ability to win elections as a national political party. Democrats will fight for years to prevent such a spending "drought."

But as it has suddenly become clear to the president and his strategists that they cannot be seen to be on the sidelines, they will have to offer what may seem like a plausible solution.

But even confiscating all the income of the rich cannot sufficiently fund the reduction in deficits. Nor can an end to sleight-of-hand waste, fraud and abuse in entitlements cover the gap. Ultimately, the Democrats either will not, in fact, deal with the deficit or they will have to do so by very heavily taxing the middle class. Either way, they want to keep spending, but they will try to hide those alternative realities.

As Blankley goes on to point out, the upcoming challenge for the Republicans will be less to persuade the country that entitlement reform is necessary (because the president will admit that). Instead, their task will be to unmask the true nature of the Democrats' purported proposals, convince the country that a high-tax solution to the deficit threat will result in low economic growth, and convince the country that the GOP low-tax solution will sustain the needed social safety net while inducing higher economic growth necessary to our future prosperity.

All of which, in my mind, seems a difficult row to hoe ... but not an impossible one. Especially since what the Democrats are offering defies logic and common sense ... cutting spending does no good whatsoever if you are going to increase spending, and it simply isn't possible to continue to spend in the face of ever-mounting debt. It can only put our nation into a financial disaster that the nation cannot survive.

Posted by Richard at April 12, 2011 7:11 AM

• Tony Blankley On Obama's Pretend Budget Cuts - Apr 12, 2011