This morning I was watching MSNBC, when I heard Savannah Guthrie parroting the now familiar refrain: The president's budget did nothing to address the elephant in the room; entitlement spending such as Social Security and Medicare.
Now, we hear this all the time. It's part of the standard narrative, that we have to cut spending and reign in the deficit while keeping taxes low for the wealthiest individuals and corporations. And Social Security must be cut as a part of the process, because everything must be on the table.
Framing it in this way is wrong-headed, and anyone I hear making these arguments instantly loses just about all credibility with me.
The deficit is a medium term problem, which does need to be addressed at some point. But there is time for that after we get people back to work. It will be easier to address as a part of growing our economy.
Tax increases also have to be a part of our deficit reduction strategy. We didn't have systemic deficits before the flattening of the tax rates. They are to blame for the risks the deficits generate, as well as the risk associated with the bubble economy that result from the concentration of wealth at the top.
Two wrongs do not make a right. Taking the flawed idea that deficit reduction should be a primary focus of ours right now, and adding to it the notion that we have to do it without raising taxes on poor billionaires and multi-millionaires simply compounds the problem.
The two ideas have a synergistic effect that result in an honest proposal, from purportedly serious, mainstream politicians, that we... get this. Take $760 million away from low income women, infants, and children. This isn't some rhetorical sleight of hand drummed up by a sinister progressive think tank. The name of the program is actually Women, Infants & Children! It exists so that poor kids have milk to drink.
And to top it all off, there is the suggestion that Social Security is somehow contributing to our problems. Social Security has not added one dime to the deficit. You've got to be kidding me.
