Over the past month, we've seen all sorts of "deficit-cutting" measures being proposed. And hey, as someone who's fairly fiscally conservative, I would agree with those proposals....if they'd been proposed in, say, 2004.
There are times in a nation's history in which it needs to be able to spend more to get itself out of a major hole. The Great Depression, for one. Secondly, the recessions of the late 1970s into the early 80s (which, by the way, is the unspoken part of Reagan Reverence from the right. A big part of the growth out of those latter recessions came from the massive increase in defense spending).
However, we've run ourselves into a major problem today. How do we get out of the hole we're in? I can tell you one thing. It's not going to come from the ludicrous proposals floating around right now.
More after the jump.
First, here's what's NOT going to work. Ending the Pentagon's NASCAR sponsorship won't work. Cutting over a billion dollars to low-income families won't work. Repealing health care reform certainly won't do it. Finally, no, corporate whores Republicans, tax cuts for rich people will not fix the deficit or the employment situation (which, by the way, Jon Kyl recognized and didn't care about last year).
So, what will work?
Cutting the Pentagon's appropriations would work. No, I'm not talking about manpower itself, because that's something we can't afford. With the new START treaty passed, we can start cutting back on the cost of maintaining the nuclear arsenal. Furthermore, an end to the supplementals. Bob Gates is asking for a whopping $540 billion to get through FY 2011. That's half a trillion dollars, folks, that's going into a single year's appropriation. That needs to come down, significantly. Gates has identified some areas for cutting, but not nearly enough. Cutting can be done without hurting readiness and deterrent capabilities, but it means running the Pentagon like a good business instead of the redundant processes that are involved there. It means ending the fiefdoms of power in each service.
If you look at the Green Book issued by the comptroller, there is a very interesting chart. While it shows the FY 2011 discretionary budget dropping by almost $100 billion from last year, it lists the mandatory defense spending going up threefold, from about $60 billion to over $180 billion. This means that while the discretionary amount of spending has gone down, the "mandatory" spending increase has meant that the Pentagon budget continues to grow, from $697 billion to $738 billion. Clever bookkeeping means an increase in the budget as opposed to a decrease.
This matters a lot. It's not the only area, but it is the biggest, and if we're not willing to tackle this, then everything else is just posturing, but the scary thing is, it's regressive and damaging posturing that will hurt the most vulnerable amongst us.