During the last few months we’ve seen a sea change in what is considered a priority for the government. The Occupy Wall Street protests did an amazing job of changing the conversation away from the all deficits all the time meme and putting focus on the fact that we need jobs not tax cuts for the rich.
But just like in Star Wars, the Evil Empire that is the Republican establishment is trying to strike back. The meme that has been rolled out (and is being accepted by the likes of Dana Milbank of the Washington Post) is that this budget is a political stunt, because it does not focus on reducing the deficit.
The President’s budget, which is only ever a suggestion given the House’s constitutional role in the process, has been declared dead on arrival by Speaker John “Could I be any weaker or more orange?” Boehner.
The fact that this budget does allow the debt to increase more than projected over the next decade has stirred a lot of interest by the press, but it completely misses the point. There are priorities beyond the debt and they have to be addressed if we are actually going to reduce the debt eventually.
It is pretty self-evident we should not burden the middle class with more taxes right at this moment because they are the ones that spend the money that keeps our economy going and if they feel at all squeezed they are going to spend less, sending us into another trip on the downward spiral.
Even Republicans generally agree, in their rhetoric, if not their actions, but they think that the top earners should also be unburdened by new taxes. Of course if you look at the tax plans that GOP leadership and presidential candidates are all pushing, you’ll find that they actually want the poor and working classes to pay more taxes, and right now.
The president’s budget is focused on setting up a virtuous cycle, one where investment in needed infrastructure creates more jobs, which will, eventually, allow for a return to a sound tax policy. You know, the rates that we had during the Clinton Administration, when unemployment was under 5%?
To do this means that we can’t be obsessively focused on cutting spending. It is true that we will have to pay back the money that we borrow, but when the cost of our borrowing is so low as it is right now. 10 year Treasury bonds are yielding 2% or blow right now.
When money is that cheap you’d be a fool not to use it to set up the economy for times when it is more expensive.
Republicans will say that we have to cut because sooner or later people are going to stop loaning us money, but this is obviously a fallacy. Even with the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of US debt it is still the place where the world feels is safest to stash their money.
Interest rates on US debt are down more than 1.5% over this same time last year. That means there is a lot of confidence that money borrowed by the US will be paid back. So much confidence in fact that people are willing to take really low interest rates.
Maybe the President’s budget is a political document as the new Luntz approved talking point from the GOP says. But every budget is a political document. For all that it funds the government it is also intended to steer the nation in the direction of the party who issues it. The next Ryan budget will be a political document intended to convince Americans that we must sign up for austerity so that millionaires and billionaires can keep more of their money.
The fact that we have examples all over Europe that show that austerity does not work, that cutting budgets in a time of low demand just leads to lower demand, does not register with the Republicans.
But what it does do is give a clear differentiation between where President Obama would have the nation go and where Republicans would take us. Personally I think that the President could have put out a bolder budget, really stuck it to the Republicans where they live, but after watching Mr. Obama for several years, that is really too much to expect from a moderate like him.
Still when Rep. Ryan rolls out a budget that cuts entitlements, that slashes safety net programs, that reduces funding everywhere but the military and provides comfort for the comfortable and affliction to the afflicted, then we need to keep the focus on the 99% and not the debt vigilantes in the press and the Congress.
There is nothing more important for our long term fiscal health than getting the nations unemployment down to Clinton era levels. By achieving that we will have enough tax base to return ourselves to the rates that will allow us to patch the giant hole in our debt that unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy, two unpaid for wars and a huge prescription give away by the Bush administration gave us.
So be ready fellow Liberals/Progressives/Democrats to talk a lot about the out right lies that the Republican Empire is going to spread to try to move the national conversation back to where they want it. If we causally allow them to go with out challenge then they will gain credence and the efforts of OWS will have been wasted.
The floor is yours.