Mitch McConnell gave it away when he said the GOP's number one job is to ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president. So how does the deficit play into this goal?
First of all, they obviously wanted George Bush to succeed. That's why you never heard a peep out of the GOP while he racked up record deficits with two unnecessary wars and - get this - a SOCIALIST MEDICARE GIVEAWAY - i.e., the GOP prescription drug benefit that was unfunded. That's right. The party of "fiscal responsibility" put the whole thing on their credit card, with not even a suggestion that it should be paid for.
Of course, given their penchant for tax cuts that did the same thing, it's not difficult to see how they might have become confused about when to pay for things and when to light cigars with large bills.
So, now come the Republicans, grimly decrying deficits, as though they had ALWAYS gotten in the president's face when he engaged in "reckless" spending. What a bunch of unreconstructed hypocrites.
Now comes Barack Obama, having inherited not only a huge deficit left over from the GOP ejaculation euphemistically called "the bubble," but a failed banking system already larded with George Bush's $700 billion bailout, a doomed housing sector, an automobile industry hanging on by a thread, and a choice: He could either continue the 30-year-old failed GOP fantasy that further enriching the wealthy would "trickle down" to the rest of us and miraculously save the economy, or he could take bold steps to stop the bleeding and avoid a full-fledged 30's style depression.
He chose the latter, and was able to prevent a calamity so great that people could not comprehend it. The GOP used this lack of comprehension to pretend the calamity never really existed, or if it did, it was caused by the mere existence of Barack Obama, and that Obama had simply wasted all that stimulus money. As a little noticed aside, he has reclaimed the majority of the Wall Street bailout as well, returning those funds to the treasury. He turned the auto industry around so that a year and a half later, it is once again thriving.
And what did he get from the GOP for this heroic and unprecedented turnaround? He got labelled a socialist who hates business, who hates working people, who literally hates America.
And now, we are graced with GOP crocodile tears over the deficit that they couldn't care less about when George Bush was driving it.
What's the end game here? It's simple. Goes back to McConnell's declaration that the number one goal of the GOP is to ensure Obama is a one-term president. In order for that to happen, Obama must fail. In order for Obama to fail, the economy must NOT recover before 2012. In order for the economy and Obama to fail, the GOP must convince the public that for the first time ever, they really DO care about the deficit and they must cut spending in the middle of the worst recession in 80 years, because - and this is the cruelest lie of all - cutting the deficit will immediately cause employment to skyrocket.
The GOP is not stupid. They know what history has taught about recessions. You cut spending during a recovery, you kill the recovery. They desperately want to kill this recovery, hence their obsession with draconian cuts which will decimate the government and CREATE unemployment. It's not just the unemployment of the federal employees caught in the midst of the slashing.
These things have a ripple effect throughout the economy. There are businesses who contract with the government, there are government contractors who do the actual work that is being cut, and there are subcontractors, suppliers, and numerous collateral industries who exist to help the private sector meet the requirements or take advantage of the benefits of the programs being cut.
Besides adding directly to unemployment with their cuts, if they can stifle any attempts to create jobs through investing in infrastructure, they will have succeeded in a two-pronged attack on Obama.
The sad thing is, people do not realize the effect that these untimely spending cuts will have on employment. They have been led to believe that drastically cutting spending will result in immediate economic success. They are wrong.
And the GOP knows they are wrong. They don't care. They want to win and they don't care how many casualties they leave in their wake. They know that if they succeed, Barack Obama will fail. And for Barack Obama to fail, America must fail, because if America succeeds on his watch, Obama is reelected.
But it's worth it to them, because they will have accomplished Mitch McConnell's goal. They will have won. And that's what it's all about.