now the rest of the world is finally catching up to dherd's brilliance. I amaze even myself.
To be a Republican is to oppose socialism. That opposition is practically encoded in the party’s DNA. Yet under Republican Party rule, socialism, or at least the conversation about it, is thriving.
But it has also been emboldened by more conventional aspects of the Republican agenda, in particular the party’s astoundingly hypocritical approach to debt and deficits. You may remember a time when Republicans pretended to care about the debt and deficits. That time was not so long ago, when Barack Obama was president.
When Paul Ryan became speaker, the deficit for the 2015 fiscal year was $439 billion.
Under President Trump, however, the administration’s own projections now foresee years of deficits over $1 trillion as a direct result of Republican policies. Last year’s Republican tax cuts were projected to increase the deficit by more than $1 trillion over a decade. The spending deal Republicans passed in its wake added another $320 billion.
President Trump recently proposed a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt by the trade war he started, and senior White House advisers have called for a second round of tax cuts that would make permanent the individual rate cuts in the first tax law, at a cost of roughly $600 billion. Reports suggest the administration is mulling a unilateral change to the taxation of capital gains that would add another $100 billion to the deficit. Another giant spending bill is on the horizon.
The party’s hypocrisy on the budget is not new.After Bill Clinton dramatically shrank both deficits and government spending as a share of the economy, George W. Bush took office and proceeded to dramatically increase both.
Republicans’ insincerity is still remarkable.Through their actions, they have proven that they cared about the deficit primarily for its usefulness as a political cudgel, an easy way to curtail Democratic policy goals.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/...-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
To be a Republican is to oppose socialism. That opposition is practically encoded in the party’s DNA. Yet under Republican Party rule, socialism, or at least the conversation about it, is thriving.
But it has also been emboldened by more conventional aspects of the Republican agenda, in particular the party’s astoundingly hypocritical approach to debt and deficits. You may remember a time when Republicans pretended to care about the debt and deficits. That time was not so long ago, when Barack Obama was president.
When Paul Ryan became speaker, the deficit for the 2015 fiscal year was $439 billion.
Under President Trump, however, the administration’s own projections now foresee years of deficits over $1 trillion as a direct result of Republican policies. Last year’s Republican tax cuts were projected to increase the deficit by more than $1 trillion over a decade. The spending deal Republicans passed in its wake added another $320 billion.
President Trump recently proposed a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt by the trade war he started, and senior White House advisers have called for a second round of tax cuts that would make permanent the individual rate cuts in the first tax law, at a cost of roughly $600 billion. Reports suggest the administration is mulling a unilateral change to the taxation of capital gains that would add another $100 billion to the deficit. Another giant spending bill is on the horizon.
The party’s hypocrisy on the budget is not new.After Bill Clinton dramatically shrank both deficits and government spending as a share of the economy, George W. Bush took office and proceeded to dramatically increase both.
Republicans’ insincerity is still remarkable.Through their actions, they have proven that they cared about the deficit primarily for its usefulness as a political cudgel, an easy way to curtail Democratic policy goals.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/...-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
