You may have recently turned on a cable news network and saw a Republican somewhere complaining about the deficit.
“This budget provides a startling figure that should stop us all in our tracks,” or so goes the talking point from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. House minority leader John Boehner made a similar point, stating that the budget is “filled with more reckless spending and more unsustainable debt.”
The problem for Republicans is that they have no record of financial responsibility to stand on, and no reasonable solutions for going forward.
President George W. Bush fought two wars at the same time when he was cutting taxes. He paid for the wars by borrowing money, and he never even included the cost of war in his budget. He also passed Medicare Part D, which cost the Federal Government nearly $50 billion in 2008. Once again, he failed to propose any method of paying for this new entitlement. It was simply added to the debt, which he expected would be paid for by some combination of action, freedom, and boldness. So far, it hasn’t happened.
We are in the middle of the worst recession since World War II. Bush inherited a $128 billion budget surplus from President Clinton and passed on a $482 billion deficit to President Barack Obama.
With Bush gone, Republicans would certainly return to their core values of fiscal conservatism and small government, though, right? They must be chomping at the bit to cut all kinds of spending programs, shouldn’t they? Not quite.
Last year, Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended the purchasing of Cold War relic F-22 Raptors over Republican objections. Each plane costs $142 million. The U.S. Air Force already possesses 145, and no other country has any aircraft that could compete with the fighter. Seems like a great place to save some cash. Republicans wanted the plane to stay in production, however, because ending the program would cost jobs in their states. While it is commendable that Republicans have discovered a populist concern for workers, is this not the kind of “hard choice” that they demand Obama make?
A constant theme throughout last year’s health care debate was Republican objection to any cuts to Medicare. This is the program that President Ronald Reagan believed was part of a socialist plot in 1961 and is primarily responsible for long-term deficits. Obama believed that there was waste that could be cut out of Medicare, such as the inefficient Medicare Advantage program. Advantage is a private program, which costs more per enrollee and delivers worse results than standard Medicare. Republicans didn’t want the program cut. Once again: costs more, worse results, Republicans want to keep it.
Republicans’ favorite gripe on spending is the notorious pork barrel spending. When he was running for president, Sen. John McCain promised to make any legislator who tried to use an earmark infamous. Earlier this month, Sen. Richard Shelby, Republican from Alabama, announced that he would place a blanket hold on all of Obama’s executive branch nominees who were pending in the Senate until Obama gave him what he wanted — a multi-billion dollar FBI crime lab and a contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers — in his state. Shelby ran against irresponsible spending in Washington during his campaigns. However, he wanted to shut down the entire nominations process, which included 70 nominees, to get his share of pork. Shelby backed down after he was made infamous by a Democrat, not a Republican president.
There is one Republican who has generated a plan to end the debt, Paul Ryan from Wisconsin, who is the ranking member on the House Budget Committee. He has put out an audacious plan that would end Medicare as we know it by limiting growth of expenditures to half the rate of inflation and privatizing Medicare beginning in 2021. While this proposal would successfully cut the deficit, it would also eliminate a fundamental piece of the social safety net. Remember that last fall, Republicans were bemoaning any Medicare cuts. Ryan’s plan would be far more painful for seniors than Obama’s proposals.
Obama’s budget is certainly unsustainable, as has been admitted by his chief budget man, Peter Orszag. Climbing out of our current budget hole will be painful, and will likely mean higher taxes and weaker government for our generation. We need to fix health care and figure out how to maintain a cheaper military unless we want to experience what is happening in Greece — go read about it.
Eliminating the deficit will be tough, but it will take a much smarter and more honest party than the Republicans to do so.