“Government spends too much” is back
We know how this goes. When Republicans lack the ability to control the fate of legislation, they are born-again, small-government fundamentalists. Government is too big. Government spends too much (on the Irresponsibles). Deficits must be brought under control!
Then when they hold the White House, they backslide. Tax cuts : GOOD. Deficits : MEANINGLESS.
But the push-pull budgeting conversation is too wonky for the general public to wrap its brain around. To default or not to default is an inside-the-Beltway drama. Or one for G7 leaders to fret over. Until it tanks your retirement fund or hammers the dollar.
The remoteness makes it difficult for the left to effectively exploit the shameless flip-floppiness of conservative lawmakers on spending. The only people paying attention are the people already paying attention.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy issued one of his “stubborn aphorisms” on the subject on Friday: “Washington has to spend less.”
“And indeed, Washington could spend less,” responds Prem Thakker at The New Republic. “For instance, America’s 2024 proposed military budget is some $842 billion—$100 billion more than 2022, and $26 billion more than 2023.”
But the ratchet in Republican brains only turns one way under a Democratic administration. And on military spending under virtually any administration. It’s so well-understood that it’s almost a medical condition.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) nevertheless tried pushing back (for the benefit of those already paying attention):
Thakker continues:
The most outlandishly rich have long benefited from tax breaks and loopholes that maintain and even expand such vulgar levels of wealth. But twice-impeached, criminally indicted, and liable for sexual abuse former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax bill opened up those channels more. It brought such wild provisions, including allowing the full price of private jets to be deducted in the first year.
A poignant example of how this came into practice is in the tale of longtime Republican donor Mori Hosseini, who made his fortune as a homebuilder in Florida. After spending $19.5 million on a private jet in 2017, he netted nearly $8 million in tax savings immediately, ProPublica reports. And that was just to start out with.
Soon enough, Hosseini, a close advisor to Ron DeSantis, taxied the governor and his family around like a friend giving another a ride. In 2019, ProPublic notes, Hosseini’s jet carried DeSantis’s wife Casey from Tallahassee to Jacksonville for a fundraiser hosted by—and this is not made up—a defense contractor.
But it’s culture war everywhere these days, and guns, guns, guns. With abortion restriction after transgender hate bill dominating the news, gaining any public bandwidth for the latest in class warfare assaults against the rest of us is almost a fool’s errand.
I commend AOC for trying.
Update: This just popped up.