Austerity pride
by digby
“Since I took office, we’ve cut our deficits by more than half.” —President Obama: http://t.co/LQAmMLjR0y, pic.twitter.com/xEFLH0dNzL
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 2, 2013
My headline is a little bit unfair. His weekly address is about the budget this week and he clearly feels that rather than afflicting us with counter-productive austerity at the worst possible time, the government has reduced the deficit so that it could buy some running room to do things the president would like to do:
Remember, our deficits are getting smaller – not bigger. On my watch, they’re falling at the fastest pace in 60 years. So that gives us room to fix our long-term debt problems without sticking it to young people, or undermining our bedrock retirement and health security programs, or ending basic research that helps the economy grow.
That was the original plan — which later changed to a “confidence fairy” austerity program — which Mike Konczal analysed brilliantly here:
The comments from Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council and a key member of the team negotiating an agreement on an increase in the debt ceiling, were clearer still. The White House believes, he said, that deficit-cutting is an important component (the emphasis was his) of a growth strategy. And he repeatedly said that deficit-reduction was crucial in generating economic confidence. Confidence—he repeated this word many times….
At the same time, he said it is plain that a deal with the Republicans will involve a “bipartisan downpayment”.
At some point the president and his men decided that the bond market would fix everything. That didn’t happen so we’re back to square one. (And I must add that there’s also always been an element of “once the Republicans see we’re really serious about cutting entitlements, we’ll all live happily ever after in bipartisan comity.”)
Anyway, the good news is that in the past he’s explicitly offered to “do things Democrats might not like” and he isn’t doing that here. In fact, he says that we don’t have to “undermine” our retirement and medical programs, which is far more obscure than usual. Maybe that’s a good sign.
On the other hand, this general idea of deficit reduction buying running room to do good things is silly at this point. And I’m sure the Republicans are laughing every time they hear it. Sequestration is now the baseline for government spending and it’s hard to see how that changes with the GOP being the wrecking crew it is. The entire budget argument is framed around the fatuous notion of “closing some loopholes” in exchange for a slashing of government no Republican president could ever get away with.
There will be no “good things” at least not on a scale that will make any difference. Right now, the only marginally “good thing” allowed is the ACA and it will be a miracle if it’s allowed to work out its kinks and deliver as promised. But we’d better hope it does because it’s the last “good thing” that’s going to come out of the federal government for a good long time. When it comes to federal programs to help the people it’s defensive actions from here on in.
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