Dynamic score settling
by digby
Following up on David’s post below about the “Santa list” the House Republicans are compiling to demand in a debt limit hostage crisis, I think this by Dave Weigel is worth noting as well:
Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, another 2010er, was more bullish on the debt limit “letter to Santa” approach. “Fortunately, the economy’s doing better,” he told me. “I think we’re still committed to cuts and growth commensurate with what the increase is, but there’s some actual economic growth in the energy industry, for example. Every tenth of a point we see in economic growth increases the money in the coffers and lowers the deficit.”
It sounds a lot like “dynamic scoring,” honestly. Republicans have argued for a long time that traditional budgeting doesn’t reflect the amazing Lafferian benefits that tax cuts can bring. Instead of scoring a tax cut for what it will take out of revenue, they want it scored for its possible economic benefits.*
And apart from some hold-outs, it’s an easy-read hymnal. When Cantor spoke to the press, he used the same happy data as Farenthold.
“Our plan delays the implementation of ObamaCare, which will help job growth and our economy while protecting people from its negative consequences,” he said. “The Congressional Budget Office has previously estimated that an additional one-tenth of one-percentage point increase in economic growth will reduce the deficit by approximately $300 billion over ten years.”
That’s right, we are now comfortably back in supply-side heaven, where tax cuts are magic and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s actually an improvement over their slash and burn politics of the last few years. But make no mistake, if “the deficit” conveniently starts growing again, they’ll be right back at it. That’s how this works. Cut taxes and regulations,raise “the deficit”, get hysterical about debt, slash spending. Wash, rinse, repeat.
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