Matt Yglesias tries to make a point, but it will be lost on most of the media. Republicans do not care about the deficit.
It’s genuinely hard for me to know what would persuade people that I’m correct about this, but to recap the key points:
1) There have been two presidents who were members of the modern conservative movement, Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, and they both presided over massive increases in both present and projected deficits.
2) The major deficit reduction packages of the modern era, in 1990 and 1993, were both uniformly opposed by the conservative movement.
3) When the deficit was temporarily eliminated in the late-1990s, the mainstream conservative view was that this showed that the deficit was too low and needed to be increased via large tax cuts.
4) Senator Mitch McConnell says it’s a uniform view in his caucus that tax cuts needn’t be offset by other changes in spending.
5) The deficit reduction commission is having trouble because they think conservative politicians won’t vote for any form of tax increase.
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But the key element of conservative fiscal policy is that tax revenue as a percent of GDP should be made as low as possible. This isn’t a goal they pursue that stands in some kind of balance with concern about the deficit, it’s the only goal they pursue.
Republicans don’t care about jobs either. They only care about tax cuts for the rich. That’s it. That’s their entire economic policy. Their “budget measures” are ridiculous – cutting out earmarks? That’s <1% of the total budget.
There’s always a disconnect between what politicians say they believe and what they actually do but this is just transparent, naked lying to the American people. With a big assist by the media. What is the point of the media if they can’t point out the difference between what politicians say and what politicians do? If they’re just going to post Republican talking points why are they needed at all?