The Casualties of the Budget Battle

by Keith Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, April 14, 2011

I agree with my brother Gordon that the fight that ended with a last minute agreement on the April 8th deadline is just the beginning of a long struggle that will only get nastier and more politically charged as the process goes forward.

Even as time and the funding of the government was running out last week; even as the threat of a shutdown that would be most painful for those least able to withstand its effect loomed ominously, negotiations were hijacked by politicians pushing ideological issues like abortion, and climate change. And after the shutdown was averted, Republicans in Congress beholden to conservative Tea Partiers still vowed to withdraw their support for the budget (even though the amount of cuts won through negotiation exceeded the amount originally sought by the GOP).

As the wrangling dragged on and the Republicans held the nation hostage (acting as if they had won both Houses of Congress and the White House in November), it became clearer that the debate over the budget was not about the national debt or reducing the deficit. It was all about posturing for 2012. Not the 2012 Fiscal Year Budget that Paul Ryan’s joke of a plan would make a pretense to address, but the 2012 Presidential election that began last week with Obama’s official campaign kickoff.

The Republican line-up of serious candidates is a bleak showing indeed. One need only note that Donald Trump, whose outrageous “birther” platform is decried by his own party, is second on the 2012 GOP leader board to judge the lackluster pack of presidential hopefuls on the Republican side. The party’s only hope against Obama (who is still scoring high on polls, despite a drop in approval rating) is to rally the existing base without alienating the swing-voters who often decide elections.

More problematic is the fact that Republicans are facing the inevitability of raising the debt ceiling. The Tea Party has already expressed its extreme displeasure at this likelihood. The reality of economics and processes of governing are not likely to appease the disgruntled masses.

Another complication facing Paul Ryan, and those conservatives currently worshiping him with puppydog drooling and heaping praise on him, is the fact that he must now defend the details of his plan.

I have completely lost count of the scores of times that I have heard the Ryan proposal characterized as “serious”. But how can anyone take a deficit reduction plan seriously when it refuses to rein in the tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans? Not only does Ryan’s plan fail to do that, it heaps even more tax cuts on those who least need them, while forcing painful cuts on the poorest among us. It’s little wonder that Republicans are seen as lacking compassion.

There are some serious aspects of the proposed Path to Prosperity (for those already prospering). There are serious flaws in the numbers that Ryan presents in his proposal. Apparently, he turned to the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation for some fuzzy math, that turned out to be funny math. Part of Ryan’s figures rely on an unprecedented and unsubstantiated 2.8 percent unemployment rate. After Ryan had already presented his plan, the Foundation adjusted its figures on unemployment. Among other math errors currently being disputed are tax revenues and housing numbers.

The plan also poses serious impacts to the livelihoods of many Americans. The voucher system that is part of the plan to privatize Medicare would limit the benefits available to seniors as well as threaten them with dramatic reductions in coverage over time that would put strain especially on those with limited fixed incomes. Fixed maximum dollar amounts for coverage of procedures for Medicaid members will prevent many patients from receiving much-needed treatments.

As I look at current and future budget debates in Washington and around the country I am alarmed. I see the casualties that will fall as a result of the brutal battling of politicians seeking public favor above favorable public policy. I see the stark adjectives of human toil reduced to cold numbers as real consequences are discounted. And I see the tangled discourse dwarf all other important news and issues.

In a time when the nation is continuing its long struggle toward economic recovery, the focus is misplaced on the deficit. Of course, we should strive to be fiscally responsible and limit the generational impact of our national debt. But the dearth of jobs nationwide and the trends that continue to exchange good jobs for Walmart jobs is a dire prospect worthy of our attention.

The attack on the middle class is lost in the nightly news graphics of all-caps “SHUTDOWN” and “SHOWDOWN”. One of the most appalling stories last week that registered merely a blip on the media radar was the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice election. This race, between union-busting Governor Scott Walker’s man David Prosser and Democrat JoAnne Kloppenburg, smacks of election fraud. The late-Thursday night announcement that enough votes to reverse Kloppenburg’s declared Tuesday win smelled like corruption. While the tomfoolery evident in this case is a threat to the democratic process, it was overshadowed by the coverage of Boehner, Reid and Obama negotiations.

Debate and discourse is vital to democracy, but it should not overpower real issues.