Starving the Beast

Here's an interesting article by Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, in the New York Times (registration required, though it's free).

In general, I agree with it. Right-wing Republicans have been fighting against Social Security and Medicare from the start, but those programs have just been too popular to attack directly. So these so-called "small government" extremists decided on a different tack. They'd "starve the beast" by pushing never-ending tax cuts (always popular), while continuing heavy spending (also popular), until America was so broke we wouldn't have a choice.

Well, the first part of that worked fine, didn't it? They even put us into the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression - and we went into the downturn with record-breaking deficits, not to mention two ongoing wars. Could anyone have done a better job of destroying America fiscally? So it's time to get cutting, right? (Yeah, I know that's a ridiculous idea in the middle of recession.)

But there's still no plan from the GOP on what to cut, and certainly no willingness to work with the Democrats on anything at all. Krugman thinks that they're waiting until we're in the midst of a "fiscal catastrophe." I'm not so sure. I think they know that any cuts will still be politically unpopular, no matter what, so they want the Democrats to take the heat all by themselves (meanwhile, goading them into it by constant yammering about deficits - yeah, they really have that much gall).

The fact is, the GOP simply wants to regain power, by any means possible. They'll cheer on every bit of bad news, and just hope that it gets worse and worse, no matter what it does to our country. Well, to make an omelet, you've got to break some eggs, right? The end justifies the means and all that? Once they get back in power - if we Americans are actually that dumb - they'll worry about what to do then (though what do you want to bet that tax cuts for the rich will still be in their plan?).

Meanwhile, it's party time on the Titanic, stoving in any lifeboats they can find, doing their best to make sure that the ship goes down with the Democrats at the helm (even though it was the Republicans who ran into the iceberg).