Suppose you've been lending money to a drug-addicted friend. He keeps promising to quit, but he doesn't. He just hits you up for more. Finally, you cut him off. How does he react? By lashing out, calling you names, and blaming you because his kids will go hungry. Somehow it's all your fault, not his.
This is the situation facing fiscal conservatives — who are being told, yet again, that if they do not meet the demands of fiscal incontinents by raising both taxes and the debt ceiling, then all hell will break loose.
And at this point, it could. With Moody's warning darkly that it might downgrade U.S. paper and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke warning of an impending apocalypse if budget negotiators can't reach a deal, there is certainly cause for alarm.
But for an addict in the throes of withdrawal, the truth is not enough. He has to embellish. So not only have those addicted to government spending been screaming bloody murder, they also have been spouting — well, lies may be the only word that will suffice.
The biggest lie is that President Obama has agreed to savage cuts in spending while stubborn Republicans such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia refuse even to negotiate. That is simply false.
You might not have heard this from the president's cheerleaders in the establishment media, but nobody in power has proposed to shrink the federal budget. Nobody. The current federal budget totals about $3.8 trillion. The Republican proposal, from Rep. Paul Ryan, would raise spending to $4.7 trillion over the next decade. Obama wants to raise it to $5.7 trillion. The fight is not over whether to raise spending — but by how much.
Mind you, those increases would come on top of the already staggering recent growth of the federal budget — which stood at $2.9 trillion just three years ago. Spending has ballooned 30 percent, and Republicans agree to grow it more.
That's one concession from the GOP. The next is that Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling at all. Tea party types would prefer not to, and they have a good case. The debt ceiling has been raised 10 times since 2001 already. Question: If Washington raises the ceiling every time debt bumps up against it, then can it truly be called a ceiling? What is the point of having a limit that does not limit anything?
The last time Washington had a fight like this, back in 1995, Republicans took a political beating. We expect they'll take another this time as well. When the addict's wife is weeping and his children are bawling and the sheriff stands at the door with an eviction notice, it looks cold-hearted not to give the guy every cent in your wallet. Trouble is, if you keep on bailing him out then he'll keep demanding more — again . . . and again . . . and again. If you keep saying yes, then you're just feeding his addiction. The only hope for fixing the problem of runaway spending is to just say no.
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