The Republican path to fiscal responsibility

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Republicans talk up fiscal responsibility -- which is to say, in their view, balanced budgets (spending no more than you take in) -- but of course what they really want to do is to slash taxes for the wealthy while handing off the responsibility for paying for those cuts to future generations. Oh sure, they talk about slashing spending, but, honestly, what are they going to cut? The National Endowment for the Arts? Public broadcasting? Please. Those amount to almost nothing compared to the rest of the federal budget. So how about major entitlement programs? Well, those are generally very popular, so no. What about all that pork? Well, politicians need as much pork as they can get their grubby hands on so they can pile up the votes back home, so, again, no. Then surely the military? Right. You expect Republicans to slash military spending? They'd much rather privatize Social Security, but, of course, they know the American people won't stand for that.

So it's really all a big, massive deception, this talk of fiscal responsibility and small government. (Some, to their credit, are at least talking about putting military spending cuts on the table. But they will soon be punished for their deviant ways.) You just can't achieve any such responsibility without ensuring sufficient revenue, and that means not extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, not slashing any other tax you can find, and looking for reasonable cuts in spending.

But you won't hear Republicans calling for anything of the kind. Instead, they'll avoid talking specifics, avoid the details altogether, while continuing to insist that they can and will balance the books. And if they talk at all about what they'll cut, they'll mention either small programs unpopular on the right (like the NEA), insignificant programs that barely register, or perhaps even programs that no longer exist.

Yes, that's right, programs that no longer exist.

As Think Progress reports, one Republican, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, has called for the elimination of "the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund [TANF], a successful program that has created 250,000 jobs in 37 states via subsidized employment programs for low-income and unemployed workers."

Problem is, the fund expired on September 30. And, what's more, it was popular even with Mississippi Gov. Haley "Boss Hogg" Barbour, "who said it provided 'much-needed aid during this recession by enabling businesses to hire new workers, thus enhancing the economic engines of our local communities.'" Not that that's stopping Republicans:

[A]dvocates, as well as the Obama administration, have asked that Congress fund the program for an additional year for $2.5 billion. Price multiplied that over ten years to come up with his ludicrous pronouncement that he would save $25 billion by cutting the program.

Republicans would also save approximately $35.7 gazillion by cutting the joint NASA/NSA/NOAA program to send Matthew McConaughey and a ragtag group of grizzled explorers on a fact-finding mission to Uranus, but, of course, such a program doesn't exist. Or has it expired?

No matter -- it's not like reality plays into the cynical imaginings of the GOP's fiscal fanatics.