The GOP Might Lose the Shutdown Battle, but It's Already Won the Spending War

[Mass]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/the-gop-might-lose-the-shutdown-battle-but-its-already-won-the-spending-war/280145/

The GOP Might Lose the Shutdown Battle, but It's Already Won the Spending War
Don't say Democrats aren't compromising. Their bill last night (rejected by the House GOP) would have funded government at Paul Ryan-levels.
...
The government shut down this morning, after House Republicans repeatedly rejected plans to fund operations for two months unless Democrats agreed to defund and delay President Obama's health care law. (That's right: This is a fight about 61 days of funding.)

But today's news is a data point in a much larger story: Republicans have, in the last two terms, masterfully whittled down federal spending, often with precisely this form of brinksmanship.

The Senate bill funds the 2014 government at a level 18 percent below the president proposed five years ago; 17 percent below the Democratic Congress proposed four years ago; 10 percent below Paul Ryan and Republicans proposed three years ago; and 8 percent below the debt ceiling compromise two years ago (see graph, via Michael Linden and Harry Stein). The Senate bill is less than 2 percent away from Paul Ryan's own 2014 budget.
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Republicans have won round after around of the spending wars, from the debt ceiling negotiations, to small cuts in continuing resolutions, to the across-the-board cuts under this year's sequestration. Now they're refusing to do their job (fund the damn government) unless the White House concedes yet another round. Democrats aren't negotiating with a party, any more. They're negotiating with a child who, after four servings of ice cream, says he shouldn't be forced to do any chores or homework until he gets a monogrammed cake.

[Phillyindy]

1. Don't tell most here...

That while they are laughing at the right they are winning, they don't want to hear it. Apparently there's a bubble on the left as well.

[ProSense]

3. "That while they are laughing at the right they are winning"

The OP makes a point about spending, which Republicans are blocking every step of the way.

That doesn't mean they're "winning." It means they're assholes.

When did you realize Republicans were blocking the economic recovery and trying to destroy America?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023745284

One of the biggest assholes of all, the clown Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz copies Mich Rep. Peters in donating pay during govt shutdown, Peters responds. Brilliantly.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/01/1242853/-Ted-Cruz-copies-Mich-Rep-Peters-in-donating-pay-during-govt-shutdown-Peters-responds-Brilliantly

[el_bryanto]

5. I don't think people are laughing at the right - i think they are angry with them

And I think there's a certain cold satisfaction that this political stunt is likely to hurt Republicans in the long run. But I don't think anybody at DU thinks that this is a satisfactory turn of events.

Bryant

[spanone]

7. horse manure

[Ikonoklast]

2. This is what compromise looks like.

You assume that Democrats don't want to shrink the budget...believe it or not, they also see a runaway federal budget and crushing debt as a threat to our economy.

[Chan790]

4. Indeed...

It's possible to cut the budget and even expand social programs and Democratic initiatives if one takes a big enough knife to certain sacred cows like defense spending; energy, business and farm subsidies, et. al.

In time, one of the biggest painless cuts to come will be the result of Americans voting with their feet for a public option when one comes available, thus ending subsidy of insurers.

[Ikonoklast]

6. People will demand it. The insurance companies are now publicly-controlled utilities.

Soon they will be no longer needed at all.

[BlueCheese]

9. Democrats should not want to shrink the budget right now.

Not when the economy is still struggling and unemployment is high.

We do not have anything close to a runaway federal budget or a crushing debt right now. While I don't think you meant it, using such terms gives credence to false GOP narratives.

[Ikonoklast]

10. Sorry, but the trend lines for spending and interest debt were real, and a real threat

to the economy. The problem was in the future, but it was still there, waiting.

Many here didn't want to acknowledge that, but it was unsustainable...MOSTLY due to Republicans spending for war, but that is another discussion that needs to take place.


We took a growth hit, yes, but it didn't kill the economy, only slowed it a bit.

Things are moving in the right direction, even still.

[BlueCheese]

11. Krugman described the debt as a "medium-term" problem.

One easily corrected by taxes, not spending cuts to hit the most vulnerable. Unemployment, however, is an immediate problem. Addressing the debt at the cost of higher unemployment seems like a bad idea.

I don't think we actually disagree. I just personally wish Democratic leaders would stop claiming that reducing the deficit is a big victory. I know in politics people take credit for anything that happens, but in this case it reinforces the GOP narrative that that should be a priority over the economy.

[Motown_Johnny]

8. Exploding the deficit worked... in the short term

Projections have us stabilizing the debt at around 75% of GDP. Once that happens, if we can increase revenues we can actually start to shrink the debt.

It will take decades, but this mess can be cleaned up. We need higher taxes to do it but that is not impossible, in the long term.