The hypocrisy is astounding: this tax bill shows the GOPs debt concerns were pure fraud

[babylonsister]

“The hypocrisy is astounding”: this tax bill shows the GOP’s debt concerns were pure fraud
Republicans are proving themselves nihilists.
Updated by Ezra Klein@ezraklein
Dec 2, 2017, 1:55am EST


There is a long-running, almost metaphysical, argument about the GOP’s deficit hawkery. One school of thought holds that it has always been pure cynicism. Republicans passed the Bush tax cuts without offsets and paid for neither Medicare Part D nor the Iraq War. When they began decrying the deficit and debt during President Obama’s administration, under this theory, it was nothing but opportunistic political attacks, and it was obvious they would be abandoned as soon as Republicans regained power.

The response many Republicans gave was that the party had lost its way under George W. Bush, but it had recognized its mistakes and rediscovered its fiscally conservative soul. The Tea Party and its relentless campaign of primary challenges was proof the Republican Party had changed, and would stay changed.

The House and Senate passage of the GOP tax bills shows the cynics had it right.


In the Obama years, Republicans feared a debt crisis

From 1993 to 2016, Charlie Sykes was a right-wing talk show host on WTMJ in Milwaukee. That made him a conservative eminence in Wisconsin, the home state of Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Johnson. Sykes interviewed them dozens of times, emceed events at which they appeared, introduced them before screaming crowds. And in speech after speech, interview after interview, they delivered the same message: Debt was the country’s most pressing problem.

“Ron Johnson used to joke about being the prince of darkness,” Sykes recalls. “Everywhere he would go he’d have these charts about the crisis posed by the debt. He became a notorious downer. He was so intense about it.”

The same was true of Ryan, who became famous for his slick presentations on America’s coming fiscal crash. “The facts are very, very clear,” he says in this 2011 video, “the United States is headed towards a debt crisis.”

“I’ll be honest with you,” Sykes continues. “I believed them. I considered myself a deficit hawk as a result.”

Today, Paul Ryan is the speaker of the House of Representatives and Ron Johnson is a key vote in the Senate. Together, they are shepherding forward a tax bill that is expected to add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt in the first 10 years and, if their tax cuts are extended as they hope, far more after that. They are doing so despite years of arguing that the national debt is the most severe problem facing the United States, despite running for reelection promising balanced budgets and fiscal restraint.

“The hypocrisy is astounding,” says Marc Goldwein, policy director at the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget.

more...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/2/16724978/gop-tax-bill-deficit-debt-fraud

[WinkyDink]

1. It's the one sure way to claim that there's no money for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

[dalton99a]

4. Bingo.

[Willie Pep]

5. Yep that is step number two.

That has been their deliberate strategy for years. Pass tax cuts, get huge deficit then claim that we need to make huge cuts to social programs in order to fix the deficit.

[Timmygoat]

2. Re tax bill

For the best synopsis of the bill, please read the UK Guardian online. The call the bill obscene (and a lot more)

[SamKnause]

3. It has been their game plan all along.

They run up the deficit and then call for cuts to social programs and social safety nets.

EVIL LYING Republicans !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[D_Master81]

6. debt..

debt b/c of tax cuts = ok...debt b/c of spending = bad, very bad. spending cuts must be made

[arthritisR_US]

7. You knew this was BS back in the GWB days and yet you ate up

all his illegal war BS. Cheney increased your debt and you were all fine, passed it off to the next government, it’s what you guys always do. Pathetic

[oasis]

8. Johnson acted as McConnell's Trojan Horse, being the GOP's 1st solid "no"

when the bill was introduced. After Johnson "saw the light" it provided political cover for the few Republicans who had voiced reservations about the bill.