Republican Budget Calls For Five Year Spending Freeze: ‘We Are Saying Let’s Cut Spending Right Now’
Republican Budget Calls For Five Year Spending Freeze: ‘We Are Saying Let’s Cut Spending Right Now’
Today, House Republicans plan to bring their official “alternative budget” to the floor, which will supposedly flesh out some of the details lacking from the “budget” that they presented last week. Of course, the plan still revolves around the radical tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (who wrote the legislation) has previously advocated.
However, the GOP has also added a new wrinkle: paying for the tax cuts with a five-year spending freeze on all non-defense and veteran’s health care funding. As Ryan explained on MSNBC:
We are cutting spending starting this year. We are saying let’s cut spending right now. Let’s cut spending in the out years.
These provisions clearly impressed MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, who asked Chris Matthews “does [Ryan] make a bit of sense there?” Matthews, though, was having none of it:
No, because it sounds very much like Hoover. This is a doctrine which was tried in 1932 and failed. In a period of international deflation, the worst thing you can do is join in the deflation by cutting spending.
Watch it:
Evidently, the GOP believes that Sen. Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) two year spending freeze and Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) three year freeze were not crazy enough, and thus, have settled on a five year freeze. The budget basically confirms that the Republican strategy is to negate the stimulus, while betting economic recovery will occur thanks to an abundance of supply-side tax cuts.
As we’ve noted before, the stimulus package’s main purpose is to close the GDP gap by spurring spending by households, government and the private sector. A spending freeze would blunt this, while also allowing inflation to eat away at vital funding for programs like Head Start and Pell Grants.
As USA Today reported today, “early federal stimulus money appears to be hitting its target, paying for new projects and creating jobs.” But Republicans would rather scrap that, to embrace a Neo-Hoover, anti-stimulus plan that doesn’t “make a bit of sense” at all.
5 Responses to “Republican Budget Calls For Five Year Spending Freeze: ‘We Are Saying Let’s Cut Spending Right Now’”
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So, just as the stimulus is beginning to work, the Republicans want to derail it. For five years.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think the blue folder that Boehner presented last week made more sense than this.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:01 pmIs it possible for a republican to make an argument without lying? Yes, Hoover raised taxes, but he CUT spending. Government spending is the main basis of the Democratic recovery plan. When no one else is spending, that is the time to have the government putting money into the economy. Who else is ready to start spending? Are businesses increasing spending? Are people in general increasing spending? I think we all know the answer to that.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:09 pmSo their argument is basically that we need to cut taxes no matter where they are, and in order to do that, we need to cut spending on domestic programs just to give more money to those who are already doing OK? I think my brain just turned inside out for a second there. Is this any different from running a struggling company and drastically cutting new product development and marketing in order to give the executives a 10% raise?
April 1st, 2009 at 12:22 pm1st off I have to say that republicans are proving there worthlessness right now and they are also validating our choice for leadership. This is what McCain would have done if he had won in Nov. It follows the same path that got us here, tax cuts for the people that don’t need it, and spending cuts on everything else that is needed.
School? Na to expensive to keep the poor/struggling middle class educated, gota to keep them stupid, cut that S#it.
Health Care? Na to expensive to give non rich people good / preventive health care, cut that Sh!t.
Tax cuts for the Middle / Lower Class? F#ck no, they don’t deserve it because they are just the workers and they don’t make that much.
War / Tax Cuts / Handouts for the Wealthy? Yes, we must get this done so that we can save America! Make more money.
It is the same thing over and over, the GOP screws it up the Dems come and try to fix it while the republicans try everything possible to not let it be fixed.
It will not stop till we destroy and replace these failed Republican policy’s and congress people.
Regan’s dead, so are his policies, and pulling his dead ass out of the ground will not save anything.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:28 pmInteresting responses here. So, if government is not giving something to you then that means they are taking something away from you?
April 10th, 2009 at 3:50 pm