South Philly Review

Are Republicans as concerned about the federal budget deficit as they claim? We have their record of the Bush years as one indicator. When Republicans took over the White House and Congress, there was a budget surplus.

The Bush administration and a Republican Congress pushed through the infamous tax cuts tilted in favor of the wealthiest Americans, despite Bush’s own council of economic advisers being on record as against the cuts.

Bush also expanded entitlement costs by adding an expensive drug benefit to Medicare. Republicans failed to pay for any of these hits on the federal budget. The result was that a significant surplus was turned into a staggering federal deficit.

It is not Bush bashing or trying to pass off all of our current fiscal woes on the past administration. It does show that many of the same Republicans who pose as the guardians of fiscal sanity certainly didn’t act that way when they held power.

Republicans would respond that they have learned the hard lessons of their past fiscal irresponsibility. But have they really? Not if you examine current Republican talking points. They’re against letting the Bush tax cuts run out for those earning more than $250,000. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that extending those tax cuts this year would cost around $678 billion.

Leading congressional Republicans rationalize their fiscal inconsistency two ways, neither of which makes much economic sense. Sen. John Kornyn (R-Texas) believes the tax cuts shouldn’t count against the deficit. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) claims the tax cuts will actually reduce the deficit. Maybe he should talk to his own CBO. Maybe he should tell us where he got his degree in economics. What Republicans are really arguing is the tax cuts help stimulate the economy. However, these cuts have been in effect all during the bad times and the economy still went into the toilet.

These same Republicans also are against reinstating the estate tax, which only applies to the wealthiest 0.3 percent of Americans. This is the same tax Republican pollster Frank Luntz dubbed the “death tax,” which sounds ominous enough to send any Tea Party member into therapy (even though few if any Tea Party members would be subject to the tax). 

Where do Republicans worry about the size of the deficit? Certainly not when it comes to the cost of prosecuting two wars or in approving the latest expensive atomic submarine. No, Republicans got real budget conscious when it came to extending unemployment benefits to folks who have been out of work in this dreadful economy. They filibustered away when it came to extending benefits and Congress went on vacation leaving two million unemployed workers without unemployment checks. This must also be put in perspective. Never before, since the enactment of unemployment benefits, has Congress allowed those benefits to expire while the unemployment rate hovers in the stratosphere between 9.3 and 9.5 percent.

Republicans claim they are not against extending unemployment benefits, they just want them to come out of already approved stimulus funds — ones that have already helped, but proven to be insufficient. According to the CBO, extending unemployment benefits would add about 0.1 percent to the current deficit. So here we have it — Republicans are willing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the well-off and eliminate the estate tax that would place a burden on the surviving Steinbrenner family than help unemployed workers. Welcome to the new Grand Old Party — their elephant logo has been replaced by the face of Scrooge.

Conservatives are using the current budget deficit as an excuse to whittle away at your safety net. George Will, the conservative columnist for the Washington Post and a regular on ABC’s “This Week,” pontificated the true mantra of the right. Will asserts that folks won’t go back to work if you keep extending their unemployment benefits. This, of course, presupposes that there are jobs out there for every American who wants a job — something we know in this economy is crazy thinking. But that hasn’t stopped the Republican candidate for governor of this great state to argue that very point.

The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is slightly below the national level.The benefits are, by law, about half of a recipient’s weekly wage (an average of $310 a week). Tom Corbett tried to soften his stance of blaming the out-of-work victims.His spokesman now claims Corbett was only passing along anecdotal comments.

In order for Republicans to avoid being painted as insensitive, they must denigrate the needy as undeserving. If you are out of work, it is because you don’t want to work. If you are poor, it is because you are worthless and lazy. When you accuse Republicans of trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and needy, they scream “class warfare.”

What is it that the Republicans are waging, but their own version of class warfare?