NYT: The Hollow Cry of ‘Broke’

[Babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/opinio...ef=opinion

The Hollow Cry of ‘Broke’
Published: March 2, 2011


“We’re broke! We’re broke!” Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday. “We’re broke in this state,” Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said a few days ago. “New Jersey’s broke,” Gov. Chris Christie has said repeatedly. The United States faces a “looming bankruptcy,” Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

It’s all obfuscating nonsense, of course, a scare tactic employed for political ends. A country with a deficit is not necessarily any more “broke” than a family with a mortgage or a college loan. And states have to balance their budgets. Though it may disappoint many conservatives, there will be no federal or state bankruptcies.

The federal deficit is too large for comfort, and most states are struggling to balance their books. Some of that is because of excessive spending, and much is because the recession has driven down tax revenues. But a substantial part was caused by deliberate decisions by state and federal lawmakers to drain government of resources by handing out huge tax cuts, mostly to the rich. As governments begin to stagger from the self-induced hemorrhaging, Republican politicians like Mr. Boehner and Mr. Walker cry poverty and use it as an excuse to break unions and kill programs they never liked in flush years.

snip//

Before the union uprising, Wisconsin voters might not have noticed when Mr. Walker approved business tax cuts earlier this year that made his budget gap worse. But now, with his cries of being “broke,” they should listen more closely. On Tuesday, he unveiled a budget that would cut aid to school districts and local governments by nearly $1 billion over two years, while preventing those jurisdictions from raising property taxes at all to make up for the loss.

Perhaps because of the economic downturn, voting among union households was sharply down last November, which may help explain some of the Republican gains. Mr. Walker and his fellow Republicans may wind up turning that around next year.

[There Is No Spoon]

Republicans are as predictable as rain - they want to get elected to government so they can destroy it. I think they are anarchists.

[NJMaverick]

There's one of the Koch brothers and all his political lackeys. Disgusting!

[jaxx]

TINS I'm with you on that statement. I don't see one place where the wingers are doing anything remotely good for the country.

[NJMaverick]

This is the critical heart of the matter and it's how we need to frame the discussion. As per their SOP the GOP have deceptively framed the issue where their misdeeds are not considered.

[Treestar]

Now where is their claim that tax cuts lead to investment which leads to booming business which results in more tax revenues?

[nofurylike]

omg, this makes my blood boil.

thank you for posting this, Babylonsister!