And so we do it again.
We repeat the cycle of our American politics, one that has been a constant, at least since Nixon, Republicans mess up, Democrats clean up.
Republicans complain about deficits and overspending, then come in and cut taxes, mostly to the upper echelon, and then don't cut enough spending to prevent ballooning deficits, which suddenly they decide they don't care about anymore. When the Democrats regain control, they have to be the grown ups and raise taxes, and do whatever grown up things are necessary in order to reduce the deficit.
Not only does this make the Democrats look terrible in having to be the bad parents raising taxes, it also constrains the Democrats in establishing new programs in order to help people, in order to address the mounting concerns in our society (infrastructure, health care, education, climate change, wage inequality, etc.). It's a win-win for the Republicans. For the American people? Not so much.
The Republicans are currently on the verge of creating a huge tax reduction windfall for the wealthy and large corporations. It doesn't even have the pretense of making a small feint of benefiting the poor and middle class as Bush, Jr.'s plan did. One of the smartest things Bush, Jr. did was hand everybody a check as a retro result of their tax plan. Was it a cheap stunt that had no long lasting effect? You bet! But in the short term, it got more people on board with a plan that primarily benefited the rich. The current crop doesn't even the common sense to pretend.
That's one of the most bizarre things about our con-man President. You would think he would have enough carny brains to do something more than to just blatantly lie about what the plan does. But he's not showing anything that would make people believe what he says. Polls indicate that many are finally starting to wake up, with poll support fro the President now in the low 30's.
Republicans try desperately, but never actually get to, what they call entitlement reform. But that's not what it is. They would love to kill Medicaid altogether, and turn Medicare and Social Security over to private Wall Street vultures, who, trust me, will not have your best interests at heart. Seniors will have to pay ever-increasing amounts for health insurance (if they can get it at all), and your retirement will be at the mercy of the market (not to mention the increasing amount of fees you will have to pay), and instead of being a social insurance program, it becomes a free-for-all crap shoot. But they never get to the point of doing it - even their own base rebels at this.
The current plan will create a predicted deficit of a trillion and a half dollars. Even under the rosiest economic projections, it still is a trillion or more. The Republicans aren't worried about that. It will either give them an excuse to cut more spending, or blame the deficit on the Democrats, constraining the Democrats from enacting new programs, or blaming them for cutting popular programs because they have no fiscal choice.
Deficit and debt mean different things. The deficit is the annual shortfall between spending and collected revenue. Debt is the accumulated shortfall between the same. You can have a surplus in a given year, and it may not make a significant dent in the debt. That is why Republicans could still natter at President Obama, because even as he cut the yearly deficits at an historic pace, the overall debt still increased.
The American people may be finally starting to wake up. The current tax reform bill is the most unpopular tax cut package in American history. It's even more unpopular than the President, and that's saying a lot!
I think the political tides will turn before the Republicans can successfully gut Social Security and Medicare. But that still will leave a huge deficit problem. Will the American people understand where that came from?
You know what? Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but this time. I think that they will.
Republicans, the jig may be up.
We can only hope.
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