The reckless approach of the Republican majority in the House to slashing federal spending for the last six months of the current fiscal year, and beyond for the 2012 fiscal year, may cheer myopic tea party ideologues. But the wreckage would be devastating. It would wrongly, irresponsibly damage the lives of ordinary Americans and do irreparable harm to the nation’s civic fabric, infrastructure and core safety net programs that serve most American families.
Given the damage they would do, the latest Republican proposals make it clear that House members are really not serious about shaping a bipartisan compromise on a budget for the balance of the current fiscal year, or for 2012. Their proposals also make it obvious that they have little respect for the needs of ordinary Americans, nor for their duty to provide fair treatment or to find common ground.
The short-term proposals keep pushing back the fiscal goal posts well beyond any reasonable boundaries. While Democrats had been cooperatively searching for $30 billion in additional cuts for the remainder of the 2011 budget year, Republicans just walked in Tuesday with a demand to raise the cuts by a third more. After President Barack Obama appropriately said that deeper level of short-term cuts went too far, Republicans made it clear they were ready to shut down the government by this weekend.
That is reprehensible. It would set back the economy, weaken the dollar and scare investors. But it is their new proposal for a 2012 budget that is most troublesome. It would essentially devastate services that many Americans rely on, while simultaneously larding on huge new tax cuts for corporations and the most wealthy individuals.
The proposal for 2012 proposes to slash $4.3 trillion from anticipated federal spending over the next decade by: