"There is a long-running, almost metaphysical, argument about the GOP's deficit hawkery. One school of thought holds that it has always been pure cynicism. Republicans passed the Bush tax cuts without offsets and paid for neither Medicare Part D nor the Iraq War. When they began decrying the deficit and debt during President Obama's administration, under this theory, it was nothing but opportunistic political attacks, and it was obvious they would be abandoned as soon as Republicans regained power.
"The response many Republicans gave was that the party had lost its way under George W. Bush, but it had recognized its mistakes and rediscovered its fiscally conservative soul. The Tea Party and its relentless campaign of primary challenges was proof the Republican Party had changed, and would stay changed.
"The House and Senate passage of the GOP tax bills shows the cynics had it right."
Klein goes on to illustrate conservatives' obeisance -- during the Obama era -- to the mantra of debt horror. He quotes from a 2011 Paul Ryan speech, proclaiming, "The facts are very, very clear. The United States is headed towards a debt crisis." And yet . . . . [back to Klein's article]:
"Today, Paul Ryan is the speaker of the House of Representatives , , , , shepherding forward a tax bill that is expected to add more than a trillion [with a T] dollars to the national debt in the first 10 years and, if their tax cuts are extended as they hope, far more after that. They are doing so despite years of arguing that the national debt is the most severe problem facing the United States, despite running for reelection promising balanced budgets and fiscal restraint.
"'The hypocrisy is astounding,' says Marc Goldwein, policy director at the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget. . . . The nihilism extends to process too. Republicans complained bitterly during the Obama administration that Democrats weren't holding enough hearings, that they weren't leaving sufficient time to read final bill text, that they were passing important legislation on party-line votes, that they were using the budget reconciliation process improperly.
"Now they are passing sweeping tax reform through the budget reconciliation process with no hearings, no effort at bipartisan compromise, and bill text that was not made public until hours before the final vote. In a darkly comic twist, changes were handwritten into legislation in the final hours."
[A video was tweeted out by Democratic Senator Jon Tester holding his copy of the 479 page bill, which he said he had received just 25 minutes before the scheduled vote on the bill. And then he showed a page with margins filled with handwritten, sometimes unreadable changes in the margins.] Back to Klein:
"There is no framework under which these moves appear principled, no explanation under which the cynicism abates. Some Republicans have tried to argue that the tax bill will pay for itself through increased economic growth; but there is not a single economic analysis that agrees; the Joint Committee on Taxation, for instance, says the law will add a trillion dollars to the deficit even accounting for economic growth.
"Perhaps that is why even Paul Ryan sounds embarrassed making these claims. 'I'm telling you that's what I believe will happen; I'm not going to tell you I'm sure,' he said."
* * *
I'll summarize the rest of Klein's article, generally on the theme of "Nihilism begets nihilism," and "hypocrisy begets hypocrisy." In short, Democrats got loudly chastised by Republicans for the growing deficit, which had largely resulted from Bush's unpaid-for Medicare Rx drug plan, for the Iraq war, and for the economic recession that Bush left for Obama to handle.
In spite of that, Democrats worked extra hard to find ways to pay for the Affordable Care Act, even to being criticized especially for the parts that were put in to make it work and largely pay for itself, rather than just running up the deficit as the Republicans did . . . . and are now about to repeat.
So Klein wonders what the Democrats will do when they come back into power? Will they say we were fools to play by the rules when our opponents don't -- and adopt Republican ways with the budget?
Here's the other thing that Klein did not focus on but I will. It's as sure as death and taxes that Republicans are already planning to use the expanding deficit and debt -- that they are causing -- by insisting they have to cut entitlement spending, And then there goes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- as well as much else in the social safety net. Some of it is already in these tax bills they're passing.
Ralph
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