Krugman: The Soft Bigotry of Low Deficit Commission Expectations

[ProSense]

The Soft Bigotry of Low Deficit Commission Expectations

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What the commission was supposed to do was something much harder: it was supposed to produce a package that Congress would give an up and down vote. To do this, it would have to produce something much better than a package with some good stuff buried in among the bad stuff; it would have to produce a package good enough to accept as is.

And it didn’t do that. Instead, it produced a package that may have had some good things in it, but also, remarkably, introduced a whole slew of new bad ideas that weren’t even in the debate before. A 21 percent of GDP limit on revenues? Cutting the top marginal rate to 23 percent? Sharp reductions in the government work force without, as far as anyone can tell, a commensurate reduction in the work to be done? Instead of cutting through the fog, the commission brought out an extra smoke machine.

Or put it another way: what on earth are people who say things like, “This proposal can be a starting point for discussion” thinking? We’ve been discussing and discussing, ad nauseam; the commission was supposed to provide a finishing point for discussion. Instead, it produced a PowerPoint that is one part stuff that has long been on the table, one part conservative wish-list, and one part just weirdly ill-considered.

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As Ezra Klein said, There is no report from the fiscal commission:

...The co-chairmen have some interesting policy ideas for how to balance the budget, but as of yet, they've not made any discernible progress on the political deadlock preventing us from balancing the budget. And it's the deadlock, not the policy questions, that they were asked to solve.

This was a kitchen-sink proposal. The question is why did the co-chairs release a draft not reviewed or approved by the members of the commission?

[hedgehog]

1. Normally the President would stand up, accept the Commission Report and graciously thank

the Members for all their hard work.

I'd love to see Obama stand up, toss the report into the nearest wastebasket and berate the commission members for sucking on the government teat all these past months putting together their buddies' wish list instead of doing the job they were told to do.

[Mimosa]

11. +1 n/t

[tularetom]

2. Perhaps the co chairs lost control of their commission

And wanted to discredit the report that they knew would be released later.

They have definitely poisoned the well. It would be hard to find anybody who now believes anything positive will come from this commission.

[indepat]

3. I'll not be surprised seeing it passed into law: not predicting it, just saying would not be

surprised. :shrug:

[OHdem10]

4. Could they realize that this is no time to once again roil up the

American People. Actually, this is an austerrity
program and the American People have not been prepared.

I agree with Krugman's evaluation but I cannot believe
the country is ready for Austerity.

Example: The Republicans run around praching about
spending and oh we have to cut spending.
They know darned well their rank and file
will string them up at the gallows if they
start doing things to "entitlements".
They are so very careful to say and repeat
over and over in re to Medicare and SS.
For those 55 and over we will not we will
not touch your program. If these programs
were not valuable to rank and file Republicans
the DC Republicans could be much more agressive.

During the election, here in Ohio. Republicans
ran ads assuring their constituents they would
not disturbe their SS.

Ny point here is the Republicans on the Hill
are much more conservative than their constituents.
However, they are not going to give up their
seat in Congress by cutting cutting.

The Middle Class believe they have been screwed
by the Elites, Big Business,Banksters, Academia
really any intstituion. For this reason we
have to be careful and remember timing is everything.

Timing Timing Timing--Deficit Hawks.

[mzmolly]

5. I don't understand how 14 agreed on the notion that we all have to "do our part"

but, we're going to give wealthy corporations a great big tax cut. :crazy: Unless there wasn't a formal vote by the members yet?

There are some good ideas, like the public option. However, the absurdity of the corporate tax cut/while increasing the age of SS etc. undermines the rest of the proposal.

[ProSense]

6. There wasn't a vote

The final report is due in a few weeks. There may not even be a report if they can't agree.

[mzmolly]

7. Thanks for the info. Let's hope it dies

a quick death. ;)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. In answer to your last question...

"The question is why did the co-chairs release a draft not reviewed or approved by the members of the commission?"

There have been a lot of theories but I think the one in a piece on TPM is probably right. The chairs were going to present that mess to the commission. They figured one of the token liberals would leak the worst parts of it to pre-empt their cool ideas, so wanted to get it all out on their own terms.

Makes sense.

[ProSense]

9. Plausible

" They figured one of the token liberals would leak the worst parts of it to pre-empt their cool ideas, so wanted to get it all out on their own terms."

Still, did they believe that the entire report would be less appalling?

[hedgehog]

10. Here's another reason for Obama to repudiate the Commission -

it wasn't working for the American people, it was working for a small group of millionaires -

But the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has also come under attack for its unusual approach to staffing: Many of its employees aren't employed by the panel at all.

Instead, about one in four commission staffers is paid by outside entities, many of which have strong ideological points of view about how to tackle the deficit.

For example, the salaries of two senior staffers, Marc Goldwein and Ed Lorenzen, are paid by private groups that have previously advocated cuts to entitlement programs. Lorenzen is paid by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, while Goldwein is paid by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is also partly funded by the Peterson group.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111006850.html