Slog Comments
Why Do Republicans Want to Turn America into Europe?
1
If I may speak up in defense of our Republican friends, I think they'd be quick to point out to you that austerity would work just fine if Europe wasn't overrun with gays. Facts, man, facts.
2
The Republicans are the Johnny Come Lately's of the deficit game. Remember the Reagan and Cheney administrations? Deficits only matter if you want to use them to scold people.
As for Europe, Germany went the Keynes route for itself early in the crisis, came out of it and now is loansharking the rest of the union. If the Euro folds, it's because of Germany's selfishness.
As for Europe, Germany went the Keynes route for itself early in the crisis, came out of it and now is loansharking the rest of the union. If the Euro folds, it's because of Germany's selfishness.
3
Brilliant. The dems really need to jump on using the word "austerity" to describe the republican strategy because of its association with european failure. It's exactly the same kind of mind trick the republicans are good at using against us.
5
Wait, what??? I thought the Republicans were saying the Dems wanted to turn America into Europe. I'm so confused!
8
Boy, that shows you how little I know. I thought Republicans just wanted to shave their legs, put on nylons and a corset, and sing the lumberjack song.
10
Goldy, do you happen to remember 2011? I do. Obama and the Dems didn't take a passive role in "deficit reduction." They allowed the Repubs to dominate the discourse and pushed for cuts to social security and medicare, thus undermining the Congressional Dems. So, I'm not sure this argument that "austerity comes with Republicans" holds much water.
11
The perfect time for a little austerity would have been when the ecomony was booming (and we had a giant real estate bubble) back in 2000-2008. Instead, the Republicans (and the Democrats to, it must be said) spent money like a bunch of drunken frat boys and ran up a giant deficit.
They only became concerned about cutting the deficit again when they were no longer in control of the federal government, so they didn't have to worry about actually cutting anything. The also picked the absolute worst time for a bunch of cutting, right in the middle of a giant recession with huge unemployment.
For a party that's supposed to be all about balancing budgets, they sure seem to suck at it, especially on the federal level.
They only became concerned about cutting the deficit again when they were no longer in control of the federal government, so they didn't have to worry about actually cutting anything. The also picked the absolute worst time for a bunch of cutting, right in the middle of a giant recession with huge unemployment.
For a party that's supposed to be all about balancing budgets, they sure seem to suck at it, especially on the federal level.
12
And Obama bashed Bush in the 2008 campaign for running up the deficit and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Rodham Clinton says that our deficit is a top national security issue. Everybody's nervous about the deficit.
13
@10, The Republican presidential nominees are all campaigning for austerity and against stimulus. Those are the terms of their own economic debate.
15
@13 And my point is that we've had nearly two years of the same from your friends the Dems. In fact, they've been better at accomplishing what the Repubs *purport* to want.
16
You do remember that when Papandreou tried to put austerity measures up for a vote he was swiftly removed from office. This has been orchestrated by the international banking cabal. They will be picking the bones of our carcass in due time.
17
The Rs floor the spending pedal when they're in power on the things THEY like SPECIFICALLY TO MAKE IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT FOR THE Ds to spend on ANYTHING when the inevitable cyclical power shifts occur. This has been their strategy for decades. Please get it through your heads.
The adults in the room know that government spending in deficit during economic downturns, on projects of broad social utility, limits the severity and duration of the downturn—and, if properly managed and calibrated, the deficits are more than repaid by robust growth and tax receipts.
In the budget-surplus years of the Clinton administration there was actually agreement from both ends of the political spectrum that we had finally mastered the balancing of fiscal and monetary policies to maintain fairly steady, modest growth. And we all know what happened since then.
The adults in the room know that government spending in deficit during economic downturns, on projects of broad social utility, limits the severity and duration of the downturn—and, if properly managed and calibrated, the deficits are more than repaid by robust growth and tax receipts.
In the budget-surplus years of the Clinton administration there was actually agreement from both ends of the political spectrum that we had finally mastered the balancing of fiscal and monetary policies to maintain fairly steady, modest growth. And we all know what happened since then.
18
Eurocrats have been coasting on their supposed "superiority" since 1990...but when's the last time you worked on a Nixdorf computer?
See...
19
The maddening part is that if the European situation becomes severe enough to arrest our own modest recovery, the Republicans have a far better chance of getting into power and pursuing the same doomed course of action; The failure of austerity there will provide the political impetus for austerity here.
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