Republicans reject their own deficit-reduction report

[Walter Cronkite]

By the end of the debt-ceiling negotiations, the Obama administration had agreed to a deal that would reduce the deficit by $2.4 trillion, with $2 trillion of the total coming from spending cuts and $400 billion coming from tax increases. Taxes, in other words, would be about 17 percent of the final deal. Republicans rejected it. But as little as four months ago, it was the Republican ideal.

Mike Konczal points us to “Spend Less, Owe Less, Grow the Economy,” the March 2011 report released by the Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee. The report, which tried to argue that fiscal austerity would lead to short-term growth, was as methodologically unsound, and quickly forgotten. But for our purposes, that’s irrelevant. What is relevant is the report’s golden ratio: “successful fiscal consolidations averaged 85% spending cuts and 15% revenue increases, while unsuccessful fiscal consolidations averaged 47% spending cuts and 53% revenue increases,” it concluded. There was even a graph:

So when the GOP’s economic policy team sat down to make the strongest case they could for growth-inducing deficit reduction, they recommended a mix an 85:15 mix, not a 100:0 mix. And then, when the Obama administration agreed to an 83:17 mix, the Republican leadership walked out of the room and demanded that taxes be excluded from the deal altogether. How do you negotiate with that?

Source: washingtonpost.com

[Pyro]

Obama: The sky is blue.

GOP: No it isn't. The sky is black.

Obama: Okay, the sky is black.

GOP: No it isn't. You're black. Quit trying to impose your color on America. Why are you so racist? What's wrong with the sky being blue? Like the color in the U.S. Flag? Hmm, the Kenyan flag has black. Why are you so focused on things other than what the American people need, like jobs and economic certainty?

Obama: The sky is blue, the American people need jobs and economic certainty.

GOP: Why do you want to kill babies and go against God's word about homosexuals?

[AndySMC]

I point this type of shit to a republican friend all the time. The GOP is not interested in doing anything beneficial to this country because it might help Obama's chance for re-election. So they are perfectly willing to destroy the country so they can "save the country."

That's the logic that comes out of their tiny little minds. I'm surprised the GOP didn't attach a rider to outlaw abortions to the bill so that the democrats would be forced to vote against it. Then they could sit back and point fingers. Hell, the republicans try to attach that to every bill up for a vote.