Republicans: Not Serious About the Deficit

Jonathan Chait:

"Looking ahead to controlling Congress, Republicans again propose to eliminate Paygo, as they did under Bush. But this time they propose to replace it with a different rule, Cutgo, which would require that new spending be offset with spending cuts. That would indeed be an effective way to limit new spending programs. Of course, it would retain the ability to pass tax cuts with no offsets whatsoever. The decision once again reflects the core Republican belief that tax revenues do not need to bear any relationship to expenditures."

A few days ago, I said the problem with the Tea Party "revolution" is that it's poised to return to power the exact same people who ran Congress during most of the last decade and helped turn the budget surplus into a deficit. The GOP is really good -- awesome, in fact -- at the rhetoric of cutting government and cutting taxes. They only ever deliver on half that equation. The results will be disastrous.