Comments about ‘Robert J. Samuelson: How we got into this whole 'sequester' debacle’

Real fiscal conservatives like Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater opposed Kennedy's tax cuts. Also, Keynes taught that budgets should be balanced over the course of the business cycle. Deficits in bad times, surpluses in good times.

How we got in this sequester debacle? Simple answer. Some elected Brack Hussein Obama!

Sad memories, and a lot of conspiracy theory's. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Interesting history. But I am not sure I blame Kennedy any more than I blame Reagan, Bush, Obama or any other president over the past few decades.

The concept that is important here is that fiscal discipline matters. A lot. And we have abandoned that idea. Republicans think tax cuts are always a good idea as they pay for themselves many times over. Democrats think that just a little more tax is always sustainable. Both sides have forgotten the negative power of debt. They all ignore history.

Our real problem is that there are almost no adults in the room. Each election cycle we keep sending the adults home telling them that their pragmatic views are out of vogue.

Do not blame President Kennedy for the mess were in now! That was over fifty years ago! Blame your Republican friends in Congress!

I think if one carefully reads this article it addresses almost all of the points raised above..except of course for everythings Obamas fault. There is one slight mis-statement, and Roland hints at it. The folks who influenced Kennedy to do tax cuts were actually a group called neo-keynesians. They were Keyensians on steroids, and they rasied their heads again under Carter.

One major point here is, there is a time and a place for everything and one ideology doesn't work in all situations. Obama demonstrated this with courage when he re-instated the SS tax this year. It seems small but ideologicly it's a big thing.

The problem with the current Republican view of budgetary policy is that they favor tax cuts in economic troughs to jump-start growth, but in times of economic expansion they say we can't increase taxes because that would slow the growth or maybe dump us back into recession. So, we get tax cuts that can never be allowed to expire, and we can never (Grover forbid) raise taxes, even when the economy is humming. This philosophy, of course, has predictable results, which we are seeing all around us. The GOP understanding of economics is not based on fact, sound theory, or even rational imagination. Rather, it appears to be evidence of some sort of collective mental illness that has disconnected half our elected officials from reality. Political schizophrenia would be a good name for it.

Hey Utah, let's just talk the truth here! We TeaPublicans know that these sequester cuts ARE the direct result of Republican demand in 2011 to shrink the government at any cost, under threat of a default on the nation’s debt! Yes, that’s how the sequester came about and we TeaPublicans ARE darn proud of how we forced all Republicans to make those demands! Now you can sugarcoat this however you want to, but the bottom line is we TeaPublicans got what we wanted in 2011….and now we ARE going to get the sequestration cuts that America needs and demands! And come the next elections Americans will say “Thank you very much”!

Re: "The GOP understanding of economics is not based on fact, sound theory, or even rational imagination."

As opposed to liberal Keynsians' spend, spend, spend, then spend some more approach. Don't worry about deficits and debt, since, in the end, "we're all dead anyway."

Hmmmmmm.

@Twin Lights – “The concept that is important here is that fiscal discipline matters.”

That seems to be the main lament of his essay. But the only viable and permanent solution (a balanced budget amendment) he unconvincingly dismisses - he’s probably right about getting it ratified though, at least until we become Greece.

But so what if “every budget dispute becomes a legal crisis” - let it. Voters will either like how it’s being handled or not, and will vote accordingly. I don’t see that as anything that cannot be, in theory, solved every two or four years.

Jefferson thought that the only two (major) mistakes of the Constitution was the slavery compromise and the lack of a well designed BBA.

I’ll go with Jefferson on this…

Emboldened by their sequestration "win", Republicans in DC are now reportedly looking at cutting Medicare for those 58 and below. (Previously they promised not to change anything for anyone 55 and above).

The budget for last year was based on balancing the budget in 20 years. Now they're looking at doing it in 10 years, and Paul Ryan's new budget assumes Obama's Medicare savings he campaigned against just last fall.

Austerity, here we come, baby! After all it's working so well in the UK, where they just had a humiliating reduction in their credit rating, in spite of implementing austerity, because the economy contracted due to reduced government spending.

Republican Peter King from New York darkly notes: "One of the last presidents to balance the budget was Herbert Hoover".

This Democrat says if the GOP wants to replicate the Hoover experiment, by all means, let everyone know where the idea is coming from!

Re: "One of the last presidents to balance the budget was Herbert Hoover."

Yeah, another was Bill Clinton.

So why the double standard? How come it's a monumental achievement when Democrats balance the budget, but its folly for Republicans?

@10CC "Austerity, here we come, baby!"

We reduced the rate of growth of federal spending, and the sky didn't fall. Today's headline reads: "Dow hits record, erasing Great Recession losses."

Let's carefully consider the spending we should cut next. We're still $16,500,000,000,000 in the hole. But no sequester this time around. Our entitlement programs need reform.

@TeaPublican "[T]he bottom line is we TeaPublicans got what we wanted...."

I suggest we wait until the annual deficit is erased before we spike the ball, my parodic brother.

TeaPublican
Houston, TX
Hey Utah, let's just talk the truth here! We TeaPublicans know that these sequester cuts ARE the direct result of Republican demand in 2011 to shrink the government at any cost, under threat of a default on the nation’s debt! Yes, that’s how the sequester came about and we TeaPublicans ARE darn proud of how we forced all Republicans to make those demands!
...but the bottom line is we TeaPublicans got what we wanted...

==========

Agree or Disagree,
At least TeaPublican is the 1st one to finally (and proudly) admit to who's responsible for it.

And yes - I agree, it is the TeaPublicans who wanted the straight flat 20% automatic across the board tax cut.
No exceptions.

And yes, I blame you (and all Republicans for that matter) for it.

You know, Nate, T. Party, Teapublican, it is really frustrating watching you guys. Where were you when we could have dealt with the deficit issue very easily? Where were you during the W. Bush years? Were outraged then? When the "fiscally conservative" party, as they refer to themselves, had control if the presidency and both branches of government? When they passed the extremely irresponsible tax cuts, and spent like their was no tommorow. Were you up in arms then? I was.

The Republicans racked up massive debt last decade. And that was after being handed, on a silver platter as it were, a balanced budget. No deficit. And they squandered it. Were you outraged then? I was. All they had to do was be the fiscally conservative party they claimed to be. That's all. All W. had to do was call for continued balanced budgets and veto anything that wasn't. And leave in place tax rates that were working. But he didn't.

And the Republicans left trillion dollar annual deficits, and a devestating recession for the next guy, and then screamed like children that he hadn't cleaned up their mess fast enough.

@mark "Where were you...?"

I was leaving the Republican party, that's where I was. I'm currently unaffiliated. I'll join whichever party produces a balanced federal budget. If they both do it, I'll pick one. Have at it.

@mark and Open Minded Mormon

TeaPublican is telling you a joke, and you're not getting it.