The GOP released a booklet
outlining its alternative budget today, and I'm not impressed. To
start, it's difficult to judge because it's a rather sparse 19
page pamphlet that contains no deficit projections, and it hasn't
yet been scored by the CBO. And much of it is just filled with
criticism of Obama's budget and various bubble charts. So there's
no way to measure what it would do to the debt relative to
Obama's plan. Republicans caution that this is merely a blueprint
rather than a final bill, but there are still a few items worth
commenting on.
The proposal has some good elements, such as allowing people to
purchase health care across state lines, saying no to future
bailouts, allowing for more energy exploration, removing barriers
to building nuclear power plants, and creating an optional
flatter tax with a 10% bracket for those earning less than
$100,000 and 25% for those earning more.
Overall, the biggest problem with the Republican budget is for
all of its justified outrage about the exploding debt created by
Obama's budget, it makes no serious effort to cut entitlement
spending. Sure, there are some fixes around the edges. It would
ask wealthier seniors on Medicare to pay more for prescription
drugs, allows states more flexibility on Medicaid, and promises
to reduce "waste, fraud, and abuse" of Medicare. That's simply
not going to cut it when we're facing a $56 trillion long-term
entitlement deficit. It doesn't mention any plans for Social
Security.
What's alarming is that Republicans are surrendering too much
ground to liberals. At one point, the report mentions wanting to
"save" Medicare. At another point, it reads:
Instead of accelerating the demise of our nation’s large
entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and
creating new unsustainable entitlements, Republicans seek to
provide universal access to affordable health care and to
address our entitlements’ trillion dollar unfunded liabilities
with common-sense reforms that ensure our children and
grandchildren can secure future benefits.
All this talk about wanting to save entitlements and secure
benefits is not much different from what you'd expect from
Democrats. If Republicans want to return to being the party of
fiscal discipline, then they will have to be honest with the
American people that the only way out of this hole is to rein
in entitlements and reduce benefits. The problem is
much bigger than a few "common sense reforms." The reason why our
debt is out of control is that Democrats are afraid to admit that
their social agenda will require major tax increases, and
Republicans want to cut taxes but are afraid to propose genuine
spending cuts. Obviously, given their minority status,
Republicans don't have any hope of passing their budget
proposals. However, they could have used an alternative budget as
an oppourtunity to act as grownups amid all of the fairytale
thinking coming out of the White House. I'll look forward to
more detailed proposals, but for now it looks like a blown
opportunity.
