The Republican Pledge to America states: “We will curb Washington’s spending habits and promote job creation, bring down the deficit, and build long term fiscal sustainability.”
The GOP’s campaign platform talks a lot about cutting the deficit and government spending. But this is all a dog and pony show. Republican economic policies will not suffice if we are trying to move forward as a country.
It is discerning that a major party will not listen to the figures that show this, which most notably deal with the stimulus and Bush-era tax cuts.
In the Pledge to America, Republicans refer to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act as a “trillion dollar stimulus,” which is false. The total cost of The Recovery Act was $814 billion and was not wasteful spending at all.
An analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the stimulus saved or created up to 3.3 million jobs in the second quarter of this year alone. In saving that many jobs, the unemployment rate was kept down by as much as 1.8 percent. Adding an extra 1.8 percent to our 9.6 percent unemployment rate means that without the stimulus, the unemployment rate could be around 11.4 percent. Republicans have defamed a giant piece of legislation that put, literally, millions of people back to work.
One of the reasons the GOP opposed the stimulus is because it saw it as fiscally irresponsible. Yet, the GOP’s deeds and discourse do not match up. Republicans are in favor of extending the Bush-era tax cuts permanently. This would add $3.9 trillion to the deficit. Making these tax cuts permanent will cost more than the bailouts, stimulus and the health care law. No single initiative put forth by President Barack Obama will add so much to the deficit.
Where were the Tea Partiers when President George W. Bush passed two rounds of tax cuts that were unpaid for and a Medicare program whose bill hadn’t been written either?
The Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf testified before the Committee of Budget in the Senate.
“A permanent extension of all of those tax cuts without future increases in taxes or reductions in federal spending would roughly double the projected budget deficit in 2020,” read Elmendorf’s testimony.
On top of federal debt mounting, he notes that even a temporary extension would “reduce future income.”
While the GOP is sitting pretty in the polls, its governing policies look a lot less attractive. Jobs, deficits, and spending have been three of the Republican buzz words leading up to the election and wildly successful with voters.
However, giving the GOP this country’s purse strings is a blunder of the highest degree. The GOP opposed The Recovery Act, which created millions of jobs, on the grounds that it was reckless spending. Deficits will continue in large part due to the renewal of the Bush-era tax cuts. While Republicans have shown a willingness to cut taxes, they have not shown a willingness to pay for their initiatives.
In its A Pledge to America, the GOP’s spending promises can be chalked up to smoke and mirrors. The rhetoric offers no details of what would be cut. If we want to put people back to work and balance the budget, we need to think twice before we give Republicans control of Congress.
Reach the reporter at andrew.hedlund@asu.edu
