In a vote late last night, Senate Democrats passed their first budget for four years. Reading the details, it's become abundantly clear that they're living in Clownsville.
You might think that the word budget suggests at least some degree of consideration for fiscal reality. An expectation many Americans would probably share. Unfortunately, when it comes to this budget, fiscal reality is nowhere to be found.
Let's consider the details. The Democratic budget increases taxes by $1 trillion - and does so by reinforcing the Democrats deluded and mathematically unsustainable obsession with taxing the rich. Further, the budget does so little to restrain the growth of entitlements that it's truly laughable. Instead, it plays around the edges of Federal spending and finds a pathetic $900 billion in discretionary cuts - primarily by allowing 50% of the DoD sequester to go into effect. Thus we see it's essence. A hyper-partisan morass of mathematically absurd and strategically defective political delusions. It would gut the military in order to continue our national zombie walk into the fiscal abyss. This budget represents not just the willful ignorance of fiscal reality, but the absolute rejection of any semblance of fiscal reality. In short, it's a joke.
It's true, the GOP budget which passed the House last week is also highly partisan. But there's one major, foundational difference between the Democratic and Republican budgets. The GOP budget actually addresses our national deficit and our debt. And it does so in a trend stable way. For me, those two factors are the crucial litmus test for any budget. At a basic level, they illustrate a serious acceptance of fiscal reality. In terms of specific savings - where the Democrats find about $2 trillion in 10yr savings, Ryan's GOP budget finds $4.3 trillion. And for all the liberal whining that Republicans won't negotiate - Ryan has stood alone in his evident willingness to entertain serious compromise. (Beyond Congress, the President deserves some credit for his recent outreach to Senate Republicans. We'll see if he's serious or if he's playing more games).
For my personal budget plan - Go here.
Video which illustrates scale of debt crisis. Strangely, the production of a left wing group.
