With due respect, I think those who are praising the budget deal are deluding themselves. Under circumstances where we are trillions of dollars in debt, the GOP just caved on its promise to cut the relative pittance of $61 billion in spending because it’s just not worth fighting for more than the half-pittance of $40 billion Democrats claimed was their drop-dead number. “Drop dead” meant daring Republicans to shut the government down (which, as we know, doesn’t actually shut the government down). The Republicans blinked.
For me, this is no surprise — as I’ve said several times (see, e.g., here and here), I don’t think they’re serious. But I want to make a point about how strange this praise of Boehner & Co. is. A mere four months ago, the big controversy in conservative and Republican circles was whether the GOP had reneged on their vaunted pledge to cut $100B in spending in the current fiscal year because they had seemingly come down to $61B. As I noted at the time, there was no question that, if you looked at the fine print of the pledge, the commitment was $61B — but that if you looked at reality, both $61B and $100B were laughably unserious. No matter. Folks around here pooh-poohed my criticism and insisted that a $61B pledge was a sober first step, showing real fortitude about getting our fiscal house in order.
So now they’ve stopped short, significantly short, of that purportedly serious step, and the reaction is, “We won!” You’ve got to be kidding me. The only thing Boehner won is future assurance that GOP leadership can safely promise the moon but then settle for crumbs because their rah-rah corner will spin any paltry accomplishment, no matter how empty it shows the promise to have been, as a tremendous victory.
And what’s the rationale for settling? Why, that these numbers are so piddling — that the $21 billion difference is so meaningless in the context of $14 trillion — that it’s best just to settle, make believe the promise was never made, make believe we didn’t flinch, and put this episode behind us so we can begin the “real work” of the next promise, the Ryan Plan.
Regarding that plan, you’re to believe that the captains courageous who caved on $21 billion — and who got elected because of Obamacare but don’t even want to discuss holding out for a cancellation of $105 billion in Obamacare funding — are somehow going to fight to the death for $6 trillion in cuts. Right.
I look forward to next year, though, when the commentariat will no doubt be swooning over the just announced Ryan Plan 2.0. That will be an even more fantabulous, intellectually serious proposal to cut, oh, say $12 trillion (of course, if promises don’t mean anything, why stop at 12?). By then, the same pundits will be warning that the Republicans must not shut down the government to hold out for Ryan 1.0′s trifling $6 trillion. After all, we’ll have the real serious business of Ryan 2.0 to attend to, and the Obama Democrats will be offering to meet Boehner halfway with a swell, good faith counter-offer of $27.50 in spending cuts.
$27.50? Why, of course. Why should Democrats go to $30, or $30,000, or $30 billion? After all, when you’re swimming in a multi-trillion dollar sea of red ink, you’ll always be able to say it’s all chump change, not worth squabbling over. And when the GOP is always promising to fight next time, it will seem so rightwing whack-jobby of us to demand that they fight this time.
So three cheers for the GOP’s steely resolve in achieving a whopping $40 billion in spending cuts. Better yet, ten cheers: one for each of the ten days it will take Leviathan to borrow more than this budget deal cuts.
I have to agree. $40 billion is chump-change.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEvidently you'd prefer that the government be shut down and Obama have 4 more years in which to complete the vivisection of the country.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. McCarthy,
With all due respect - Republicans only control the house - not the other two branches (nor that 4th branch "the media" ) I think it is a good start.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Until we take the Senate and/or the White House we are going to have to do this incrementally. One salami slice at a time. We have cut the budget. Maybe not as much as we would like today but we will be back for more tomorrow. Dems and spenders are playing defense and losing and they know it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAndrew McCarthy: One of the very few remaining realistic & rational voices of the NR right.
Well said sir. Could not agree with you more.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt was going to be chump change regardless. They got the best deal they could without shutting down the government. Maybe they would have come out ahead politically in the event of a shutdown, but that's certainly debatable. The fact of the matter is that they control one house of Congress. Until the Republicans win back at least the Senate in 2012 there's only so much they can accomplish. The people complaining about this deal are shortsighted.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe I'm the dumb one, but if the TARP bailout and "Stimulus" were both "one time" expenditures, I still don't understand why spending can't be cut by $1 trillion with no disruption to any normal government functions.
The annual deficit went from just under $500 billion to nearly $1.5 trillion in one year, but the bold plan is to take ten years to cut it in half?
What am I missing?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThanks for the cynicism. But the bigger fight is later, not now. What's the alternative, spending a truckload of political capital and having a massive fight over $100 billion, which is (rightfully) chump change in Mr. McCarthy's eyes?
I do find it ridiculous it took an 11th hour deal for something so simple, though.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell said, Andy!
I am awaiting to see how B & Co. will be shown "winning" the next fight as the vote to approve raising the debt ceiling take place.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The march of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
The mess we are in didn't get created overnight and it won't get rectified overnight. The liberals have been doing their damage for eighty years and it is naive to believe that it can all be undone overnight.
Look all around you and it's clear that Conservative ideas are winning. We are not sweeping the battlefield but we are making slow, steady, incremental progress.
As every struggling new business owner knows, it is important to celebrate the little victories. Let's celebrate this one with gusto.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy is it that so many eminently qualified people (e.g. McCarthy, Levin) who have these endless reserves of steely resolve to go along with their peerless judgment never run for Congress where they could actually make a difference?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLeave it to Andy McCarthy to break up the monotony of conservatives congratulating themselves for draining the pool by scooping out one cup of water.
These guys are idiots. They walked right into the Dems' trap and lost.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusebpbatista.... Mr. McCarthy's point is that it's ALWAYS tomorrow when the real battle will happen. They always take the best deal they can get today because surely it will mean huge cuts tomorrow. They just keep playing the same tune. Nothing ever changes. The Democrats are playing defense? Please. When they're on offense, they get Obamacare and a huge stimulus monstrosity passed. When we're on offense, we get a few billion in budget cuts for this year.
Nothing ever changes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou're right Andy. But even worse was the caving on the $300 billion that could have been saved from defunding Planned Parenthood.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm going to disagree with Andy on this one - but only slightly. I think this is a win - a very minor win. If we don't follow up on this with some hard-headed and -hearted cutting for the 2012 budget, it will all be just a flash in the pan.
I agree that the fundamental problem was the lack of fortitude in shutting down the government. It implies an acceptance of the idea that the federal government is so almighty and important in our daily lives that they just *can't* be allowed to be turned off for a day or two. This concept *will* lead us back to "When someone is hurting, government has got to move." And that is antithetical to conservatism and the Tea Party movement that elected a lot of these folks.
What many politicians don't realize is that if they aren't willing to truly put the federal government on the chopping block, the group that is shouting "go ahead and shut her down!" will get larger and more radical and may end up demanding "shut it all down!" as an end rather than a means.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are two problems with Andrews rant. One is he assumes things that have not happened. If the GOP fails in future fights to cut spending, then he has a point. We don't know that yet.
The second problem is he ignores the political realities facing the GOP. Boehner and the house are on probation with the public. They cannot win a war with Obama right now. They need to build political capital. This deal does that.
While I agree the numbers are comically small and do nothing to avert the coming catastrophe, it is not an insignificant result. What comes next is more important than what happened last night.
Instead of eating our own, we should wait until they actually fail before we declare them a pack of losers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree this was chump change. All the more reason to have pushed for big-payoff chump change like Obamacare and PP. I like that Boehner tried for PP defunding, and even stuck his neck out for it; I would have liked the attempted at Obamacare even more. I think still all of this is mute if they don't start clearing their thoats and articulating better. A bold plan, or even a principled maneuver like PP defunding, can't succeed unless you have well-acticulated truths to refute finely-honed and time-tested lies. Otherwise, they will get rolled every time. They need to channel their inner Donald Trumps, and shelve their inner Tom Coburns and GWBs. Being friends with Democrats won't work; being above the fray won't work. They need to be chin-deep into the fray, denouncing Democrats' policies, denouncing their tactics, denouncing their incivility, and denouncing the media for being their lackies. Talking points should be rolling off their lips every time a camera rolls, preferably on live TV.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is not a victory. This is failure. The lack of political courage from Washington Republicans smells is revolting. We need more new conservative blood in 2012, especially in the Senate, the world's greatest hand-wringing body. Poor results.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think the GOP is working feverishly to make sure a third party is a major factor in 2012.
I could definitely see an independent Trump ticket gaining traction. For all his negatives, the man has brass balls the size of grapefruit. There's not a descended testicle in the whole of the GOP congressional delegation. I'm ready to wash my hands of the party once and for all now, if someone with the balls to challenge and chastise the liberal orthodoxy comes along. I don't think I'm the only one, either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAndy, I love your work. But you can keep spitting venom at people who are trying to fight a 535-head hydra, or you can stand up and throw your hat in the ring. I'd love you more if you did the latter. And, even though you are an attorney, I'd support you. Yes, it's crumb money. Go make it actual pie money.
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