Rand Paul Pushes "Modest Proposal" of $500 Billion in Cuts In One Year
Update: You Know What's Wildly Popular With the Public? Not Raising the Debt Ceiling

Other Republicans need to begin pushing this, or else the idea is dismissed as "fringe" and one man's fantasy.

It really isn't. It's doable. Even if someone were to object and say it's too much -- well then how about we split the difference and aim for $250 billion?

An idea is going around -- I think maybe Don Surber wrote about it, but I can't find it now. (Update: He did.)

But the argument goes like this: If Congress took two years to increase the deficit by a trillion dollars, why the hell should it take any longer than that to ratchet it back down?

Were we notably underspending in 2008? No, we were not.

Hmmm... Political courage? You don't need that hard-to-find virtue when the public supports austerity:

Seventy-seven percent of likely GOP voters and 64 percent of independent voters said they don’t want the debt ceiling to be raised. Even among Democrats, more oppose raising the ceiling (46 percent) than support it (42 percent).

I tend to give the GOP a pass when their supposed ideology conflicts with retail-level politics -- if you do something unpopular enough, you'll be voted out of office (probably), and then the Democrat will just do all the wrong things.

But what's the excuse when a supposed ideology is actually politically popular? What's the excuse not to push ideology then?

I can't think of one. Though I assume a lot of go-along-to-get-along Polite Company Conservatives are scrambling to invent reasons.

Update: You Know What's Wildly Popular With the Public? Not Raising the Debt Ceiling&bodytext=Other Republicans need to begin pushing this, or else the idea is dismissed as "fringe" and one man's fantasy. It really isn't. It's doable. Even if someone were to object and say it's too much -- well then how about...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 01:16 PM

| Access Comments