Dems Still Caving on Spending Cuts

Despite the only problem with the deficit being that it's far too small for an economy stuck in recession, despite the only problem with spending being that we are not spending anywhere near enough to create the 10 million jobs we need, despite cuts in domestic spending being the guaranteed way to plunge us into a full-blown economic depression, despite all of these facts, Congressional and White House Democrats are still planning massive, suicidal spending cuts.

Digby:

As a liberal, it's hard for me to see how that translates into a big Republican cave. The Republicans always seek bigger cuts and then John Boehner clutches his pearls for a little while and then they "settle" for less.  (Simply allowing tax rates for those making half a million dollars a year to revert to their 2001 levels is not exactly a major sacrifice.) The Democrats then take a huge victory lap for "forcing" them to cave. The Republicans seem to understand that impressing the Villagers is of less importance than achieving their most cherished policy goals, which is to shrink government. (After all, it's only a matter of time before they are accorded "grown-up" status again, for whatever that's worth.) The results illustrated above show exactly who's winning and it sure isn't anyone who cares about the health of the economy or the ability of government to deliver needed services to its people.

After this happens over and over again, one can only conclude that cutting trillions in government spending in an epic recession is the preferred policy of both parties. And it's a terrible policy. It's also a long term catastrophic error on the part of the Democrats to enthusiastically take credit for deficit reduction at exactly the wrong moment. They are cementing conservative economic ideology at their own expense. It's political malpractice. When those chickens come home to roost it won't be the liberals who are to blame (although I'm sure they'll be blamed anyway.) It will be the "grown-ups" who fully bought in (or were too weak to resist) the economic ideology that  destroyed the middle class.

 Fucking genius.