Back to the Dark Ages

Digby with evidence that even the least-destructive budget proposals on the table are economic armageddon.

The Economic Policy Institute analyzed all the current budget plans and issued a report comparing them side by side. It isn't exactly reassuring:

The current budget debate has generated various plans to bring revenues and spending into alignment, including proposals by the president, congressional caucuses, individual legislators, and outside groups. The majority of these plans focus disproportionately on the non-security discretionary (“domestic discretionary,” or NSD) budget, that portion of the overall budget that not only delivers the primary source of investment in our nation’s future, but also provides vital services to people in need, protects Americans from corporate abuses and environmental degradation, and keeps the government itself operating...

This analysis examines President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal, the president’s April framework, the Bowles-Simpson debt commission’s plan, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget resolution. The major findings of this analysis are summarized below:

• Each of the proposals cuts the NSD budget [as a share of GDP] to its lowest level in over half a century.

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This is how we are going to Win The Future?

If one were to "negotiate" using these proposals as a starting point, the leftward position is NSD spending lower than it's been since 1962.

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Ok, let's set aside the lunacy of any of these people proposing to do this while unemployment is still high and the economy is faltering. But even if the economy was recovering smartly, why in the world is a Democrat proposing to go below 3%? Are they just giving up the idea of liberal government altogether? Apparently so, although it's unclear if they know it:

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I'll leave it to you to decide whether these people know what they're doing or not. But any way you slice it, this cutting fetish is hugely destructive regardless of their alleged good intentions. The numbers don't lie.

It's hard to see where this ends but it's obvious that it's going to be extremely hard to crawl back out of the hole that's already been dug. Proposing to cut already inadequately financed programs has already made it impossible to grow them, even if the draconian cuts of Ryan or the other plans are stillborn. Why?

Because only rich people matter. The rest of us are serfs and cannon fodder.

Liberals demand that government budgets reflect the needs and opinions of the majority, not the rich tiny minority.