Cousin Brucie Bartlett Explains It All to You
In the context of Dan’s post below, I just want to repeat what Bruce Bartlett said so accurately yesterday:
[H]ere’s what I would be doing if I were organizing opposition to the Republican budgetary disinformation campaign. First of all, I would be holding hearings five days a week in the Senate Appropriations Committee and every other Senate committee on the impact of proposed Republican budget cuts. Whose benefits are going to be cut? What programs will be shut down? What are the real world consequences of the Republicans’ plans?
I have no idea and I have made an effort to try and find out. But there are undoubtedly people who know at the Office of Management and Budget and the various departments of government that are filled with assistant secretaries eager to testify before a congressional committee and respond in detail to the implicit Republican argument that spending can be massively cut without hurting anyone.
Another thing I would be doing is commissioning reports by the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, and the Congressional Budget Office to provide data and analysis on the impact of Republican plans. And believe me, any request from the chairman of the appropriations committee gets the very careful attention of those who run these organizations for obvious reasons.
The next obvious step is to get all of the various organizations that represent farmers, defense contractors, health providers and so on to do their own analyses based on their intimate knowledge of how spending cuts will affect them. These people will also be more than happy to testify before a congressional committee on short notice.
Within a couple of weeks I think it would be very easy to put flesh on the bones of the Republican plans and mobilize the millions of people who will be affected but probably have no idea at this time that this is the case because no one has told them. I think the political dynamics could change quickly. But someone needs to get the ball rolling, get the analyses started, organize the hearings and so on. Why this isn’t already being done, is a complete mystery to me. [emphasis mine]
That no one has been willing or able to answer Mr. Bartlett’s question tells me all I need to know about who will be hurt by the cuts: the vast majority of the American people. We’re not just talking the people who scheduled a trip to DC after their kid was fascinated by Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. We’re talking the kids, their parents, and their neighbors.
The silence from the DSCC members is deafening. And, in more than one sense of the word, Depressing.
The problem is that they are afraid of being undermined. The DCCC put out a bunch of ads in Reppublican districts that went for Obama about the proposed cuts and then a few days later the White House releases a budget talking about how we have to cut away at spending.
Bartlett: “Why this isn’t already being done, is a complete mystery to me.”
Hmmm. Maybe the Dems don’t really care?
Or maybe all the denial of it not being a problem is umh…err… wrong.
My first thought was what do they do if/when the reports come back with the wrong answers. If you’ve ever read a GAO report you know it is almost always a “on this hand” then “on the other hand” but the first hand is….
agreed. i had to chuckle at kimel’s diatribe the other day on using correct facts and figures in posts. nothing from the partisan supported groups; use the “official” government numbers. yeah, those produced by lifer govt employees who’s asses are now on the line, too. i worked in govt a few moons ago and learned there’s no such thing as a non-partisan lifer. they all played to the current power, just like they are now.
i’m going to step out on a limb here and think that the politicos, finally, know where the story ends if we keep spending like drunken sailors (no offense to my drunken sailor friends), but i have full faith that the widows and orphans will continue to be trotted out as expected like the props they are.
Ah Jeff, please send your made up numbers for perusal. And no mention of shadowstats, who at least are consistent too?
i don’t pretend to have, nor did i offer, the “numbers” in this case, merely my own experience, especially since this is a political hack post. it’s hack for hack warfare.
as for the numbers and as a center-right guy, i come here to stretch my learning curve because no one owns it all. i very much enjoy the statistical banter, but, quite honestly and especially when it comes to SS, i don’t trust (no pun) either sides numbers, yet.