Oklahoma Republican Senator, Tom Coburn, lived up to his gadfly ratings by proposing a largely symbolic measure to cut the US budget by up to nine trillion dollars over a decade. The most ambitious cut proposed so far as part of the current debate about Washington's fiscal direction. The proposal seem interesting, if you consider the fact that no other publicly released proposal has identified that much cut over the same period. The problem with Coburn's proposal though remains the same as with all other Republican proposal - It is disproportionately focused on spending cuts. 8 trillion of cuts to 1 trillion of revenue - And the revenue is not even new revenue, it is mostly tax-expenditures.
While I mostly agree with Republican's that the US has a spending problem, I also support the Democratic position that the country also has a revenue problem. Many of the cuts proposed by Coburn are not only laudable, they are essential if the nation must overcome the impas it currently faces. But most of the cuts will constrain the nation's ability to invest in key areas essential to future growth. Republican continued efforts to undermine the new health care law is not geared at solving the nation's problem - it is aimed at denying President Obama a perceived place in history. The US health care pre- March of 2010 was going to bankrupt the nation while pinning down the ability of US corporations to compete globally while retaining a robust employment. It is true that the law passed in 2010 did not address all the opportunities, but it is undeniable that it moved the goal in the right direction.
Coburn's proposal actually has the right overall number; but America needs as much focus on revenue as it does on cuts. Coburn's proposal has a major problem politically though. If the nation can not agree on a more modest $4 trillion in cuts and revenue for almost a year now, how in the world is it supposed to grapple with a $9 trillion in mostly cuts in less than two weeks. The timing and content of Coburn's proposal shows he is less interested in solving problems but rather more interested in political posturing.
Last Fall, right after the Rebulican's electoral drubbing of Democrats, President Obama accepted Republican blackmail and extended the Bush era tax cuts. In the 8 months since that deal, the nation's unemployment crises has only worsened as the fragile economy slugs on. Objective analyst will conclude that tax policies have little to do with overall employment rates, but everyone will agree that the nation needs resources to fix its dire fiscal position as much as it needs long term (not short term) cuts. The closest parallel to the period we are in right now is the period after the great depression. The recipe for that crises was not just World War II. It included a massive public works project, a major increase in tax revenue and very limited cuts. It can be argued that the expansion of social nets in the years after the great depression helped fuel record growth experienced by this nation over a period of over 80 years.
What the nation needs now is cuts in programs that do not have any real benefit, massive investment in infrastructure and programs that will guarantee America's future as a leading economic power and maintain its role as a beacon of hope for peoples across the world. Any proposal that undermine the long term fiscal health of the country (not just transient feel good political ideology) should be rejected out of hand...
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