all the proposed state budget cuts in Texas<\/a> — cuts necessary because the state is in awful shape fiscally because the governor papered over their budget problems through Federal funding that he was, all the while, decrying as evil and wasteful.<\/p>\nAnyway, after admitting that the citizenry of Texas was, indeed, unhappy about all this, the yahoo commented, “But if you’re going to cut the government down to size, it’s going to be painful.”<\/p>\n
This is a common theme in a lot of political commentary from the Right, and it boils down to the proposition that government is too big, too bloated, too expensive, and needs to be cut back. Just on general principles. It needs to be “cut down to size.”<\/p>\n
But\u00a0 that implies that there is some ideal size of “government” — not to mention that the size is somehow smaller than what we have (on a federal, state, and local level).\u00a0 There’s no proof put forward for this, or even a target.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0 just “Big Government is Too Big,” so let’s\u00a0 just keep lopping away at the budget until, smaller, it’s not quite so big any more.\u00a0 We’ll know when to stop … somehow.<\/p>\n
Is government “too big”? I don’t know.\u00a0 I can certainly point out things the government does that I think are unnecessary, or that cost too much, or that are actually harmful.\u00a0 There are a lot of programs I’d be willing to specifically question and figure out if, in fact, they are worth the money.<\/p>\n
But the GOP isn’t interested in specific programs, except for occasional “look at how silly big government is” kinds of things.\u00a0 They’re just interested in cutting the budget.<\/p>\n
Because cutting the budget means lower taxes.<\/p>\n
And lower taxes are the real goal.<\/p>\n
Everyone wants more money in their pocket, sure. But for the GOP leadership, it seems not a matter of a balancing act between services. They simply want the more money in their pocket (and, of course, the pockets of their wealthy and corporate supporters).<\/p>\n
They want to cut the government down to size, not because government is too big, but because they don’t want to pay for what government provides, because, honestly, when you’re well-off, you can (on the surface, at least) avoid needing government spending.\u00a0 You don’t need a social safety net.\u00a0 You don’t need rehab programs, or job stimulus, or day care.\u00a0 You don’t need public schools.\u00a0 Heck, you might not need police (or at least figure that, with cutbacks, the police will, at least, be protecting your <\/em>house, if not all those shanties down in the valley, and if they don’t, well, your gated neighborhood can always hire its own security).<\/p>\nThus, the government needs to be “cut down to size.”<\/p>\n
And if there’s a budget deficit, well, then, the last <\/em>thing you want to consider — or even admit is an option <\/em>— is raising taxes.\u00a0 Because the size of government isn’t the real problem for the GOP.\u00a0 It’s not cutting government down to size.\u00a0 It’s cutting taxes<\/em> down to size.\u00a0 That’s the real goal. “I’ve got mine.\u00a0 You go pound sand.”<\/p>\nAnd that’s where we are in this country right now, including Texas.\u00a0 We’re running large deficits, due to a major economic downturn still being recovered from.\u00a0 Those deficits aren’t actually causing any significant harm at the moment, but that’s not the debate being heard.\u00a0 The deficits must be “cut down to size.”<\/p>\n
If you’re running out of money at the end of the month, you have three ways to deal with it — rack up larger debt (which might be necessary in the\u00a0 short term), reduce your spending (do you really need a large caramel macchiatto every morning?), or supplement your income (take a second job, or look for a better paying job).<\/p>\n
In reality, people do a combination of these things.\u00a0 But in the current debate, (a) and (c) are off of the table — we must “tighten our belts” and “cut government down to size.”\u00a0 Which means cutting government — but, really, means cutting taxes.\u00a0 Which is why, even with all the deficits, every single one of those GOP governors and congresscritters is also pushing full time for cutting corporate taxes and cutting estate taxes and cutting top tax rates.<\/p>\n
The idea of raising taxes is completely out of the conversation, even from the Democrats.<\/p>\n
That’s the Procrustean budget process.\u00a0 We all know that if government is allowed and not restrained, it will stretch its spending to however large the revenue stream is, and beyond.\u00a0 I don’t think anyone would reasonably argue that government spending is, per se<\/em>, good, or that not having some checks on it isn’t of value.<\/p>\nBut the converse is what’s happening now.\u00a0 Government spending (as a talking proxy for taxation) is, arbitrarily, being identified as too big.\u00a0 It needs to be “cut back to size” — and, like Procrustes, the GOP and and wealthy corporate interests that stand to benefit most, have just the solution — keep hacking at limbs until it “fits” their arbitrary size specification.<\/p>\n
And because it is arbitrary, no compromise or randomly chosen number will ever be enough.\u00a0 Offer to cut anything, and you’re told it has to be at least $30 billion in cuts.\u00a0 Offer to cut $30 billion, and suddenly the demand is $60 billion. And because it’s not a debate about which services need to be cut — it’s not “we need to cut schools <\/em>to size” or “we need to cut police <\/em>to size” or “we need to cut care for the poor <\/em>to size” — the number can changed as desired, with the actual cuts to programs being left as an exercise for the student. (“We need to cut $100 billion — you figure out how.”)<\/p>\nControl the debate, and you control the outcome.\u00a0 Render all the options except the one you want off limits, and you get the option you want.\u00a0 You can’t tell Procrustes he should simply get a longer bed for longer guests, because, ultimately, it’s not the aesthetics of the bed that offend, it’s just that he wants to cut.<\/p>\n
Procrustes would be proud of the current budget debate, even in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Procrustes was a mythic bad guy in the Greek myths (eventually done in by Theseus).\u00a0 He’d capture travelers and put them on his special-made bed.\u00a0 If they were too small, he’d stretch their bodies on the rack until they fit. If they were too long for the bed, though, he’d cut off their limbs until … Continue reading “The Budget of Procrustes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[77,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133063,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/16\/trumps-budget-and-what-it-actually-means.html","url_meta":{"origin":20610,"position":0},"title":"Trump's budget and what it actually means","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Mar-17 11:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, on one level, not a lot. Congress actually proposes budget bills, and passes them. They can take suggestions from the President, they can make deals with the President, but ultimately the ideological decisions, local and special interest considerations \/ pandering, , and deals and compromises rest with Congress, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31649,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/08\/texas-reconsiders-family-planning.html","url_meta":{"origin":20610,"position":1},"title":"Texas reconsiders family planning","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 8-Dec-12 11:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not at all surprisingly, Texas Republicans are discovering that if you gut family planning programs for the poor, the poor end up having bigger families, which then impacts all sorts of other social services.'Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, has been an advocate for getting Planned Parenthood off of taxpayer financing, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26382,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/13\/who-needs-a-final-frontier-anyway.html","url_meta":{"origin":20610,"position":2},"title":"Who needs a "final frontier," anyway?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Feb-12 10:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Except for, maybe, the Chinese. #ddtbReshared post from +Philip PlaitWhite House wants devastating cuts to NASA's Mars budgetThe Presidential NASA budget request was just made public, and while much of NASA funding remains stable overall, the White House wants to cut Mars exploration by a crippling $226 million, a slashing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31054,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/29\/wait-now-the-conservatives-want-to-preserve-fema-funding.html","url_meta":{"origin":20610,"position":3},"title":"Wait … NOW the Conservatives want to preserve FEMA funding?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Oct-12 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Breitbart.com notes an Administration report in September describing\u00a0the impact of sequestration cuts on the whole of the Federal budget\u00a0-- including FEMA -- and conveniently interpreting it as a \"proposal\" to slash the emergency response department's budget by $900MM.The sequestration law was an awful idea, a case of \"kick the grenade\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133205,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/04\/the-charity-for-publicity-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":20610,"position":4},"title":"The Charity-for-Publicity President","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Apr-17 7:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, good. Trump's pledge to turn over his salary to charity worthy causes is now going to become a periodic \"See what a cool guy I am for giving money to this particular cause?\" PR stunt -- in this case delivering a stunt check to the Secretary of the Interior\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11972,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/19\/poor_science.html","url_meta":{"origin":20610,"position":5},"title":"Poor science","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-07 9:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Whilst on the subject of pretty star pictures, the Bad Astronomy blog also notes a few gems from the omnibus spending bill Congress just passed. 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