federal spending cuts
My column from today's Roll Call explains why what Republicans are saying "The American People" want on the federal budget is almost completely the opposite of what actual research -- shows is really wanted.
Polls Undercut Budget Demagogues’ Message
By Stan Collender
Roll Call Contributing Writer
Since it was announced last October, the so-called austerity program launched in the U.K. has been repeatedly cited by Republicans as an example of what the United States could and should be doing. Spending cuts were the road to prosperity, they said, and all the U.S. had to do was emulate what the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government in the U.K. was doing.
That position took a drubbing today when GDP in the fourth quarter of 2010 in the UK was reported to have fallen by 0.5 percent. That immediately set off political and economic alarm bells in the U.K.
By now much virtual ink has been devoted to the “cuts” that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates proposes in the defense budget and defense programs. These have been treated as a clear statement of intention that DOD will contribute to the overall effort at restraining federal spending, the deficit, and the growing national debt.
In reality, the Gates strategy does not make any contribution to restraining federal spending or reducing the deficit. And in trying to avoid cutting his budget, he is putting the Pentagon behind the curve in the growing effort to discipline the federal budget and on a collision course with other parts of federal spending and revenues.
My column from yesterday's The Fiscal Times noted that state and local governments around the country, which because of balanced budget requirements and dramatically falling revenues are facing some very tough times, are being forced to make difficult decisions.
But this story in yesterday's The New York Times about Kansas City deciding to close half its public schools and reduce the payroll by around 20 percent makes the decisions by other states to close rest stops along some highways appear to be insignificant.
The Times' story indicates that the schools and school board in Kansas City have been in terrible shape for years and, therefore, that this decision was almost inevitable. Still, the precipitating event was was the projected $50 million deficit (out of a total budget of $300 million) in the midst of the economic downturn and the prospect that it wasn't going to get any better any time soon.
My column from yesterday's The Fiscal Times shows what's ahead when the spending reductions begin.
