The latest by John Boehner finally pushed me over the edge. Related to the debt ceililng increase, he said:
“We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions,” he will say. “They should be actual cuts and program reforms, not broad deficit or debt targets that punt the tough questions to the future. And with the exception of tax hikes -- which will destroy jobs -- everything is on the table.”http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/...
My question is: What does he think the spending cuts will do? What does he think "spending" is--building big piles of dollars and setting them on fire? It's actually paying the salaries of hundreds of thousands of public servants (teachers, cops, firefighters, astronauts, soldiers) and federal contractors (road crews rebuilding our decaying infrastructure), and through programs like Medicare and Medicaid the salaries of hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel. Mr. Boehner, what do you think will happen to those jobs if we cut spending? Will the private sector, flush from having avoided a tax increase, swoop in and replace the government money that's been cut? Or will all of those people end up out of work?
We need to reframe the debate, and make it clear that "spending cuts" destroy even more jobs in America than tax hikes, because the government doesn't put any of its spending money into its bank account or the stock and bond markets to earn interest. We need to move this Overton Window by pointing out the obvious point (over and over again) that "government spending" goes to pay people to do work, and cutting spending cuts those jobs much more directly and completely than tax hikes for the richest in America would.