Linkmeister

Back to politics

The June issue of the New York Review of Books is out; it contains several thoughtful articles. The Neocons in Power by Elizabeth Drew is a fine narrative of US foreign policy from the start of the Bush Administration, and America Goes Backward by Stanley Hoffman is a recap of all the power the Administration has accrued to itself while curbing civil liberties, fighting questionable wars, and disassociating itself from the world community. I recommend both. In today's NYT, Krugman argues that current fiscal policy is pushing the country towards massive cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and that the Nyquists of the world like it that way.

Once the new round of cuts takes effect, federal taxes will be lower than their average during the Eisenhower administration. How, then, can the government pay for Medicare and Medicaid — which didn't exist in the 1950's — and Social Security, which will become far more expensive as the population ages?

[snip]

The answer is that it can't. The government can borrow to make up the difference as long as investors remain in denial, unable to believe that the world's only superpower is turning into a banana republic. But at some point bond markets will balk — they won't lend money to a government, even that of the United States, if that government's debt is growing faster than its revenues and there is no plausible story about how the budget will eventually come under control.

Is the average Republican voter (who may also benefit from those programs) really willing to cut off his/her own nose? Time will tell; one hopes enlightened self-interest will prevail over ideology.