Cuts for thee, not me

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Heather Mac Donald

Is there any chance that Republicans will actually try to cooperate with the President in making the requisite hard budget cuts, or will they grandstand on his every proposal, along the previous lines of “he wants to kick Grandma off of Medicare” and “death panels”?   A southern senator just proclaimed on CSPAN that the NASA moon-walking program was absolutely essential to the nation’s well-being.

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6 Responses to Cuts for thee, not me

  1. Alice Finkel says:
    February 2, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    Is there any chance that the President will actually try to institute the requisite hard budget cuts that he grandstands on at every opportunity? Or is it likely that Mr. Obama’s “cuts” will be politically motivated and that he will more than make up for any cuts by budget increases elsewhere in politically convenient items?

  2. billcarson says:
    February 2, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    I’m doubtful, but there have been a few glimmers of hope… like last Friday’s get-together. Unfortunately on Sunday Boehner was spouting the usual talking points about Obama and spending. Well, Rep, Congress spends the money, not the president. Step up to the plate.

  3. Andrew Stuttaford says:
    February 2, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    Heather, I’m not sure how far down the road the GOP should–or can–go in “cooperating” with the President, and thus his agenda. The Republicans are, after all, in opposition and have different policiy priorities of their own. That said, do they need to do more to explain how they would tackle the deficit? Absolutely.

  4. Mike H says:
    February 3, 2010 at 11:23 am

    Obama’s budget increases NASA funding doesn’t it? So really it’s not a cut at all. Obama just cut a particular rocket program but increases funding for other NASA stuff. I don’t think a space rocket program is an essential item at the moment but the same applies to the NASA stuff that will see increased funding. It seems to me like Obama’s guys just cut a bunch of engineering jobs in favor of more research scientist jobs. Not entirely shocking from academe’s favorite President of all time ™.

    The only cuts that would actually make much of a difference are in entitlement programs and if one talks about spending cuts, not creating massive new spending via public healthcare would be a place to start. Obama’s sincerity rests on those items and well since he hasn’t moved on either front, we have to say that “spending freeze” or not, Obama doesn’t play a very convincing deficit hawk.

    What are the GOP to do really? Play along with Obama’s charade so moderates can pat each other on the back about everyone rallying behind the wise President?

  5. Dave says:
    February 3, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    Mike is correct– as long as NASA’s sticking around, debates about what it should be doing are relevant.

    Personally, if I’m going to suffer government pork, I’d rather get aerospace engineers and space scientists out of the deal than more imaginary “shovel ready” jobs and federal DMV clerks. At least NASA *does* something… what does the Department of Education do again?

  6. Mountain Dew says:
    February 8, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    Hey Ms. Macdonald, I heard you were featured in some Right Wing conspiracy theory docu by Breitbart at the latest Tea Party.

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