I\u2019ve been skeptical of the Tea Partyers\u2019 commitment to entitlement reform and meaningful debt reduction.\u00a0 Sarah Palin, after all, pioneered death panel demagoguery in response to the mere possibility of rationalized Medicare spending.\u00a0 The notion that eliminating earmarks\u2014a Tea Party whipping boy–will have any effect on the budget deficit is fantastical, since earmarks constitute a mere $16 billion in federal spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So it will be revealing to see how Tea Party representatives react to the preliminary deficit reduction plan <\/a>from the presidential commission.\u00a0 It would be refreshing if, instead of exclusively blasting the proposal\u2019s relatively modest tax increases, such as raising the federal gas tax fifteen cents to pay for transportation projects (a legitimate user fee), they supported the proposal\u2019s more audacious cuts, such as reducing the mortgage deduction.\u00a0\u00a0 (The commission would eliminate the deduction only for mortgages over $500,000, alas.)\u00a0 The willingness to take on this middle class subsidy would be stronger proof of iconoclastic independence than pushing for repeal of 17th Amendment, a favorite piece of Tea Party arcana.\u00a0\u00a0 Both would be an uphill battle; I\u2019d rather see political capital expended on getting rid of a constitutionally-suspect government hand-out, especially given the contribution of the federal government\u2019s obsession with increasing home ownership to the 2008 fiscal crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are some other commission proposals that the Tea Partyers should meet and raise:<\/p>\n –$100 billion in defense spending cuts, including closing a third of overseas bases.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t heard many Tea Partyers opine on whether the Founders, notoriously skittish about foreign involvement, would have supported our Iraq and Afghanistan wars, or whether they would have embraced the idea that the U.S. military has the mandate and ability to introduce constitutionally-restrained democracy into alien cultures.\u00a0 I would love to hear a Tea Party sympathizer challenge the conservative received wisdom that we aren\u2019t spending enough on \u201chomeland security.\u201d\u00a0 Instead, many of the party\u2019s icons, such as Scott Brown and of course la Palin, parrot the neocon bromides about the looming threat from \u201cIslamofascism.\u201d\u00a0 A conservative contender for the U.S. Senate seat from New York claimed unimaginatively that the federal government was stiffing New York City in homeland security funds\u2014a standard chest-thumper of all New York politicians, Republican and Democrat alike.\u00a0 Why not call instead for eliminating the inefficiencies in the Department of Homeland Security and the redundancies among intelligence agencies and the Pentagon?\u00a0 Why not redirect the boondoggle of homeland security spending, with its gaggle of lobbyists and contractors, into domestic policing and prison maintenance?\u00a0 New York sends one thousand police officers on a cavalcade through the streets every day to show the terrorists who\u2019s in control.\u00a0 A city that can afford such a squandering of police resources can\u2019t be hurting that badly on anti-terror resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n –Eliminating the employer deduction for employee health insurance and capping non-economic damages in medical tort liability.\u00a0 Tea Partyers have decried the terrible inefficiencies of employer health insurance deduction and called for tort reform.\u00a0 They should reiterate their support now.\u00a0<\/p>\n –Simplifying the tax code; lowering the corporate income tax.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n –Raising the social security retirement age.\u00a0 The commission\u2019s proposal of raising it to 69 by 2075 has got to be a joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n Creating support for cuts is more important at this moment than fending off any tax increases.\u00a0 Republicans historically have been able to cut taxes, they have been far less successful in cutting spending.\u00a0 The Tea Party will justify its claims to significance if it can create the political will to reduce entitlements and to challenge Republican sacred cows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been skeptical of the Tea Partyers\u2019 commitment to entitlement reform and meaningful debt reduction.\u00a0 Sarah Palin, after all, pioneered death panel demagoguery in response to the mere possibility of rationalized Medicare spending.\u00a0 The notion that eliminating earmarks\u2014a Tea Party … Continue reading