Tax-cutting big spenders

TAX-CUTTING BIG SPENDERS: Jonathan Chait opines: "The anti-tax movement has held absolute sway within the GOP for two decades. But it's worth noting that the GOP has never had to choose among its constituencies in a zero-sum fiscal environment before. The policy of huge tax cuts and big defense spending hikes could coexist as long as Republicans could just run up the budget deficit. The party refused to reconcile its contradictions by refusing to acknowledge fiscal reality. Higher revenue to pay for the wars? Reagan proved deficits don't matter. It's easy to hold all your factions together when you refusing to acknowledge basic accounting properties (deficits equal expenditures minus revenue, not just "too much" expenditures by definition.) George W. Bush made the defense hawks happy, made the medical industry happy with a prescription drug bill designed to maximize their profits, and made rich people in general happy with a series of regressive tax cuts."

TEA PARTY, WINNER? The Independent writes that the Tea Party ends up as the ultimate winner of the whole debt crisis. "The upstarts of the American political scene have had a central role in the saga. Their refusal to accept tax rises and their clarion calls for cuts have led the agenda. The Republican grouping – with Michele Bachmann as its figurehead – may still yet demand more before a deal can be finalised. A weary public could blame it for extending the crisis. But its leading figures appear to revel in the spotlight."