Independence on the Cheap

E.J. Dionne today takes up some of the issues that I've been writing about here, particularly the Republican effort to completely divorce tax cuts from their consequences in deficits, spending cuts, and future tax increases. He adds some information I wasn't aware of, about the different dates when the budget resolution calls for the tax cuts and spending cuts to come forward, so that by the time the spending cuts are considered in the House, the tax cuts will be a done deal. It's a typically great column, but I have one small quibble:

Dionne writes,

Quietly, sober Republicans are challenging these budgets in bits and pieces. Smith's Medicaid proposal is one sign. Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota has taken on the president's cuts in the Community Development Block Grant program. Five brave Senate Republicans -- George Voinovich, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Lincoln Chafee -- bucked their party on Wednesday to vote for budget rules that would have required any new tax cuts to be paid for with savings elsewhere in the budget. The measure fell just one vote short.

I think he's giving Coleman and Smith credit they absolutely don't deserve here. Yes, they voted against Medicaid cuts, but they also -- along with Specter and DeWine -- voted to continue the practice of passing tax cuts without offsetting spending cuts. These tax cuts will result in spending cuts some day, and the cuts will be massive. A vote for tax cuts is a vote for Medicaid cuts, and Medicare cuts, and education cuts, and environment cuts. No politician should be allowed to pretend otherwise.

You can't give credit for "sobriety" in "bits and pieces." Here are the four combination of votes that were possible on the two amendments, Feingold-Chafee on PAYGO and Smith's to reverse the Medicaid cuts:

1. For PAYGO, and against Medicaid cuts. The position of all the Democrats, as well as the three New England Republicans. (Snowe, Collins, Chafee.) That's a vote in favor of no more tax cuts, and for a government that continues to provide a basic safety net. It's obviously not a rollback of past cuts, but it's something.

2. For PAYGO, and for Medicaid cuts. An honest smaller-government conservative position. A Senator who casts this pair of votes may be for tax cuts or not, but at least acknowledges that tax cuts require spending cuts. Number of "honest smaller-government conservatives": Two. McCain and Voinovich.

3. Against PAYGO, and for Medicaid cuts. The position of most Republicans. Sort of half-dishonest; a vote for future tax cuts divorced from their consequences, but at least an acknowledgement that the current path is unsustainable without spending cuts. (Or tax increases. Or both.)

4. Against PAYGO, and against Medicaid cuts. A cheap, untenable, dishonest and disgraceful position. It's a position in favor of further tax cuts divorced from their consequences, and a pretense that one can continue to cut taxes and still get credit for being against Medicaid cuts or CDBG cuts. This is the position of Coleman, Smith, Specter, and DeWine. It's the very opposite of "sober."

I heard Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute a few months ago describe the Republican policy of tax cuts without immediate spending cuts, and in some cases increases, as "double Santa Claus." The position of Coleman, Smith, Specter and DeWine could be described as "triple Santa Claus." Once again, Senators: Tax Cuts are Medicaid cuts. There's no way around that.

As the Bush-DeLay scam begins to break down, there will be a lot of Republicans from blue or purple states like these four who will be looking to get credit for "independence." It is very important that they not get that credit as cheaply as these four.