Reply #11: It Is Not Nonsense When The Ryan Plan Passes The House and Is Supported...

[TomCADem]

...by a majority of Republicans in the Senate. It is not nonsense when a Republicans, including the current crop of GOP candidates supports that Cut, Balance crap along with a constitutional amendment that would lock in tax cuts.

As Democrats, we cannot be afraid to discuss the cost of these programs, and SHOULD, to explain that tax cuts are not without a cost. Look at the polls. For a while, a majority of folks were against tax increases, and now we are getting some movement, because people see the connection between declining tax revenues and benefits. Instead, under Bush, Republicans were happy to get their tax cuts, and Democrats did not push too hard so long as they got their benefits.

It was a Faustian bargain. A deal with the devil. We cannot shy away from discussing costs, because it is only by connecting the impact of tax cuts to these programs that people will support tax cuts. Otherwise, you get Republicans selling tax cuts as being cost free when this is a lie.

I personally think that we need more taxes in any long term debt plan, and that cuts should be spread out over the future. But, we need to start discussing the real, human costs of tax cuts on education, Medicare and Social Security, which means being prepared to discuss how much these programs cost, and how we can make them solvent over the long term.

Otherwise, the American people will be susceptible to the get rich quick schemes of the Republicans where they sell privitization as a cure all. They want these programs to bleed red ink, so they can kill them. They tried in the not too distant fast. They will try in the not too distant future unless we demonstrate that we can fix these programs on our terms.