Academic

PETER SUDERMAN: ?Sure, the big spenders running Congress and the White House have had a little too ?

By Glenn Reynolds

PETER SUDERMAN: “Sure, the big spenders running Congress and the White House have had a little too much fun with the national credit card. But is their opposition likely to be any more frugal? Occasional politically convenient bouts of deficit-intolerance aside, it?s increasingly tough to hold out much hope for the GOP on the deficit-reduction front. Not when the GOP?s top man in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, backs up fellow Republican Senator Jon Kyl in saying that tax cuts don?t reduce revenue and never need to be offset with spending cuts. And not when two other GOP Senators answer questions about how they?ll cut the deficit a lot like Lost?s producers answered questions about the four-toed statue and the smoke monster: We promise we have a plan?you?ll just have to trust us. . . . Gridlock may offer the best possible solution?the surpluses of the Clinton years came as Washington started arguing more and spending less?but if this sort of pandering and evasion is what the GOP has to offer, it?s probably worth asking: How long can you gripe about deficits without being willing to even talk about possible specific ways to reduce them? A number of Senate Republicans seem determined to help us find out.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on July 20, 2010 (boomark / email).