July 26, 2011 09:00 PM UTC

"Gimmick" For Me, Not For Thee!

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Reports Politico, poor Sen. Harry Reid just can’t get a break:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined fellow Republicans critical of Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to raise the debt ceiling, calling it “another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people.”

The Senate’s top Republican didn’t outline any specific objections to the plan, which calls for slashing $2.7 trillion over the next decade in exchange for raising the debt limit by a similar amount through the 2012 elections…

But Republicans in both chambers have blasted a major provision in the bill which counts a $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, something they dismiss as an accounting “gimmick” since those savings had already been expected.

Just one problem, reports ABC News:

[Democrats] cite the deficit reduction proposal being put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., as an example of the difficulties of dealing with the House GOP. Reid’s plan uses what Republicans call “gimmicks” to arrive at more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction — such as counting the drawdowns of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as savings.

But the House GOP budget put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan R-Wisc., did the same thing, Democrats say… [Pols emphasis]

Say what? That couldn’t be right, could it, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities?

$1.3 trillion in “savings” from the official CBO baseline…comes merely from the fact that the Ryan plan reflects the costs of current policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Pols emphasis] The CBO baseline contains a large anomaly related to the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Following the rules governing budget baselines, CBO’s baseline mechanically assumes that current levels of U.S. operations – and costs – in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue forever rather than phasing down in accordance with current policy…

So if a Republican proposes something, it’s great, but when a Democrat proposes the same thing…it’s a “gimmick.” If that’s not something that will bury the needle on the hypocrisy meter of most Americans, no matter how slickly Paul Ryan tries to explain it away now that it’s inconvenient…well, it’s about as plainly hypocritical as it gets. After weeks of debt-ceiling “crisis” this is just another sideshow, but it sure doesn’t help Republicans in the court of public opinion.

The real problem with Reid’s plan for the GOP, of course, is that it appears to avoid any sweeping cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid–Reid has deftly attempted to take the principal objections of both sides off the table here. Regardless of the damage those cuts could do to Republicans in the long run, they are just as politically desperate for a short-term victory on entitlement spending as Obama is to prevent major cuts without a “grand bargain” and offsetting new revenues. If Republicans win cuts to entitlement programs without revenue increases to lessen the blow, they win in the short term either by showing resolve, profiting from the harm such an outcome would exact on Obama’s standing with his base, or both.

But it’s an increasingly dangerous game. Democrats can complain that their leaders are giving too much ground, to Republicans who have no intention of negotiating in good faith–but Republicans are just about out of space to keep moving the proverbial goalposts.