July 04, 2014 12:06 PM UTC

The faux-outrage of deficit reduction and spending.

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• by: Urban Snowshoer

Question: what does deficit reduction have in common with local control ( and free-markets to some degree)?

Answer: Most people only support it when it benefits them.

All too often deficit reduction is what the party out of power uses to attack the party in power, rather than to have a constructive dialog about balancing the budget: e.g. Democrats citing the deficit to oppose the Iraq War, Republicans citing the deficit to oppose the Affordable Care Act, etc.

When the Republicans are ready to accept the reality that defense spending needs to come down and more revenue needs to come in (along with entitlement reforms of course), I’ll take their calls to reduce the deficit and outrage of spending seriously. The same goes for the Democrats: you’re going to have swallow the bitter pill of entitlement reforms—reductions in defense spending and more revenue won’t balance the budget alone.

Both parties have a credibility problem on the deficit. Anyone expressing outrage over spending, who is unwilling or unable to come clean about what really needs to be done (i.e. reductions in both entitlement and defense spending, along with bringing in more revenue, is nothing more than a cheap hustler looking for a backdoor way to cut or eliminate programs they oppose, rather than having an honest conversation about balancing the budget.