Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

Brad, he's apologized, somewhat.

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2004_06_27_dish_archive.html#108856151839569218

"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

It's called government. Sullivan should get off the testosterone and read a fucking book.

Sullivan can't decide between a periodic fealty to truth and a periodic fealty to right-wing blather, although periodic probably understates his attachment to rigth-wing blather....

Funny, Andrew thinks he knows better than I how to spend my money, in particular he thinks it is better spent paying people $10K per month to drive trucks in Iraq. Presumeably he knows this because he is a morally better person than I am.

Ogged is right about Sulli apologizing but read his apology for an odd view of how D.C. works. The Junior Senator from New York is able to cut agricultural subsidies and corporate tax loopholes that the White House and its allies in Congress are pushing to increase? Huh?

Lowell sux. Should've lived in Leverett.

Okay... this is a serious question... what, if any, influence do the Clintons have on the Democratic party? If you listen to the wingnuts, they're at a Dr. Evil control panel, pulling the strings of their robot duplicate Dems. Even if Hillary would like to be Prez, would/is anyone listening?

I will never understand why people read Andrew Sullivan.

But the real question here is why Hillary Clinton, who is supposed to be deft, would say something so cloddish. Is she trying out advocacy phrases on the hoof?

After all, if it's for the "common good," then something's being taken away, but something else is being given back. Why not just say "we have to start paying for our government's necessities--we can't keep borrowing the money, like losers!"

And after that: "But we only need to increase taxes on the wealthiest. Like my husband did. Then we'll see how things stand after the economic boom increases revenue!"

Re: "Lowell sux. Should've lived in Leverett."

Agreed...

I have the feeling with people like Sullivan that they strike these poses because they have identified a punditocracy niche that they can occupy. It is just a job for them. That is, there is no market for any more smart liberal commentators, but a ready one that panders to right-wing boneheads.

Another blanket attack on the "press corps". . (and this followed with a nasty attack on Nick Kristof and the "press corps"). In fact, Sullivan is a blogger just like yourself, who occasionally publishes opinion pieces like a thousand others who aren't really any part of the "press corps".

Like you, too, Sullivan spends a lot of effort attacking the "press corps" while distinguishing himself apart. His attacks are certainly hollow reflections of his excessive vanity.

So really, what's the point of going on indiscriminately about the "press corps"? With the left, the right, and the center all spending much effort attacking the media, it all smacks of simply old fashioned killing the messenger.

Paulo,

It is possible to do such a bad job of delivering messages that senders and recipients of messages are justified in their homocidal inclinations. "Don't kill the messenger" is good advice in those cases in which the message is valid, but unwelcome. When the message is invalid, it is worth killing a few of the messengers to prompt better performance among the rest. Can't we spare just a few to see if it helps?

Torville,

One of the most fustrating things about reading a piece about HRC and elections by people on the right is that a lot of them throw in the idea - even discuss it at great length - that she's hungry for power and will stop at nothing to get it. I mean, if she has an egg and cheese omlette for breakfast, certain people on the right would make this out to be another step to pander to certain groups. It's incredibly annoying and particularly mindless.

And I guess this a better time than I'll ever get, or so it would seem at the moment. Brad, Steven Antler of econopundit.com has posted your words on why HRC should never be allowed near the White House, now that there's word, albeit from Drudge, that she's a possibility for the vice presidency. Do you have anything to say about that, since you've worked in the Clinton White House? Now that she's been a decently successful senator, all things considered, have your opinions changed?

“bringing the government's resources back into balance with its expenditures"

Why does that necessarily mean an increase in resources rather than a decrease in expenditures?

HRC set herself up for Sullivan- type comments by using such provocative wording. Normally HRC is very careful and calculating about what she says, so I must assume her choice of words was deliberate. Was this just pep talk for SF liberals? One thing for sure, it will not hurt her much back in NYC, where they love that kind of talk.

A.Z., Perhaps if we dems used this "provocative", but clear, concise, and correct language more often, it would not be receive with such misplaced gratuitous opprobrium. That right wingnuts heap their disdain on such language is to be expected. That many in the center get uneasy over it is a tragedy.

Cordially yours,

bobbyp: It always refreshing when someone speaks in clear terms, but this is not an effective strategy in the winner-take-all form of politics we have in the US. Remember when Walter Mondale promised to raise taxes? Like HRC he was trying to be clear and “tell it like it is.” Moreover he was correct as taxes did go up in 1986. But he lost 49 states because when people heard that that didn’t say, “gee this guy is being straightforward.” No they said, “gee this guy isn’t going to even try to hold the line on taxes.” HRC fully understands this so I am puzzled as why she would use such provocative (outside of SF) language. What’s she up to?

(re: balancing the budget)
"Why does that necessarily mean an increase in resources rather than a decrease in expenditures?"

Posted by A. Zarkov

Let me guess - you're still under the impression that the GOP is *not* the party which makes drunken sailors look like models of probity?

"In this case, 'the common good' means 'bringing the government's resources back into balance with its expenditures'--"

Oh, but that can be done by reducing govt expenditure. Somehow I doubt that Hillary would favor that.

Name the exenditures, Patrick (Zarkov, too). Identify exactly which programs you would eliminate, and account them vs. the deficit we currently face.

We're at a $3,275B budget, with a $357B shortfall.

Take away every penny of the following, and you only make up $249B:

Gen'l Science, Space & Technology
Non-defense Energy
Natural Resources & the Environment
Ag.
Transpo.
Community Development
Education, Training, & Employment
Commerce Promotion

Most of the rest is effectively untouchable - military, SSA, etc. Of course there is $182B for Social Welfare, but I know you wouldn't want to cut hot lunches for poor children - would you?

Meanwhile, Bush's tax cuts alone make up $213B (this year - that starts to go up very quickly in upcoming years). In case you've forgotten, the nation was doing pretty well without those tax cuts; I wonder how well we'd do without a single one of those above programs?

[All numbers from budgetsim.org]

The only thing we really can’t cut is interest on the national debt unless the US wants to go into default on its bonds. Other countries and have done that and survived, but for the US it’s off the table. I’m not a budget expert, but why can’t we end farm subsidies for example? Do we really need advanced fighter aircraft? Why can’t we drastically reduce the size of the Department of Energy? Shrink it down to perform the functions of the old AEC. Do we really need to give SSI benefits to immigrants who have never paid into the system? Especially when their sponsors said they would not let their relatives become a public charge. Moreover the Federal Government owns a tremendous amount of physical assets like most of Nevada and Alaska. Why can’t it sell off land and materials to reduce the public debt? Is there some iron law that says the Feds must acquire more and more real estate?

Nevertheless your point is well taken. A reduction in expenditures would be difficult both economically and politically. But we need an honest debate on this. Which things do the people really want? I simply object to the automatic assumption we can’t even think about expenditure reduction.

I'm glad you've taken my point, A.Z., but I want to make clear: cutting some portion of many of the things I've listed is, in principle, on the table. But it was the current Republicans, for instance, who ended the decline in farm subsidies, and the Republicans who campaign that anyone who votes against any military system, ever, hates the troops. The only part of the budget Republicans don't hold sacred (either rhetorically or practically) is Social Welfare, but those programs benefit, literally, tens of millions of the poorest Americans - arguably not the most just target of belt-tightening.

I urge you to visit the budgetsim website - it's very interesting to see the actual numbers, relative to one another. Dept. of Energy, fr'instance, is $0.89B - a lot of money in real terms, of course, but a drop in the bucket of the deficit, and scarcely $3 per capita per annum. Zero out every program I listed above, and you'd still need a 20% cut at the Pentagon to get to even - I don't think there's that much waste and pork, unless you want to go isolationist.

This is hard stuff, and calling anyone who suggests eliminating worthless tax cuts a Marxist is NOT productive.

"Let me guess - you're still under the impression that the GOP is *not* the party which makes drunken sailors look like models of probity?"

The GOP spends money like drunken teenagers with their parents credit cards on spring break in Cancun. The Dems do the same at a faster pace.

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