When Republicans control the White House, they cut taxes on capital and watch indifferently as the deficit soars. When a Democrat is president, however, the GOP gets fiscal religion and insists the budget must be balanced. It is happening again. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
But even the deficit scold organizations concede that there is no realistic way to balance the budget in ten years. In the process of creating the now-mandated blueprint, the GOP House will have to propose huge cuts in defense, Social Security, and Medicare, because that’s where the money is. Cutting defense in these times looks like a huge risk; cutting Social Security and Medicare will disproportionately impact old white people who mostly vote Republican. The latter group has historically blown off claims from the Democrats that entitlements are at risk; it will be much harder to do that when the new blueprint is in place.
This is an enormous unforced error in the making. I doubt that any of the GOP presidential candidates, including Trump and DeSantis, will support it; after all, the electorate doesn’t really care about deficits. So what’s the point?
If it’s to get Democrats elected, I’m all for it.