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By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

The most important thing the President said about the Republican Budget in his big speech Tuesday was when he described just some of the damage it does, and said, “This is not an exaggeration. Check it out yourself.” Seriously, do that, and see if you can get your friends, relatives and especially your right-wing bother-in-law to do it, too. Seriously.

Republicans Counting On “Low-Information” Voters

The secret of the Republican technique is that they count on lots of people being tuned out, apathetic and largely uninformed. They put up a lot of misinformation and smoke and mirrors and diversion and distraction, often claiming that what they are doing is the opposite of what they are doing, to trick people into accepting what they are doing, or at least not getting involved and working to stop them. And then they go ahead with their hidden agenda, usually involving handing over tax cuts, public money or property, favors, contracts, deregulation, get-out-of-jail cards, etc., to the highest-bidding contributor, or the company/lobbyist/etc. promising the most lucrative “jobs” or “speaking fees” etc., after government service is completed…

Another technique is accusing the other side of doing what they themselves are doing, as “cover.” (It’s called inoculation.) They won the majority in the House by running ads telling seniors that Democrats had cut $500 billion from Medicare, and a majority of seniors voted Republican for the first time. It was enough to swing control of the House. Now in office they are not just cutting Medicare, they are privatizing Medicare, phasing it out for those now under 55.

(Update: See: Romney Accuses Obama Of Taking ‘A Series Of Steps That End Medicare As We Know It’)

They are using another inoculation tactic to mask what they are doing, confusing people by portraying Obama as extreme and divisive for saying the Republican budget is extreme. Really, if you try to explain to regular people what is in this Republican budget, they will think you are an insane extremist for saying such things! (See Who Is The Crazy Person In The Room?) (more…)

Barbara Doherty
AFL-CIO Now Blogger

Just over a year ago, the 2010 midterm elections saw Republicans seize control of both branches of the legislatures in 11 states. Then, while talking up the notion of job creation, they set about cutting their state and local public workforces with a ferocity unseen in decades. The most recent numbers, according to the Roosevelt Institute, are stark.

The 11 states are Alabama, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Together, they eliminated 87,900 state and local public jobs—more than 40 percent of the total cut.

All by itself, Texas—which already was GOP-dominated before 2010—cut 67,900 public-sector jobs, or 31.3 percent.

To put it in perspective, the 11 states have 23 percent of U.S. state and local employees. Texas has 8.5 percent. The job cuts were much higher than their share of the public workforce.

At the same time, many of these newly GOP-dominated states cut corporate taxes, or cut taxes on high-income earners, or—in the case of Wisconsin—both.

Starting with the overall economy, the casualty list resulting from all these cuts is huge. Economist Paul Krugman has estimated that if the government workforce had grown at a Reagan-era rate instead of decreasing rapidly, unemployment now would be closer to 7 percent instead of stagnating at 8.5 percent during recent months.

But women and people of color are hit especially hard by public-sector cuts. As we’ve reported before, public-sector jobs have made it possible for women and people of color to win the financial security that often eludes them in the private sector. (more…)

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

The new Republican budget (called the “Ryan Budget” by DC insiders) reflects current electoral reality: billionaires and corporations now finance candidates, and we get government of, by and for billionaires and corporations. The rest of us no longer matter, except as “the help” and, at least to the extent we haven’t been entirely fleeced, a flock to harvest. This budget starts with $10 trillion in tax cuts — mostly for the rich. After adding $10 trillion to the deficits Republicans then claim that severe cuts are necessary to “fight deficits.” Right. Details below.

Keep in mind where we are starting from: The way our economy and tax system is already structured, the top 1 percent received 93 percent of income gains from recovery. As Mitt Romney’s tax returns demonstrated, those at the very top — whose income comes as checks generated by the money they already have — already pay much lower tax rates than those of us who work for a living.

Shock Doctrine

“Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.” — Republican Majority Leader Tom Delay, 2003

After passing tax cut after tax cut, and military spending increase after military spending increase, and starting war after war, Republican borrowing has added up. So now Republicans terrify the public, telling them that budget deficits will lead to the destruction of the country — and soon. After a decade of screaming “9/11,” “9/11,” noun verb “9/11,” they now scream “deficit, deficit, deficit.” Then with the public suitably stirred up and terrified they offer “solutions” they say are necessary to cut the scary deficit (that they caused, for this purpose).

Behind a blizzard of fog and mirrors, the new Republican budget completes the ongoing shift of our government and our economy away from “we are in this together” democracy to a “you are on your own” system that is entirely for the benefit of a few at the top.

Cuts Taxes for the 1%

The smoke and mirrors: they claim this budget is necessary to reduce deficits, but it doesn’t even pretend to. Instead it starts by cutting taxes on the rich and their corporations by another $4.6 trillion while making permanent the Bush tax cuts, costing another $5.6 trillion. It gives a $187,000 tax cut to every millionaire!

Cuts Jobs

Ethan Pollack at the Economic Policy Institute describes how “Ryan’s budget cuts would cost jobs” — 4.1 million of them:

Paul Ryan’s latest budget doesn’t just fail to address job creation, it aggressively slows job growth. Against a current policy baseline, the budget cuts discretionary programs by about $120 billion over the next two years and mandatory programs by $284 billion, sucking demand out of the economy when it most needs it and leading to job loss. Using a standard macroeconomic model that is consistent with that used by private- and public-sector forecasters, the shock to aggregate demand from near-term spending cuts would result in roughly 1.3 million jobs lost in 2013 and 2.8 million jobs lost in 2014, or 4.1 million jobs through 2014. (more…)