Cognitive dissonance over the debt

James Fallows, writing for The Atlantic, takes a look at chart created by the New York Times. The chart shows the amount of debt created by new policies under Bush and Obama and itemized the different pieces of legislation that make up that debt. I’m not repeating the chart because it would come out tiny on my blog. Better to be able to read what it says.

Some things of note:

The chart shows policy choices, not spending due to external forces, such as a drop in tax revenue in a recession and the accompanying rise in unemployment benefit payments.

The cost of policies that originated with Bush: $5.07 trillion. Under Obama: $1.44 trillion. This is Bush's debt the GOP is refusing to pay for. Put it another way the GOP is promoting cognitive dissonance by ranting about the debt but refusing to touch the Bush tax cuts, the biggest component of that debt.

A second chart from three months ago projects out to 2019 the deficit created by Bush tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Great Recession. Those three items alone make up the $1.2 trillion deficit projected for 2019.

Joshua Green, also writing in The Atlantic, discusses the huge capacity the Dems have for caving under GOP demands. And when the GOP senses a cave they up their demands.

This brings me to an idea I'm fairly sure I read somewhere few weeks ago, but couldn't find when I got down to writing about it. That means I don't have a link and might be perpetuating a rumor.

I've written before that the GOP has been bought by and is dancing to the tune of the Koch brothers and similar corporate executives. They are the ones who are pushing zero taxes for the wealthy, the dismantling of the EPA, and the effective gutting of the middle class. What that missing (or phantom) posting said was that the Koch brothers have also making strong purchases of Democrat support. Dems are supposed to be representing the poor and middle class and usually make a big show of that support. So they can't be blatant about support of rich people's goals to make the middle class poor. But they can serve the rich by being bumbling wimps when they support the poor. Whether or not Dems are in the pockets of the Koch brothers, they are very effective at being bumbling wimps. Money from the Koch brothers could explain why.