Bleeding Heart Hawk; To Protect Liberal Values, Cut Entitlements Now
WITH THE Senate scheduled to take up the budget this week, now is a good time for liberals to wake up to a truth they've been trying to avoid: Taking a lead role in the crucial budget wars is the only way for Democrats to protect the programs and achieve the broader economic goals they claim to revere.</br></br>The budget philosophy outlined by the Republicans in their first 100 days -- which cuts the safety net under the poor in order to fund tax breaks for the rich -- gives Democrats the perfect opening to offer up an alternative vision that could return them to a majority in the next election. Resorting to simple demagogy in response to the Republican plan will give conservatives precisely the excuse they need to drop the ax on poor people who don't vote for them anyway.</br></br>Take it from a bleeding-heart deficit hawk who left the Clinton administration in despair: The current budget outlook leaves liberals only two choices. They can pray that soaring entitlements, deficits and interest payments somehow won't affect this nation's future, and focus instead on funding other programs that appear to help people directly. Or they can recognize that the costs associated with the retirement of baby boomers combined with our low savings and investment rates mean that old liberal doctrines on entitlements and deficits must now be rethought to achieve lasting liberal goals.</br></br>The Clinton administration thus far can be considered a case study of the first option and why it can't work. Recall that the president came into office rightly pledging to reverse two deficits that threatened our economy: the budget deficit and the public investment deficit. The budget deficit hurts future living standards by soaking up half of our national savings -- that pool of capital comprised of what all of us save as individuals plus what businesses put aside as well.</br></br>When government runs deficits, it borrows from this savings pool to pay for current spending programs, everything from social security checks to FBI salaries. This reduces the savings otherwise available for business investment that's essential for raising our productivity and income. The public investment deficit, meanwhile, refers to the dwindling resources being devoted to what essentially are investments in our long-term future, such things as basic research, roads and bridges and improved education for disadvantaged kids.