The Democrat wish list

David Hirsanyi:

Our government has the time to worry about school lunch menus in Boise, Idaho, but the Senate hasn't found the time to pass a budget in Washington, D.C., in nearly three years. H.L. Mencken famously wrote that every decent man is ashamed of his government. This one gives you little choice. 

Gridlock is ordinarily the most constructive and moral form of government, but with entitlement programs on autopilot self-destruct, we're in trouble. So Americans turned their weary eyes toward a dream team, a supercommittee, a 12-member panel of our brightest lights, charged with identifying a measly $1.2 trillion in deficit savings over 10 years. Save us. 

Alas, for Democrats, it boiled down to the most important issue facing the nation -- maybe ever: "revenue enhancement." 

Politico reported that during the supercommittee hearing, both sides agreed to produce "wish lists" to offer some notion of where negotiations might go. Republicans -- believe them or not -- claimed to want to save $700 billion by block granting Medicaid, another $400 billion in spending cuts, $1.4 trillion in cuts to some mandatory health care programs, and about $150 billion in cuts to the federal workforce. 

Democrats, on the other hand, reportedly wanted to pass a new $447 billion spending bill (perhaps forgetting that this was a wish list for a deficit reduction committee) and $1 trillion in tax hikes on those 1-percenters. Since Washington spent $1 trillion more than it took in just last year, this would provide nearly no purpose over 10 years -- well, other than a political one. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- taking a break from fending off fictional goblins, Kochs and Norquists -- laid out his position, explaining that Republicans had undermined the entire process by insisting "on expanding President Bush's tax giveaways to millionaires." The good Lord, you see, created every dollar for the U.S. Treasury to spend wisely; what you keep is a gift -- a giveaway. Every tax cut is temporary, and every tax increase is a new base line. That's just how it works. 

And the good senator from Nevada must be making a compelling case. A new poll by Quinnipiac University claims that 44 percent of Americans blame Republicans for the supercommittee's failure, whereas 38 percent blame Democrats. This, notwithstanding the fact that the same poll shows, by a 49-39 percent margin, Americans prefer closing the deficit with spending cuts only. (That is what democracy looks like.)

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Republicans need to publicize the Democrat wish list.  It is proof that they are not serious about reducing the deficit and it is further proof that the taxes they want to raise are to be used for increased spending and not deficit reduction.  They need to get off the defensive and aggressively attack the Democrats tax and spend plans for the budget.  It is those plans they are trying to hide by not actually passing a budget.