Paul Krugman would like to suggest a slogan for the Republicans' budget plan: "Eat the future." After all, their proposal is all about making cuts to "programs whose benefits aren’t immediate," he writes. The cold, hard truth (bolstered by a recent Pew survey) is that voters don't actually want to cut money from any of the programs they like—which is most of them. The best way for GOP lawmakers to get around this—and fulfill their budget-cutting pledges—is "by slashing future-oriented programs," writes Krugman in the New York Times.
This approach lets them "deliver the instant spending cuts Tea Partiers demand, without imposing too much immediate pain on voters." So Republicans are suggesting cuts on "future-oriented" family nutrition programs, nuclear nonproliferation work, and the IRS enforcement budget. Sure, it’ll lead to "a population damaged by childhood malnutrition, an increased chance of terrorist attacks" and "a revenue system undermined by widespread tax evasion" ... but, hey, "tomorrow is another day," right?
(More Paul Krugman stories.)
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