SALON
Thursday, Feb 6, 2014 06:58 PM EST
Christie is just the latest politician to
call for "necessary" budget cuts before spending big on special
interests
David Sirota
“Cognitive
dissonance” is the clinical term used to describe stress that arises
from holding contradictory beliefs. In politics, this term is a
misnomer, because while many lawmakers, operatives and activists present
oxymoronic views, many of them don’t appear to feel any stress about
that. When it comes to budgetary matters, such a lack of remorse
translates into something even worse than cognitive dissonance —
something more akin to pathology. It is what I’ve previously called
Selective Deficit Disorder — and it was hard to miss in the last few
weeks.
In Washington, for instance, the disorder was on prominent
display in Congress’s new farm bill. Citing deficit concerns, House
Republicans crafted the bill to include an $8 billion cut to the federal
food stamp program. Yet, the same bill increased massive subsidies that
disproportionately benefit wealthy farmers and agribusinesses. In all,
the conservative American Enterprise Institute reports that under the
bill, annual subsidies could increase by up to $15 billion.
In
this textbook episode of Selective Deficit Disorder, deficits were cited
as a reason to slash a program that serves low-income Americans.
However, those same deficits were suddenly ignored when it came to
handing over billions to a corporate special interest.
In state
capitals, Selective Deficit Disorder is similarly distorting debates
over public workers’ pensions. As a new analysis from the taxpayer
watchdog group Good Jobs First documented this week, 10 states have
pleaded poverty to justify draconian cuts to retiree benefits. But, as
the report notes, in those same states “the total annual cost of
corporate subsidies, tax breaks and loopholes exceeds the total current
annual pension costs.” In other words, deficits are being used as a
rationale to eviscerate a program that benefits middle-class workers,
yet those deficits are somehow no barrier to subsidy programs that
primarily benefit the corporate class.
Even the sports world is
plagued by Selective Deficit Disorder. For proof of that, consider the
politics swirling around last week’s Super Bowl in the New York City
region.
There, New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo just put
forward an austerity budget that many school officials say will result
in big cuts to academic programs and teaching staff. This followed his
earlier insistence “that government must be more efficient and cut the
cost of the bureaucracy.” Yet, the same governor spent $5 million of
taxpayer resources on Super Bowl promotions and parties. That included a
taxpayer-financed party for more than 3,500 members of the media.
On
the other side of the Hudson River, the contrast was even more
pronounced. In the name of fiscal responsibility, Gov. Chris Christie,
R-N.J., has cut the pensions of New Jersey’s public employees and
reduced education funding. Yet, he had his state cough up almost $18
million to subsidize the big game. That was in addition to the $400
million the New York Times noted New Jersey taxpayers spent to improve
the Meadowlands. It was also on top of the special property tax breaks
New Jersey gave the NFL.
Once again, the politicians asked their
constituents to simultaneously believe there is no money to meet basic
needs, but there is plenty of money to subsidize corporate profits.
Though
these three examples of Selective Deficit Disorder differ from one
another, the common thread tying them together is cash. Indeed, in each
episode, deficits were cited as a reason to stiff a middle-class
constituency, but they were never mentioned when appeasing the demands
of a wealthy constituency.
That double standard reflects how
modern politics is not really a battle between Democrats and
Republicans. It is a battle between those with lots of money and those
with comparatively less. The persistence of Selective Deficit Disorder
proves that the former are winning.
David Sirota is a staff writer at PandoDaily and the
best-selling author of the books "Hostile Takeover," "The Uprising" and
"Back to Our Future." E-mail him at
ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at
www.davidsirota.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment