It isn't just Pete Peterson, folks

It isn't just Pete Peterson, folks

by digby

Richard Eskow has a big piece at CAF today about the continuing assault on our intelligence by the "No Labels" crew of wealthy centrists. It's worth reading in its entirety because we're going to be confronted with the "sacrifice" (for average citizens) agenda again even before the election. (This is giving John Boehner heartburn apparently because he's not sure he will be able to keep his crazies in line enough even to get a temporary extension.)

I'm just going to talk about this one little piece of the program:

There's also Presidential "fast-track" authority, which the New York Times describes as "a proposal to allow the president to send legislation to Congress twice a year that could not be amended but only approved or rejected. .. By preventing lawmakers from changing such legislation, a president could get yes-or-no answers on his top priorities."

How would this work? The Times interviewed former Clinton aide William Galson, who "suggested that one possible subject of fast-track authority could be the ... the Simpson-Bowles plan (which) included a cornucopia of unpopular tax increases and spending cuts." Adds the Times: "(U)nder this proposal Congress would have to accept or reject the whole plan."

See what they did right there?

In fact, supporters of this ill-advised and unpopular austerity measure have already tried to "fast-track" it several times. Had the failed Simpson/Bowles Deficit Commission come up with a proposal, Congress had agreed to subject it to just such an up-or-down vote.

Simpson Bowles isn't a single policy prescription. It's a smorgasbord of radical ideas which include the aforementioned benefit cuts; lowering the top tax rate for America's millionaires and billionaires; deep cuts to other government programs; and the elimination of unnamed tax deductions that could slash employer health plans while raising the costs of paying a mortgage and raising children. And yet Congress and the President wanted to see it submitted for a single up-or-down vote, with no opportunity for amendments or changes.

A "fast track" vote creates enormous pressure on lawmakers to fall in line and denies the public the opportunity to hear an open debate about each provision of a bill. In other words, it's ideal for unjust, impractical, and unpopular 1% proposals like Simpson Bowles.

An up or down vote on such a broad range of right-wing austerity ideas would make a travesty of the (small-"d") democratic process. In fact, I'll support any politician who signs a pledge against it.
Neat trick and one that I hadn't realized was being pushed hard by the deficit fetishists. It makes sense.

In researching the Simpson-Bowles fast track solution and came upon a group called the Moment of Truth project: the era of deficit denial is over. It turns out that this is Simpson and Bowles own group, which is out there preaching the gospel. That's to be expected. I suppose it's also to be expected that this is also a project of the New America Foundation, one of our most revered establishment think tanks.

This is the heart of the Village, the studious centrism that also erroneously defines the leftward end of political power in our country. Certainly many people who are associated with the liberal side of the dial are involved, although it's almost impossible to find any liberal policies among the group's recommendations.

And they are deadly serious about slashing "entitlements."
Key Principles

Embodies the Fiscal Commission approach

Shared sacrifice: Everything is on the table

Big enough to matter: Cuts the deficit by over $4 trillion over the next 10 years, sufficient to stabilize the debt by 2015 and reduce debt as a percentage of GDP below 70% by 2020

Balanced approach: Achieves deficit reduction with 2/3 spending cuts, 1/3 tax reform
Smart savings instead of dumb cuts Permanently repeals the sequester required by the Budget Control Act and replaces across-the board cuts with a balanced, comprehensive fiscal plan to reduce the deficit and stabilize the debt

Main Elements
Tax reform:
Comprehensive tax reform to promote growth, simplify the tax code, reduce marginal tax rates across the board and reduce the deficit by $1 trillion through 2021

Reduces the $1.1 trillion in annual tax expenditures and tax breaks

Reduce tax rates for individuals, small businesses, and corporations

Health care:
Immediate reforms achieving savings of $485 through 2021 based on principles and framework in Simpson-Bowles report to pay for permanent SGR fix and reduce costs over the next decade

Sets a limit on long-term growth for federal health care spending of GDP+1 requiring additional reforms if the policies in this resolution and other reforms fail to keep spending below targets

Discretionary spending:
Total discretionary spending for fy13 of $1.043 trillion and growth limited to 1% below inflation after 2013 for total savings of $625 billion beyond caps set in Budget Control Act

Additional savings divided proportionally between domestic and defense spending
Other provisions

Instructions for committees to find approximately $300 billion in savings from other mandatory programs such as agriculture and federal retirement

Shifts to a more accurate measure of inflation for all provisions in the budget indexed to inflation

Bipartisan cooperation to enact plan to strengthen Social Security and put it on a fiscally sustainable path based on the principles and framework outlined in Simpson-Bowles report

Fully repeals sequester and replaces with comprehensive fiscal plan

Strong enforcement mechanisms to enforce spending cuts and ensure budget remains on a path to stabilize and reduce debt as a percentage of GDP.

The key thing there is the fact that they are slashing across the board (except for defense, of course.) And then there's the revenue portion of our program, which should be lots of fun to watch since it's composed of magical thinking:
Comprehensive tax reform to promote growth, simplify the tax code, reduce marginal tax rates across the board and reduce the deficit by $1 trillion through 2021
One would think that a debt crisis wouldn't be the perfect moment to lower tax rates, but that's what they're proposing.

This is how they propose to fix the deficit. Slash spending and lower taxes. I don't know how they are getting away with this sophistry, but they are. They feel this is their best opportunity to force the rubes to give up whatever small piece of financial security they have and they have no intention of stopping until they achieve this goal.

And as long as they adhere to the idea that low taxes equal more growth,which they explictly state above, they will always have the excuse they need to dispense favors to the "job creators." In other words, for every loophole they close, two will be opened. If you doubt it, read about the machinations behind the scenes of the Dodd-Frank implementation. This is the full employment act for lobbyists and tax attorneys.

And keep in mind that this isn't Pete Peterson, folks (although he is a major contributor.) This is one of the most staid, non-partisan DC institutions doing this. And they are rolling out new projects every few months with the same agenda. (Here's the latest, announced by Simpson and Bowles just last week on CNBC --- with Warren Buffet sitting by their side.)

I hope nobody is under the illusion that this fight is over. I'm not sure it ever will be. When the budget was balanced in the 90s (without radical slashing of "entitlements" much to the dismay of those who want to do it) these folks just laid low and let the government spend all the money in tax cuts and wars. They could have fought it, insisted that the surplus be spent to shore up social security and Medicare but they didn't utter a peep. Then once the deficit returned, they cranked up the old "sacrifice" machine once more.

Thus they have proven over and over again that their real agenda is to degrade our already pitiful welfare state. Their "solutions" prove this --- lower spending, lower taxes ---which leads inexorably to drowning the poor safety net in the bathtub. They don't say this. They say they just need to hold the baby's head under the water a little bit and the baby won't even mind it. (And anyway, it's more important to keep the bathtub clean so they'll be able to "bathe" even more babies.) But no matter how they dress it up as a debt problem, it's austerity lite- soft Randism.

And sadly, it isn't just Pete Peterson and his billion dollar foundation doing this. It's virtually the entire political establishment.

.