As you probably know, Republicans are corrupting the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office by insisting it use “dynamic scoring”: pretending that tax cuts don’t increase the deficit, even though the clear evidence is that they do.
Today in his blog, Paul Krugman asks whether they will demand the same kind of scoring on other issues, for which there is plenty of evidence:
• Increasing Medicaid assistance for poor children turns them into healthier, more productive adults who pay more taxes.
• Slashing government spending in a recession increases unemployment and inflicts long-term damage on the economy’s potential.
Anybody think the Rethugs will demand "dynamic scoring" of these effects? Obviously not. Krugman’s point is that the Republicans aren’t just practicing voodoo economics, it’s selective voodoo, in which the fantasies that support their ideology are taken seriously, and the facts that undermine it are discounted.
I like to imagine what happens in Democratic strategy sessions. On an issue like this, I’ll bet they’re frustrated because they fully recognize the dishonesty and destructiveness of what the Republicans are doing, but they think the issue is too complicated and boring to present to the public.
Anybody remember the Presidential candidacy of Ross Perot? Yes, he was a nut, but IMO he did one thing right: he illustrated his talks with actual charts and graphs. The press rolled their eyes and mocked him for this—How absurdly nerdy! Doesn't he know it's all about the horse race?—but then somebody polled the issue and it turned out that voters liked the charts and graphs. And I’ve never understood why almost all politicians treat them as toxic (maybe it’s because when the camera is on the chart, it can’t be on them!)
In any case it seems like this would be a perfect opportunity for the Dems to make a case using actual data, illustrated with powerful graphics. What have they got to lose?