Probably the most telling part of the debate was when everybody onstage was asked if they would accept a deficit reduction package of 91% spending cuts and 9% taxes. They all said no, every single one of them. For all presidential candidates in the Republican party, any tax increases are off the table. Think about that for a moment. This is a minority view in the U.S. by a big margin. According to Nate Silver, this is even to the right of the average Republican voter. At least when it comes to budget politics, the spectrum of the beliefs of the Republicans presidential candidates runs from far right to far right.

Notice what else Nate Silver’s analysis says: that average Democrats support a mix of both spending cuts and tax increases, with more cuts than taxes. This is consistent with what Democrats have proposed both at the state level and nationally. No Democrat has proposed a budget anywhere close to 91% tax increases and 9% cuts, let alone stated that a budget with any cuts whatsoever would be off the table. Nevertheless, the Republican presidential candidates are showing how far out of the mainstream they are, and how unwilling they are to compromise on anything.

The budget reality is this: Baby Boomers are retiring, and for some crazy reason they expect to get the Social Security and Medicare benefits they have been promised. Paying for this is going to require tax increases, along with spending cuts elsewhere. There is no getting around this fact. One party’s leading candidates want to wish it away. How seriously can you take these people?

• Current Mood: Friday
• Currently Listening To: "all in the name of grace", Eddy Burke
• Just Watched: Kramer vs. Kramer

But even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then, and the gem to be taken from this column is this: “They celebrate capitalism, which is a means, and are inarticulate about the good life, which is the end. They take things like tax cuts, which are tactics that are good in some circumstances, and elevate them to holy principle, to be pursued in all circumstances.”

I think that just about hits the nail on the head, and it’s something that I always mull over when it comes to the big policy debates of the day, like the budget. I’m baffled as to how many conservatives out there believe that the free market system is so inviolate that it must be implemented always and in all circumstances. Some advocate this with such fervor that it makes me wonder if life is some giant, super-secret video game, where points are tallied as to how vehemently one advocated for capitalism during one’s life. What else could explain the fact that some people refuse to see the very real flaws that exist in the system?

I don’t think it’s terribly irrational to believe, as I do, that while the free market system works best for a very wide variety of circumstances, that sometimes its flaws do outweigh its benefits. Especially in cases where the means of the free market does get in the way of the end of improving everybody’s lives. I’m not an economics textbook, so I’m not going to get into the cases where that is true, but those cases do exist. For people to not even admit that it is possible for the free market system to work poorly shows a lack of seriousness when it comes to major policy arguments.

The same goes for the absolute love of tax cuts that some people have. There are certainly times to cut taxes, and there are times to raise taxes; however, it is not right to do either 100% of the time. One would think this would be self-evident, but alas it is not. The same lack of seriousness applies here: when you take a big option off of the table 100% of the time, how earnest are you about finding a compromise?

There’s a lot in that column that is knee-jerk and ignorable. However, the light it shines on the tendency for a large swath of the Republican party, especially its leadership, to insist on a narrow subset of “solutions” with little regard to consequence is worth thinking about.

With the national Republican party in complete disarray these days, they would be well-advised to take a look at people like Jack Kemp.

Edit: I just found (via Balloon Juice) this letter from Jack Kemp to his grandchildren after the election of Barack Obama. Can you imagine any other Republican in power writing this kind of letter?