Brace For Another Pounding From Pound-Foolish Policies
Ezra Klein makes some good points about Republicans and their penny-wise and pound-foolish budget-slashing:
There are three categories of spending in which cuts lead to more, rather than less, spending down the line, says Alice Rivlin, former director of both the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. Inspection, enforcement and maintenance. The GOP is trying to cut all three.
This is no surprise coming from Republicans who worship at the altar of Ronald Reagan. After all, back in 1989 the GAO had plenty to say about the damage done by Reagan’s short-sighted cutbacks:
Charles Bowsher, head of the General Accounting Office, told Congress yesterday that Reagan-era budget cuts created a climate of lax oversight and mismanagement. He said Reagan’s effort to save some money through budget cuts is likely to cost another $150 billion in the 1990s.
“We have been penny wise and really pound foolish,” Bowsher said.
That leads me to my latest limerick:
Brace For Another Pounding From Pound-Foolish Policies
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Preventative spending is wise —
Lessens risk that disasters arise —
Forestalls flooding and fraud,
Outbreaks, tragedy broad.
Cut such spending? Huge costs in disguise.
Tags: Alic Rivlin, Budget Cuts, Budget Limerick, CBO, Economy, Ezra Klein, Fiscal Crisis, OMB, Pound Foolish, Prevention Spending, Republicans Humor, Ronald Reagan
Anger!!! Now they want to cut tsunami early warning programs; what’s next, nuclear regulation??
No limerick, just pissed :)
Me too!
Make that a third. These maroons are taking us back to the dark ages and another civil war – they must think they can win this one. Maroons. Wish I could write a limerick. :)
It makes one wonder. Why do Republicans insist on cutting the fiscal nose to spite the face of America? Two conclusions, Republicans are either woefully misinformed and should therefore not be making national policy, or they know what they are doing and are thus evil, self-interested bastards who are in the pockets of special interests and only care about their own self-aggrandizement. Either way, we are screwed.
It would nice if they could actually provide some real statistics and actual facts showing exactly how cutting spending cost the government later. In reality, if you limit the federal government to just the 17 enumerated powers of Congress and put the power back to the states as directed in teh 10th amendment – there would be almost no costs to the federal government for anything. When you actually look at the enumerated powers – you can see that the Federal government has grossly overstepped their constitutional authority. Get rid of DOE, DOEducation, EPA, DHHS, Medicaid, SCHIP and let the states and the states’ citizens make the decisions for themselves what they want their state governments to provide services for. The federal government has no need to be involved in these issues since they are not constitutionally authorized to do so anyway.
I know in a previous life you were a practicing lawyer MK – so – I’m sure you have read the constitution yourself and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Both the General Welfare Clause and the Commerce Clause have been very loosely administered by early 20th century SCOTUS. Prior the progressive movement of that era – all prior SCOTUS interpreted those clauses very narrowly and actually referred to The Federalist Papers to understand the intent of the founders. The progressive courts overlooked the founders’ intent and grossly expanded the role of the Federal government. Now is the time to reign that in and save the country from the train wreck we’re headed to.
Just out of curiosity – in your own personal life – have you ever cut spending and tightened your belt only to later end up paying more somewhere else because you did cut your budget? Probably not. Same thing applies with the Federal budget. If you apply sound fiscal principals and do exactly what the private sector does – you save – not spend when you cut your budget and spending.
Tumblewords and KillingMother I agree with you completely.
TheBoBo, I can’t recall ever agreeing with you. :)