Moral Deficit Crusade

Brooks is somewhat palatable today as he speaks out against the budget-run-amok of the right. I really don't know who the crusader is going to be... he/she doesn't necessarily need to be some random megalomanical billionaire; in fact, I think it is a role some upstart Dem could easily assume and could finally lead to a flip of the label we have so unfairly bourne that we are poor in fiscal matters.

However, Brooks couldn't resist a few dips into the pool of hackery. The first was this:

"...offended by the horrendous burden seniors are placing on the young..."

This changes the framing of this conversation from the rich vs. the poor to the young vs. the elderly, but the former has much more basis in reality. Sure, social security is for seniors, but if you support privatization then you are really hitting up the young to pay the bill. Yeah, the prescription drug bill is out of hand, but that is a package that was written for PhRMA, not for the seniors who need the help. Yes, the AARP endorsed it, but that also led to a huge backlash from their members. And I wonder what the AARP would say about it now with the increasing costs and drug card fiascos.

Brooks also backs up his framing with some (unreferenced) numbers, but the percentage spending towards seniors wouldn't be so high if the bill wasn't such a corporate pay-out... remember, they won't even let Medicare negotiate for bulk prices on drugs! Also, Brooks doesn't show what the spending looks like farther down the road... yeah, spending will increase, but a lot of that is due to the Baby Boomers retiring, and not necessarily new programs.

The final, and worst, insult is here:

He's going to slam Democrats who loudly jeer at Republican deficits but whose own entitlement proposals would make the situation twice as bad.

Dude, pass the crack pipe. When was the last time the Dems were in charge of the House? 1994. Who has been making all the huge spending decisions over the past four years? The Republicans. When was the budget last balanced? Under Clinton. Who worked bipartisanly to reform welfare? Clinton. Who is asking for more huge loans to finance a privatization package that does nothing to help the finances of a program? Bush. He didn't even make any mention of the huge tax cuts that Bush has pushed every single year in office (that would have upset his whole young/old paradigm).

So Davy: please STFU already.