CNN - Jared Bernstein - "'Balanced budget' act a wolf in sheep's clothing"

[TomCADem]

Here is an excellent pience by Jared Bernstein illustrating the extreme nature of the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which just passed the House of Representatives. If the corporate media honestly covered the Act, its passage would insure a Democratic victory in 2012. But, instead, the media calls it a promotion of a Balanced Budget Amendment, which sounds nice, but it has little to do with balancing the budget, and more to do with permanently protecting the rich from any taxes. Indeed, it would Federalize California's 2/3 approval requirement on taxes, which has created severe dysfunction in California's finances.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/20/bernstein.budget.amendment/

But it also represents something else that is perhaps even more troubling. It is yet another example of a policy by which legislators abrogate their responsibility to legislate. Absent the courage of their convictions, it's another backdoor way, like the Grover Norquist pledge or the Mitch McConnell debt ceiling scheme, to accomplish their goals without constituents knowing what they're up to.

* * *
Ultimately, this act would enforce deep cuts that would undermine the ability of the federal government to play the role we need it to in coming years. The only budget we've seen that would meet the required caps, one crafted by the Republican Study Committee, would eliminate 70% of nondefense discretionary spending, a category that funds education, transportation, medical research, housing, child care, worker training and more.

It would cut Medicare deeper than Rep. Paul Ryan's budget, and cut Medicaid, nutritional assistance and income support for the elderly and disabled by more than half by the end of the decade.

Congress would be required to cut spending to stay under the caps, and it would be able to do so with simple majorities. But if members wanted to raise revenues through the tax code to take some of the pressure off those spending cuts, they would need two-thirds majorities in both chambers, an insurmountable burden.