Four spending/taxing proposals came before the House last week. The Ryan plan, the RSC (Republican Study Committee) plan, the Obama plan and the most colorfully named, People’s Budget presented by the CPC, the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Friday the Capitol saw a robust display of car chases, explosions and kung fu fighting that signified nearly nothing. Paul Ryan was the star of this show if you do not count the background figure of the President. Mr. Ryan exploded into his dreamy-eyed prominence with his budget plan which, as he loves to announce first off, ignores entitlements in large measure and in any case will not have any reduction of any sort on benefits for those 55 or over. It is refreshing if depressing that Ryan states right out the reason for the double-nickel. It is political. As the man says, and no one can deny, that demographic just won’t stand for any cuts and won’t sit still for them either. This truism, held by all sensible folks, explains the heat and passion demonstrated on the floor by Ryan and all the paunchy suits one would recognize as the Republican leadership during a twisted bit of stagecraft surrounding this weighty vote.

By whatever maneuvering the RSC budget was voted on just before the Ryan plan. The Republican Study Committee must have been studying something other than polls because their budget DOES take on entitlements like a roper takes on a calf. The RSC budget actually does something absolutely necessary if we are to land on our feet from our fiscal freefall rather than our teeth. That is, it raises the retirement age gradually starting right now AND it means tests the bennies, meaning the more you have in pocket the less you will get out each month from Social Security. Any serious examination of the numbers will tell you that even this is a bit too little and almost certainly too late but it would at least forestall a collapse of this program specifically and not incidentally, the dollar. In the conflict between what is necessary and what is politically palatable, our Mr Ryan comes down squarely for the latter. Yes, his is supposedly the brutal and parsimonious budget of an Ebenezer Scrooge with stomach cramps, still, it is far from the truly necessary actions. Again the problem is the perpetual assumption of ALL players that we are right around the corner from turning the corner on this recession. Ryan’s plan anticipates a rapid return to unemployment levels well under 4% and growth in the 8% range. Now, unlike some of his competitors he doesn’t quite rely on divine intervention. He seeks some growth stimulative tax reductions taking the current top 35% rate and chopping it down to 25%. He quiets the screams of vested tax-eaters by claiming he will make up the “lost” revenue by…. Hey! Closing tax loopholes and doing away with some deductions, an eternal favorite. But does anyone believe that there is a policy solution to inflation, unemployment and crushing national debt that can get passed the Democratic Senate and White House? Not likely.

So what was all the gnashing of teeth then, Friday last? First came the vote on the RSC budget. It turned out to have much stronger support than anyone anticipated. At first the Democrats, of course, were voting against it. But as the tallies came in and it looked like there might be a majority of Republicans voting for it the Dems began en masse to change their votes to “Present”. So they wouldn’t vote for it but they also did not want to vote against it. Why? The Hoyer insight was that this clear recitation of our current predicament and the mathematically required austerity was a poisonous cup for the Republicans. Sending it to the Senate would alter at least the media environment giving Hoyer and others many opportunities to holler “EXTREME!” and also “EXTREMISTS!” which we know they take as their manna and justly so. This attempt at bringing the strategies of Vulcan chess to the House was nearly successful. Only at the very last did the Reps manage to get a few of the leading faces in the TEA caucus to vote AGAINST the RSC budget which, as previously stated, is the only course offering even a chance at salvation. This one and only potential policy solution to inflation, unemployment and crushing debt could not get passed a Republican quorum. But two cheers for Steny Hoyer and his boldness. It is through such devices that the impossible becomes real. If the RSC budget had gone forward as the House budget yes it would have brought all the defamation Boehner and Company expect and sorely want to avoid, but at least there would have been a bit of candor in the mix. As it is the Ryan and Obama plans (the latter being little more than platitudes) snarl at each other over crumbs while the beast of government just grows larger and larger and hungrier and hungrier. But there is also a ripe opportunity for someone, unlike Boehner, who might relish a little payback; a bit of jiu jitsu… a chance to throw a pie for once, rather than absorbing them. There is a powerful improvised weapon at hand and it is The People’s Budget. Now we are talking brunch at the Coliseum. The RSC budget was used as a cudgel by the skillful Democrats, why is no one speaking seriously about the product of the Progressives? Probably because it is far from serious. The genius solution to entitlements, for example, is to wildly expand them while raising taxes on EVERYONE but doing so confiscatorily for those nasties earning $250k or more. Also they would finally strangle the hated Bush Tax Cuts which have now reclaimed their ancient name. Not just Oprah and Trump are on the hook, even payroll taxes are in for a stiff hoisting which will coincide murderously with the end of Obama’s famously magnanimous cut of 2% in these from last year. In short, the Keith Ellisons and Dennis Kucinichs propose their marxist fantasty of outlawing profit be made the law of the land. Now.

This is no minor element of the elected Democrats. Some eighty House Democrats belong to the CPC. they are passionate in their ideologies but while the TEA freshmen are derided as political savages even by their own leadership, no one in office or the media is inclined to tar the Democrats at large with the odious, failed philosophy that brings us The People’s Budget . Couldn’t Boehner or some half-back have found a way to help this little document achieve the fame it so much deserves? Slippery and devious alliances like this may be ugly (or hilarious) but they are soundly based in history; American and not. Hoyer’s gambit was an effort to expand an existing crack in the Republican edifice and then cleave off the general public from the Republicans with the terrifying facts of our long and unsure road back. There is little doubt that it would have initially succeeeded as there is no doubt it would ultimately fail since no amount of political brinksmanship can add a penny to either your revenues or the governments. Anyone claiming a “conservative” fiscal viewpoint should know this and have the courage of that conviction. If collectivism cannot win then it must lose, the faster and harder the better. Are the Rotary Club Machiavelis of the House Republicans uninspired to, as they say, play hardball? Or are they afraid? Either way, they had best get with the program. If they think Hoyer pulled a dirty trick and resent it, these are not the sort of people we need in the offices they occupy. They should admire his opportunistic ruthlessness and seek to emulate it. Shrewd, cunning and relentless… these are the adjectives that adhere to political leaders whose names survive from all times. Is there a single Republican in office or out that these describe?

Not a one.

At least, none whose name we have heard.

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