Thanks, Professor, for the great explanation of why the Republicans' attack on the budget deficit reducing value of health care reform is so illogical. Their actions make more sense, however, when you keep in mind that the entire goal of today's Republican Party is not to reduce the deficit, but rather is to increase it in order to politically strengthen the argument in favor of eliminating government programs that benefit the middle class, working class, and poor in America.
When Republicans attain power, they do two things. They cut taxes for the rich and for large corporations. And they increase spending on the military and programs that benefit large corporations (such as the subsidies to private insurance companies under Medicare Advantage or that used to be made to banks as part of the student loan program or enormous subsidies to agribusiness giants such as ADM). They do this in primarily because it benefits their political benefactors. But they also do it because their ultimate goal of dismantling Social Security, Medicare, and the social safety net --thus freeing up ever more funds for the ruling class-- is politically unpopular, and the Republicans have figured out that the way to make it politically more palatable is to drive the deficits up so people will feel that we have to cut spending.
So, the Republicans' cooking of the books about the budgetary impacts of health care reform is based not simply on an attack on logic. It is also based on the fact that they are lying to us when they claim they care about the deficit.
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