Everyone knows that deficit-hawk fever died on Jan. 20, 2017, the date of Donald Trump’s inauguration. All of a sudden, no one cared how much was spent on that year’s tax-giveaway to billionaires and multinational corporations. No one cared how how much defective equipment was bought that the military didn’t even want. (Believe it or not, the decapitating F-35 that can’t fly in the rain is still in the budget, a billion bucks a plane!) No one cared that we were reimbursing reckless companies that had bought back stock to the point that they would go bankrupt if anything went wrong.
But now, all of a sudden, the deficit hawks have re-emerged, with Senator Mitch McConnell as their spokesman.
Why is that?
McConnell has always been an expert at political calculus. Here’s what he might be considering:
- Increasing spending in states and hospitals would stave off the upcoming Greater Depression and increase Trump’s chances of pulling off that miracle he was talking about and, thereby, help him get re-elected. So it would help Trump’s chances.
- Cutting spending and causing state bankruptcy would fulfill the Republican wet dream of killing public pensions so that Wall Street can get its slice — as big a slice as possible.
- But, cutting spending would also remind erstwhile reliable Republican voters that it’s Democrats that make sure they have health care — because there’s no bigger way to remind people of the importance of having health care than getting a letter cutting them off in the middle of a pandemic.
Overall, worrying about the deficit seems to be a net loss for Republican chances in November. So, why is McConnell pushing talk about the deficit? And why now?
Because Mitch McConnell has thrown in the towel. He realizes that Trump has the equivalent of negative coattails. Trump’s not just going to lose; like Samson, he’s going to bring the whole temple down with him.
McConnell’s rediscovered role as deficit scold tells me that he doesn’t think he’ll be calling the shots in January. Senators Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan #SidekickSue Collins of Maine, Martha McSally of Arizona, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and #MoscowMitch himself are underwater in polls. Senator David Perdue, also of Georgia, probably hasn’t done himself any favors by buying PPE stock on the same day the Senate received a classified briefing on the spread of the novel coronavirus. I wasn’t able to find a recent poll on Perdue’s popularity; however, a year ago, he was at 47% support. So Perdue has got to be a little bit worried.
So, Senate Majority Leader McConnell knows he’s got a time limit: He needs to destroy pensions and kill expanded Medicaid before December, or he’ll lose his chance. Because after that, it will be Chuck Schumer’s show.
And, if you’re going to lose anyway, you may as well audition for your sinecure at either Fox News or the Koch network of astroturf organizations and fake think-tanks.
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