Everything old is new again: Tea-Publicans propose a Balanced Budget Amendment

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This segment of The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell from Tuesday's program features an interview with Ezra Klein of the Washington Post discussing the Tea-Publican proposal for a Balanced Budget Amendment Plus.

I say Plus, because this lame-brain proposal contains elements beyond the Balanced Budget Amendment on which Republicans ran for office back in the 1970s and 1980s — while Saint Ronnie Reagan tripled our national debt with tax cuts for the über-rich and a military spending spree that he put on the nation's credit card.

As Ezra Klein points out, Bruce Bartlett, deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department under Bush 41 and who now writes about supply-side economics, took a look at this proposal and concluded, "In short, this is quite possibly the stupidest constitutional amendment I think I have ever seen. It looks like it was drafted by a couple of interns on the back of a napkin. Every senator cosponsoring this POS should be ashamed of themselves." Dopiest Constitutional Amendment of All Time? | Capital Gains and Games (link to a copy of the proposal).

"I have previously explained the idiocy of right wing advocates of debt default (here and here) and the idiocy of a balanced budget amendment (here and here). However, the new Republican balanced budget proposal is especially dimwitted… This is really mind boggling in its insanity."

Tell us how you really feel, Bruce.

These people are insane. And they are holding our government hostage to their insane demands.

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