GOP’s one sacred principle: A spending philosophy of lies and troop worship

[DonViejo]

Remember all the talk about no new laws that weren't paid for? We've just learned there's a huge, glaring exception

DAVID DAYEN

Something extraordinary happened in Congress before they took their month-long August break. No, not that they passed a bill, though that has become a rare feat these days. This Congress, so obsessed with the deficit that they imposed a spending cap on themselves, and vowed that no new legislation would ever pass without being paid for, did just that last Thursday. Moreover, the same Republican House that has taken several dozen votes to repeal Obamacare passed this deficit-spending bill to further fund the country’s only system of socialized medicine.

How did this happen? Because when you support the troops, federal spending is magic spending that doesn’t count.

The bill, signed by the president last Thursday, seeks to reform the Veterans Administration, though you can make a credible case that the new spending represents an attempt to undermine it. We’re only talking about an infinitesimal sliver of the federal budget, $10 billion in new spending spread out over a couple of years. But if the government allows itself to spend in reaction to an emergency without having to pay for it, suddenly a whole host of options come into play. It overturns so many false ideas that have perniciously made their way into the mainstream over the past several years, from the virtues of austerity to the inadequacies of economic stimulus. And it exposes how anything that has to do with the military gets a free pass, one that should be extended to all kinds of worthy policies.

Under the legislation passed by Congress, the $10 billion will go toward vouchers that enable any VA patient who experiences long wait times or lives more than 40 miles from the nearest VA facility to access private medical coverage. Another $6.3 billion in the bill goes toward hiring more VA doctors, upgrading current VA health centers, and entering into leases with 27 major medical facilities across the country.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/08/13/gops_one_sacred_principle_a_spending_philosophy_of_lies_and_troop_worship/

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