G.O.P. on Defensive as Analysts Question Party’s Fiscal Policy

[ProSense]

G.O.P. on Defensive as Analysts Question Party’s Fiscal Policy

By JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON — The boasts of Congressional Republicans about their cost-cutting victories are ringing hollow to some well-known economists, financial analysts and corporate leaders, including some Republicans, who are expressing increasing alarm over Washington’s new austerity and antitax orthodoxy.

Their critiques have grown sharper since last week, when President Obama signed his deficit reduction deal with Republicans and, a few days later, when Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the United States.

But even before that, macroeconomists and private sector forecasters were warning that the direction in which the new House Republican majority had pushed the White House and Congress this year — for immediate spending cuts, no further stimulus measures and no tax increases, ever — was wrong for addressing the nation’s two main ills, a weak economy now and projections of unsustainably high federal debt in coming years.

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Among those calling for a mix of cuts and revenue are onetime standard-bearers of Republican economic philosophy like Martin Feldstein, an adviser to President Ronald Reagan, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., Treasury secretary to President George W. Bush, underscoring the deepening divide between party establishment figures and the Tea Party-inspired Republicans in Congress and running for the White House.

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[Cosmocat]

1. Does not matter one bit ...

The republicans could give a rats tail about the economy.

This is ALL politics, all the time. And, the media is not ABOUT to hold the to account for this kind of wonky stuff.

LOWER TAXES and the new bizarro world populism the republicans have somehow created will reign, unchecked by the "liberal press."

[KOfan]

2. Good! send them a copy of Buffet's

Summary of what the truth is. Reps see no elephant in the room, except their own wealthy fatasses.