The Hill sees the onset of fall as providing support for Republican efforts to cut the budget. Okay, they didn’t quite say this, but what they did say didn’t make much more sense. It told readers:
“Republicans argue that their cost-cutting initiatives will foster the economic growth needed to reduce the stubbornly high poverty rate. Their efforts were boosted by a Congressional Budget Office report on Tuesday that shows the national debt increasing to from 73 percent to 100 percent of the economy over the next 25 years.”
This is what is known as a “non sequitur.” There is absolutely nothing about the new report from the Congressional Budget Office that supports the Republican argument that their “cost-cutting initiatives” would foster economic growth and lead to lower poverty rates. There is no connection here.
The CBO projections are little different from the prior year’s projections and arguably the most important difference is that it now projects lower health care cost growth. Nothing in the report implies that cutting programs like food stamps will lead to so much growth that it would offset the negative impact that cuts would have on poverty rates. And in fact, cutting many programs will almost certainly slow growth, a fact not brought into question by the CBO report.
It’s obviously the funny season over at The Hill.
Comments