So, the Republican National Committee is calling an "extraordinary" meeting in order to pass a resolution calling the Democratic Party the "Democrat Socialist Party." Rather than being either angry or amused, I agree with Digby when she writes, disappointedly, that the rebranding doesn't go far enough. After all, the entire point of the conservative movement is to develop new names for their perceived opposition. It certainly isn't about policy. This is because, in the end, there really isn't that much difference between the conservative and progressive movement on spending proposals.
Four years ago this week, most of the conservative movement honored its then-leader, and self-proclaimed right-wing ideologue, Tom DeLay, with a gala dinner. Four months after that, then Majority Leader Tom DeLay declared that Republicans had made all of the spending cuts to the budget they were ever going to make:
Republican House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay has declared an "ongoing victory" in spending cuts. He stated that the federal government was running at peak efficiency and that there was nothing left to cut from the U.S. federal budget. DeLay supports additional deficit spending for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, on top of the this year's existing $331 billion federal budget deficit.
DeLay's position has drawn criticism from some fiscal conservatives, including a few fellow republican representatives. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) commented "I wonder if we've been serving in the same Congress." The majority of congressional republicans still support DeLay's view, and feel that their fiscal policies have been more sound than the democrats were in the past.
The federal budget on which Tom DeLay declared conservative movement victory was for fiscal year 2006. According to the OMB, that year federal spending was 20.4% of GDP. According to the pro-teabagging site usgovernmentspending.com, it was 20.2%.
Flash forward to fiscal year 2012, when stimulus and bailout spending will both be over. Even though Democrats will control all branches of the federal government instead of movement conservatives, the OMB projects federal spending to only be 22.1% of GDP, exactly the same projection as usgovernmentspending.com. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has suggested adding another 1.1% in long-term spending to that total, but even then the entire difference in federal spending proposed by the progressive and conservative movements amounts to only 3% of GDP (at the most). Our range of available federal spending options are Tom DeLay's 20.2% of GDP vs. the Progressive Caucus's 23.2% of GDP.
So seriously, it is extremely disappointing that the RNC can't come up with a better name to call Democrats. That is, after all, the entire point of the conservative movement. And more tea-party protests, too, because we need more street theater to distract us from the reality of an extremely broad bi-partisan consensus on spending in America. We are only arguing over 3% of the economy. Without the name calling and the street theater, the argument lacks pizzazz.
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