(Untitled)

[athenian_abroad]

Bruce Bartlett, over at Capital Gains & Games, raises the possibility that the new Congress, with its enhanced compliment of Tea Party-type Republicans, might be willing to bring about an immediate fiscal crisis by refusing to raise the federal government's statutory debt limit

Comments

[athenian_abroad]

Yeah...the Medicare drug benefit is the thing that the Tea Party folks might hesitate over. Though I have heard some of them say that they would support Medicare cuts -- it seems to be a way to prove that they aren't simply being selfish (which appears to be very important to them).

On balance, it looked like an easier target than, say, abolishing the Air Force.

[athenian_abroad]

Come to think of it, the real hot button is probably the aid to Israel that's embedded in the International Assistance budget....

[heron61]

Except for all the right wing senior citizens who would suddenly start bombarding them with letters and phone calls. My guess is any attempt to reduce Medicare will go exactly as well as Shrub's attempt to privatize Social Security. Old bigots are their core constituency, the tea-baggers can't afford to alienate them.

[roykay]

Hmmmmmm. No DOJ (drug war, etc.) or Homeland Security (quasi-screening machine) cuts? It is reasonable to ask why we need NATO troops and possibly ASEAN troops any more.

[athenian_abroad]

In my scenario, I've left everything to do with defense, law enforcement, and "homeland security" off the table, since the Tea Party types I've had a chance to talk with have regarded these things as sacrosanct. (I would have thrown in the abolition of the Civil and Anti-Trust divisions of the DOJ if I'd had the numbers at my fingertips, but I don't.)

But everyone is invited to play! Nominate your own wish-list / menu / parade-of-horribles. All I ask is that contemplated cuts come attached to real numbers.

To help out, I can offer the following:
DHS TSA 5,054
Immigration, Customs & Border 19,427
Coast Guard 9,942
Secret Service 1,669
Protection & Progs Directorate 1,400
Science & Technology 949
Domestic Nuclear Detection 444

DOJ DEA 2,296
ATF 1,151

State Int'l Narc Control & Enf 1,124
Andean Counterdrug Progs 306

Total 43,762 This contemplates hollowing out the Department of Homeland Security, leaving little more than FEMA behind

[roykay]

Cool. Thanks.

To be honest, on review of the Teap Party candidates, entirely too much of their platforms looked like the religious-right/economic "coalition" (as if George Shultz and Milton Friedman really did have much in common with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). However, I wouldn't mind it if their economic rhetoric got ahead of them. Non-revolution is a little too easy for authoritarians to control, and stable states "naturally select" for authoritarianism.