We Are All Greeks Now

Jim Hoagland reminds us that we share something in common with the Greeks. We all like to get something without having to pay for it. Politicians take advantage of this by giving us things that we like and promising us tax cuts. George Bush worked this to perfection. He cut taxes and paid for the tax cuts and his increases in federal spending by borrowing. Our recession has exacerbated this legacy by cutting tax receipts and making budget deficits more visible. Now we have to figure out how to respond to unsustainable deficits. Our basic problem is that government is all about values. We have to decide whose taxes we will raise and what spending programs we will cut. The easy way out for some politicians is to oppose tax increases and to force a nonpartisan committee to cut popular programs. We call that party the GOP. They can then run election campaigns by promising not to raise taxes. This puts the other party into the position of alienating those whose taxes they propose to increase, and finding ways to cut programs that are popular. They don't like to be put into a situation that leads to lost elections so they agree to turn the difficult decisions over to a non-partisan committee. We have a political system in which politicians do their best to avoid dealing with our tough problems. Leadership has risks that few are prepared to accept.