Let’s Play “Who Wants To Write The Federal Budget”

Today’s contestant is the Republican Part. The GOP has issued their magnum opus on the topic, “The Republican Road To Recovery.”

Ezra Klein has succinctly pointed out, “There are no numbers. Let me repeat that: The Republican budget proposal does not say how much money they would raise, or spend.” And this is, for the most part, true. They write at length about the Democrat’s numbers — or at least what they purport the Democrats’ numbers to be, two different things — but numbers of their own are entirely absent.

They also spend a lot of time carping about criticizing the specifics of the Democrat’s policies, albeit in a reductionist sloganeering way (“Democrat budget,” “Death Tax”) while steering clear of specifics of their own. When they do get into specifics, we read sections like this:

In order to bring online a safe, inexpensive, and clean
American energy source quickly, Republicans support
removing government barriers to new nuclear reactors as
long as they meet strict security and safety criteria.
Efforts to streamline the hearing and judicial review
process for nuclear permitting to place reasonable limits
on arduous anti-energy litigation would be pursued as
well.

Americans realize that the future of energy is in alternative and
renewable sources. In order to promote the development of
renewable and alternative energy, Republicans support
promoting the leasing of federal lands which contain alternative
energy such as oil shale. The Interior Department should provide
lease sales of oil shale in an environmentally-sound manner,
rather than hinder leasing plans. Republicans also support
enabling federal agencies to take the lead in spurring a market by
using fuels derived from oil shale, tar sands, and coal.

What’s wrong with this section? While accompanied by pretty pictures of windmills and solar panels, it’s all about non-renewable energy. In other words, the same old let’s-dig-stuff-up-and-burn-it policies we’ve always had. (That goes for nuclear, too, by the way; it’s non-renewable.)

On The Economy

The current financial crisis is all because of … wait for it … Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What could be simpler? Oh, and

Democrats assume that the free-market system has failed
and that a more robust federal government must now
rescue the nation. The American people reject that notion
and know, as Republicans do, that government has failed
and that this financial crisis is the result of decades of
misguided government policies that interfered with the
free-market.

Yes, AIG, Bear Stearns, Bernie Madoff, Lehman, Merrill … all because of too much government interference in the free market.

I know it’s only a dream, but imagine what they’d have been able to accomplish without the stranglehold of regulation — think of where we’d be today!

Not Many Numbers, But Look At Those Awesome Graphics

Klein helpfully has cut one out, there’s a lot like this:

If someone could explain to me how that maps into specific policy proposals that would be cool.