Bad Priorities

Both parties in Washington just don’t seem to get it.  Worse, they are institutionally incapable of getting it, because both parties (not just one — beware of those who pretend otherwise, they are part of the problem) are in thrall to very specific interest groups.

The latest outrage is in the $26 billion bailout bill for state and local governments.  Leaving aside the fact that this kind of bailout only kicks the problem down the road one more year (next year the same state and local governments will be back for another “emergency” handout — their budget problems are structural, not temporary), the problem is where the money comes from.  Democrats chose to fund the bill — which disproportionately benefits their political allies in teachers unions and government worker unions – by cutting the food stamps program that feeds poor people.

Nice priorities, guys.  Pay off the unions by literally taking food out of the mouths of poor babies.

But lest Republican feel smug, let’s remember that the reason Democrats have to fund their policy priorities this way is because Republicans have insisted that budget-cutting (which is legitimately needed) has to start by cutting programs for the poor.  They’ll talk about the real budget busters — entitlement programs and defense spending — later (maybe — Democrats also desperately want to avoid these debates).  But with the last two budget issues — unemployment benefits extensions and now this state and local bailout — Republicans have insisted that the first priority is cutting that area of the budget.

Same bad priorities on both sides — make sure their political allies (unions for Democrats, defense contractors for the Republicans) are taken care of, and send the bill to the people who are actually at the pointy end of the recession spear.