Washington doesn't have to pay for anything. Just put it on the deficit!

The austerity mindset continues to squelch sane policy-making

Obama
(Image credit: (Alex Wong/Getty Images))

In 2013, the intellectual credibility of the austerians — deficit-phobes like Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson, and the Washington Post editorial page — completely collapsed. Their favorite study turned out to have hilariously inept errors, the deficit is falling like a stone, and unemployment and poverty are back on the policy front-burner, at least in rhetorical terms.

And yet, austerian reasoning continues to completely dominate the policy agenda in Washington. Whenever any new policy is announced, you will almost always see the following question hot on its tail: How are you going to pay for it?

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.