Freshman Congressman and member of the House Budget Committee Hakeem Jeffries has been dueling with posterboy of fiscal conservatism and Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan.
The flame war began with the introduction of Ryan’s budget resolution titled “The Path to Prosperity: A Responsible, Balanced Budget.” Recently passed by the House, the plan called for, among other things, tried-and-true conservative policies like: repealing Obamacare, making cuts to Medicare and reducing the corporate tax rate to 25 percent.
In the introduction to his plan, Ryan states:
By living beyond our means, we’re stealing from the next generation. By promising a higher standard of living today, the federal government is guaranteeing a lower standard of living tomorrow. So it’s troubling to consider where this track will lead. Unless we act, by 2023, we will add another $8.2 trillion to our national debt. That debt will weigh down our country like an anchor.
Unless we change course, we will have a debt crisis. Pressed for cash, the government will take the easy way out: It will crank up the printing presses. The final stage of this intergenerational theft will be the debasement of our currency. Government will cheat us of our just rewards. Our finances will collapse. The economy will stall. The safety net will unravel. And the most vulnerable will suffer.
So of course, as is the case with much of the Republican Party, reducing the national debt and taxes are the top priorities for Ryan. And interestingly enough, Ryan claims that his plan is in the economic interest of “the most vulnerable.”
Jeffries, a “liberal” (if that term may be justifiably used for Jeffries), disagrees. He sees Ryan’s plan as an attempt to “balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable.”
Sleeves rolled up,prepared to battle 2014 Ryan budget at all day hearing. We must not balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) March 13, 2013
Jeffries referred to Ryan’s plan as a “Partisan, Stale Manifesto” that “does not take a balanced approach to deficit reduction. Rather, it looks to balance the budget on the backs of children, seniors, college students, working families and the most vulnerable in our society.”
Jeffries has also introduced amendments to the plan which seek to prevent an increase in the subsidized student loan interest rate and prevent the privatization of social security.
Ironically, this all gives the appearance that the “most vulnerable” somehow wield a tremendous amount of power by proxy.
But what if this isn’t really about protecting the most vulnerable?
Ryan and his conservative ilk have played this game for years. The voodoo economics that forms an important part of Republican dogma has consistently been shown to negatively affect the poor while fattening the pockets of the wealthy. Ryan’s version of these ideas will probably do little to help the most vulnerable.
Jeffries, whose ideas will probably do more for the poor and vulnerable than Ryan’s plan, also has more Machiavellian motives for his overt resistance to Ryan. This provides the perfect opportunity for the freshman Congressman to square up face-to-face with the former Republican vice presidential candidate in front of his fellow lawmakers as well as the nation. To make this even sweeter, Jeffries is squaring up with Ryan on fiscal policy, which has become a trademark issue for Ryan.
He can beat Ryan at his own game. In front of everyone to boot!
So if you’re one of these “vulnerable” Americans, don’t be fooled by the rhetoric. This is merely the same liberal/conservative pseudo-opposition that have gone on for a long time, all while maintaining the wealth and power of our society’s ruling class and perpetuating the powerlessness of our society’s subalterns.