{"id":773,"date":"2004-04-07T22:17:31","date_gmt":"2004-04-08T06:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/04\/07\/kerrynomics-republican-economics-circa-1999\/"},"modified":"2004-04-07T22:17:31","modified_gmt":"2004-04-08T06:17:31","slug":"kerrynomics-republican-economics-circa-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"Kerrynomics: Republican Economics circa 1999"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, I would have called Kerry’s economic proposals “Republican.” That was before Bush was elected and Republican economics slid from noxious to not sane. So his policies are more like “Republican Retro 1999,” at least if this AP article is accurate<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Kerry said he would not allow the federal budget, other than spending on education and homeland security, to grow beyond the rate of inflation.<\/div>\n

This was once a popular trick among Republicans who wanted to cut social spending but pretend they weren’t. The scam is pretty simple: every year, the total American population grows. So just in order to spend the same amount per person, federal spending programs have to increase not to account for inflation, but also to account for increasing population. Kerry knows this perfectly well; he’s just stealing an old Republican trick to avoid saying “I plan to cut the social services every needy American recieves.”<\/p>\n

As Nathan Newman writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Which means an inflation cap is a net cut in spending per person. So that means:<\/p>\n