The GOP is right that deficit reduction should be a priority, but has been misleading its rank-and-file for years about taxes and spending cuts





There's a Seinfeld episode where George Costanza tells his in-laws that he bought a house in the Hamptons. They suspect he is fibbing, but rather than admitting to it, he strings them along. Then things get comic. The in-laws know George is lying. And he knows that they know he is lying. But he still won't admit his mendacity, going so far as to drive them out to the neighborhood where his imaginary house is to see "who blinks first." The story captures a pathology you'll see sometimes when someone is caught in a lie. They irrationally postpone the moment of truth as long as possible, though doing so only increases their eventual, inevitable pain.

House Republicans face this kind of problem. They've convinced the conservative base -- rightly, in my estimation -- that the deficit is wildly unsustainable. What they regard as a catastrophic fiscal problem can be solved in these ways: tax increases, spending cuts, or some combination.

This is where the lies come into play.

For years, Republicans have persuaded much of their base that the Bush tax cuts didn't add to the deficit, that cutting taxes generally produces more revenue, and that raising taxes inevitably results in less revenue.