For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.





Here’s the latest from those well-known socialists at 85 Broad Street:

Spending cuts approved by House Republicans would act as a drag on the U.S. economy, according to a Wall Street analysis that put new pressure on the political debate in Washington. The report by the investment firm Goldman Sachs said the cuts would reduce the growth in gross domestic product by up to 2 percentage points this year, essentially cutting in half the nation’s projected economic growth for 2011. ….A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said the Goldman Sachs report represented “the same outdated Washington mind-set,” comparing it to the thinking behind the 2009 Recovery Act that released federal funds to counter the effects of the recession.

I don’t know about Goldman, but Boehner sure seems to have the traditional GOP mindset down pat: if inconvenient evidence is at hand, pretend it doesn’t exist.

In fairness, I have to say that two percentage points seems pretty high to me for $100 billion in budget cuts. Still, even Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who sold his soul for the cause years ago, agrees that the tea party-inspired cuts in the House bill would cut 0.2 percentage points off of GDP growth. That’s probably too low, but it almost doesn’t matter: if even Republican house economists agree that the cuts would slow economic growth at all, tell me again why Republicans are insisting on them?

