Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the Tea Party mega-star, has emerged in the past few days as a leading opponent of the Obama-GOP tax cuts compromise from the right. And in the process, she is elaborating on the common theme among conservatives that tax cuts should not be paid for in terms of their effect on the deficits. Or as she puts it, cutting taxes shouldn’t be defined as part of a deficit, and only spending should be viewed through this lens.
“I don’t agree with that definition,” Bachmann told Meredith Viera on the Today Show. “When people keep their own money, that’s considered a deficit to government, but it’s not a deficit to your pocket or mine, so I think it’s important that people can keep their money.”
And in an exchange with John Roberts on CNN:
BACHMANN: And remember it’s a deficit to government but it’s not a deficit to people who get to keep their money. So it’s how you frame it. I don’t think letting people keep their own money should be considered a deficit.
ROBERTS: But it is, though, because it adds to the federal deficit.
BACHMANN: No, you’re right about that, John, that it is to the government, but remember what we could also be doing right now: Cutting back on spending. We’ve had the biggest increase in spending in the last two years that anyone can remember in modern times. We can also cut back spending to that level and that’s not on the table right now.
(Via Media Matters)
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