Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The dream never dies:

Senate Republicans are planning a new push for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution when lawmakers return to Washington after the August recess.

….“In the last week there’s been a lot of movement in terms of Republican senators saying we need to press this issue,” said a Senate GOP aide. The amendment would bar the federal government from spending more than it collects in revenues each year. It would also require a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber to raise taxes.

Put aside the fact that this is a spectacularly stupid idea that could only be supported by economic illiterates. That hardly matters, because the cosponsors admit they have no chance of passing it anyway. They just want some publicity.

Which is fine. That’s what politics is all about. But I’ve got two questions. First, even if it’s a publicity stunt, the press should give it coverage only if the sponsors are willing to propose an actual balanced budget to go along with it. Let’s see the cuts, boys. If they aren’t willing to go even that far, they should be ignored.

Second, why don’t Democrats do this kind of thing more often? Republicans, I think, tend to be so-so at long-term strategy but really good at lobbing short term tactical hand grenades. So we get the New Black Panthers one week, followed by the Ground Zero mosque and Shirley Sherrod and birthright citizenship and Michelle’s vacation in France and now a balanced budget amendment. All of these things eat up oxygen and keep Democrats off balance, and aside from the fact that they’re really destructive to civil society they’re probably pretty good for Republican electoral chances. So how come Democrats don’t do more of this kind of thing? It would be nice to think that we just refuse to take the low road the way Republicans do, but I kinda doubt that. Democratic consultants can sling smears and fears with the best of them when they have to.

So what’s the deal? Aren’t there plenty of bullshit memes available for liberals to throw onto the bonfire of public opinion? Or have I just missed them? What’s up?

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate