Chart of the Day: Republicans Reject Republican Plan

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The chart below represents Republican nirvana as of March 2011. According to their own JEC report, the best research suggests that successful “fiscal consolidation” efforts (i.e., deficit reductions) have historically been heavily weighted toward spending cuts. The sweet spot is 85% spending cuts, 15% tax increases:

The research touted here by Republicans is almost certainly wrong because it uses cherry-picked data from countries that weren’t trying to fight off high unemployment and a stagnant economy. But as Mike Konczal points out, that doesn’t matter. Right or wrong, this is what Republicans were touting as recently as three months ago.

So what happens when the president proposes a plan that’s almost exactly 85% spending cuts and 15% tax increases? They summarily reject it, and continue to insist that if they don’t get their way they’ll happily burn down the country by refusing to increase the debt ceiling. This should surprise no one, of course. This is how it usually goes when you negotiate with terrorists.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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