"Budget Woes": The GOP's Munchausen-by-Proxy Syndrome
I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices that Republicans keep cutting taxes and creating revenue shortfalls that they then cite as a reason to cut budgets.
For decades, they have been speaking about "times of tight budgets" as if it were some environmental circumstance imposed on them by fate rather than a situation they keep deliberately creating, and then with mock-paternalism talking about how we need to "tighten our belts" because of it. Invariably in every area of government that isn't violent, oppressive, or in some other way destructive to American society.
Thinking about this fact, it occurred to me what that's like: Munchausen-by-proxy. They want to "drown government in the bathtub," but short of that ultimate fantasy of theirs, they will instead repeatedly starve/poison it with tax cuts and then take it to the hospital for "treatment" (i.e., budget cuts).
So whenever you hear someone speak of a "time of tight budgets" or a "tight budget environment," as if it were some external circumstance, just remind them that nothing of the sort exists. We are in a time of Republicans deliberately starving the public sector of funds and then demanding budget cuts as a cure for their own criminality.
