The GOP's Pledge: A Bad, Old, Deficit Filled Joke

By now, at least three important things should be clear to all observers that the GOP's "Pledge to America"

1) It would dramatically increase the deficit over the next decade - by around $4 trillion. Call this doubling down on the Boehner plan.

2) There are no new ideas in it.

3) Even lots of conservatives think it's a joke, which would be funny, except these people seek to lead the country.

The first point is probably the most important. The Republican Party has defined the problem as spiraling deficits, a problem only exacerbated by their stated agenda.

Here's what some others had to say about it:

Jon Stewart breaks down, with video evidence, the fact that this pledge is anything but new (watch at least until 3 minutes in):

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Postcards From the Pledge
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The Washington Post Editorial Page says "The GOP's 'Pledge to America': Deficits can rest easy"

Paul Krugman writes that the Pledge basically says "Deficits are a terrible thing. Let's make them much bigger."

While the spending cuts in the Pledge are not very significant, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities describes how the cuts, like the ones in the Boehner plan, would cut things Americans really want and need. Rep. Kevin McCarthy told Savannah Guthrie this morning on MSNBC that the cuts, while not detailed in the Pledge, are going to be "across the board." 

In The New Republic, Jonathan Chait writes that the Pledge is "Déjà Vu All Over Again," Jonathan Cohn writes that it is full of lies, especially in health care and deficit reduction, and Alexander Hart, like Ezra Klein, points out that the graphs in the pledge are lies. (When you make graphs, you have to start at zero.)

Ezra Klein describes most of the ways in which the Pledge is a "bad idea" and writes that the Democrats need a plan too. He highlights Rob Shapiro's carbon-payroll tax shift idea.

Andrew Sullivan, who is just waiting for a legitimate conservative agenda to emerge, describes "the GOP's Fiscal Fraudulence."

RedState Editor in Chief Erick Erickson calls the Pledge "dreck" and says it is "Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Thing to Come Out of Washington Since George McClellan."

And Andy Roth, Vice President of the very conservative Club for Growth writes, "I want to endorse it [the pledge], but it's so milquetoast that it proves to me that these guys just aren't ready to lead."

Andy's right, this is not a document produced by a group of people ready to lead the country.