David Brooks Takes GOP To Task

by Stuart Shapiro

Once every ten columns or so David Brooks makes a lot of sense.  Yesterday was one of those ten percent.  Brooks wrote about the hard choices we have to make on spending over the next decade or so.  And he pointed out that House Republicans prefer to make those choices without thinking about them. In Washington, the Republicans who designed the cuts for this fiscal year seemed to have done no serious policy evaluation. They excused the elderly and directed cuts at anything else they could easily reach. Under their budget, financing for early-childhood programs would fall off a cliff. Tens of thousands of kids, maybe hundreds of thousands, would have their slots eliminated midyear.

Out in the states, the situation is scarcely better. Many governors of both parties are diverting money from schools in thoughtless and self-destructive ways. Hawaii decided to cut the number of days in the school year. Of all the ways to cut education, why on earth would you reduce student time in the classroom?

The first criteria for expanding spending in times of deficit is will it make us richer in the long run.  Investment in education (and infrastructure and research) will so talk about cutting back in these areas is ignorant and foolhardy.  Brooks gets it.  Will the party he usually supports?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.