The real extremism

Amidst all of the absurd left-wing shrieking and hyperventilating over Republican attempts to cut spending -- Vice President Biden chimed in today by stating that Tea Party GOPers have behaved like "terrorists" -- it's useful to look at exactly the deal would do. Based on the rhetoric one could be forgiven for thinking that the Department of Education will be abolished, Social Security privatized and Paul Krugman handed a one-way taxpayer-funded trip to Guantanamo. Confirmed right-wing extremist Sen. Rand Paul points out the reality:

[The deal] adds at least $7 trillion to our debt over the next 10 years. The deal purports to "cut" $2.1 trillion, but the "cut" is from a baseline that adds $10 trillion to the debt. This deal, even if all targets are met and the Super Committee wields its mandate - results in a BEST case scenario of still adding more than $7 trillion more in debt over the next 10 years. That is sickening.

Sickening indeed. This debt ceiling negotiation that produced so much sturm und drang from the left still expands the national debt by over $700 billion per year for the next decade!

Chris Edwards piles on:

The federal government will still run a deficit of $1 trillion next year. This deal will “cut” the 2012 budget of $3.6 trillion by just $22 billion, or less than 1 percent.

Can one even fathom what the outcry would be if the deal had produced an actual path towards a balanced budget? More importantly, the fact that the Republicans -- under heavy pressure from the Tea Party -- most likely won the deepest cuts that were realistically possible shows just how far off kilter the entire debate was to begin with. President Obama likes to talk about the need for a balanced approach when arguing for higher taxes, but what needs to be kept in mind is that we are already collecting huge amounts of tax revenue. The tax side is already taken care off -- we need massive spending cuts just to even the scales. 

To borrow a football analogy, the two sides didn't start off on the 50 yard line -- the Republicans  (generously) began from their own 15 and, at best, just moved the chains about 10 yards. There's a long way to go.

Update: Biden denies the statement.