Objectivity, or the similar meaning non-partisan, is a central philosophical concept related to reality and truth. In general terms, it means being true outside of a subject’s ideological and individual biases, interpretations, feelings, and imaginings, and something is regarded as objectively true when it is free of partisan biases. More simply put, being objective is the ability in any context to judge fairly. In nonpartisan economic and fiscal policy estimations, objectivity is a protection against an ideological bent devised to favor oligarchs, and it has thwarted many Republican efforts to give all of the nation’s wealth to the richest one-percent.
Americans had an objective, non-partisan, protection against the Koch brothers, Heritage Foundation, and Grover Norquist in the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that estimated the damage in job and revenue losses and economic growth inherent in Republicans’ hallowed “trickle-down” economic theory and harsh job-killing austerity budgets. If Americans recall, it was the CBO that projected Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget would explode the nation’s deficit, crush economic growth, kill jobs, and starve the federal government of revenue. The Ayn Rand-Koch brother disciple has been thwarted often by the “unbiased” non-partisan CBO for nearly four years and he is taking steps to neuter them once and for all. Now that Republicans will control both houses of Congress, they have the power to fashion the CBO into a rubber-stamp for Grover Norquist and Koch brother economic policies.
Republicans in the House, led by Ayn Rand disciple Paul Ryan, have been quietly working behind the scenes to make sure the next head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Congress’s objective eye in all matters concerning fiscal policy, is an ardent proponent of the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity economic agenda. Republicans have had just about enough of the CBO’s non-partisan bona fides, and with Ryan leading the charge will install a loyal Ayn Rand, Grover Norquist devotee to score Republicans’ trickle down tax cuts for the wealthy as god almighty’s means of increasing government revenue, creating millions of jobs, and bestowing millionaire and billionaire status on the entire population. The former CBO chief, Peter Orszag, explained recently that since the CBO has no institutional protections from the party in charge (Republicans) “fixing” fiscal policy proposals and estimates to fit its anti-government ideology, the days of the CBO’s non-partisan “scoring” over; and because the CBO’s “objectivity” was maintained as a “fair and honest tradition” and not congressional policy, there is no congressional rule, court, or federal agency that can stop Republicans.
What that means for America is that every proposed tax cut for the rich, job-killing program, Social Security and Medicare privatization scam, and anti-government measure will be deemed an economic bonanza for all Americans. Likely, Republicans will appoint someone like Grover Norquist, or an employee of the Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), or Americans for Prosperity who will deem every harsh Republican austerity cut and tax cut for the rich as job-creating revenue increasing marvel. The result will be that America will experience precisely what Sam Brownback has wrought on Kansas; job losses, massive program cuts, credit downgrades, epic revenue losses, and a fast track to bankruptcy; so Grover Norquist loyalists can “drown the federal government in a bathtub.”
What the Koch brothers will order is the appointment of someone like Arthur Laffer as CBO head to use what is called “dynamic scoring” to rubber stamp each and every Republican budget proposal. Dynamic scoring is a favorite Norquist, Heritage Foundation buzz-word that means cutting federal revenue through massive tax cuts for the rich automatically leads to greater federal government revenue. In fact, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, and Wall Street titans use “dynamic scoring” for all their budget and tax cutting projections. It is what the Heritage Foundation used to champion Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity austerity budget they claimed will lead to an economic Utopia, massive deficit reductions, tens-of-millions of new jobs, and greater government revenue. It was, in fact, “dynamic scoring” that George W. Bush and Kansas governor Sam Brownback used to push tax cuts for the rich they claimed was the path to prosperity; some Americans, and Kansas residents, may be aware that fiscal policy did not work as conservative economic hacks advertised. However, they did blow up deficits, cut government revenue, and made the richest one-percent incredibly richer as planned.
For a brief refresher on what “dynamic scoring” wrought on stupid Kansans (they did just re-elect “trickle-down” Brownback), look at what the “experiment in conservative economics” created. Brownback brought in “trickle down” scam artist Arthur Laffer to convince Republicans that giving the wealthy massive tax cuts and cutting education, healthcare, and infrastructure programs to death would be a government revenue bonanza, create a million jobs, and make every Kansan rich beyond their wildest dreams. The results, of course, were precisely the opposite and exactly what “official” incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Brownback Republicans lusted to do in Washington when they controlled both houses of Congress.
Kansas Republicans started with a budget surplus and squandered it on huge tax cuts for the rich that Laffer promised would instantly increase state revenue and a job creation explosion. Kansas is going broke and predicted to be bankrupt within two years, job creation is lagging the entire nation, and it is all down to giving tax cuts to the rich at the expense of the state’s economic life. Trickle down Brownback then signed another trickle down package of $1.1 billion in tax breaks for the rich that promptly created a record revenue shortfall and two more credit downgrades; something the CBO determined Paul Ryan’s budget would do if enacted.
After the first round of Brownback’s gifts to the rich, the Kansas GOP chair Rochelle Chronister railed against Brownback’s trickle down disaster because the massive tax cuts would “bankrupt the state within two years.” Still, Brownback argued that trickle-down economist Arthur Laffer assured him that according to “dynamic scoring,” the massive tax cuts and program cuts would increase economic growth, increase government revenue, and lead the nation in job creation. Thus far the “State general fund revenue was down over $700 million from last year” as of June, and “a greater revenue loss “than the state had in the whole three years of the recession” according to a Kansas Republican budget guru. Now that Republicans will have an Arthur Laffer or Grover Norquist leading the CBO, Americans can look forward to every Republican austerity and tax cutting budget being deemed as a job creating, revenue increasing, and economy growing plan exactly like Kansas and they will use the failed “dynamic scoring” scheme as proof their plan is not a disaster.
`The CBO, as a non-partisan objective entity, was the last line of defense against a Republican economic disaster that will make Kansas and Bush-era economics look like an economic boom. With a Grover Norquist, Stephen Moore, or Arthur Laffer lying about the devastation of harsh austerity and trickle down tax cuts for the rich, Koch brother employee Paul Ryan and Republicans will hold up the CBO as proof America needs to go the way of Kansas. Based on the results of the midterms, there are as many Americans that are as stupid as Kansas voters who will fall for Republicans’ trickle down scam again; especially with a conservative Congressional Budget Office assuring them that this time, the thirty-year trickle down abomination will make them millionaires.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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