The new House stimulus bill omits arguably the single most important feature -- automatic stabilizers -- for UTTERLY FUCKING STUPID POLITICAL REASONS AAAAARGH^$*!!

Ahem. An important & infuriating post from @ezraklein. https://www.vox.com/2020/5/28/21271120/heroes-act-coronavirus-stimulus-pelosi-mcconnell-unemployment-insurance

It's amazing. The GOP has never, in its modern history, acted in a way that fits the description "fiscal conservatism." It just slashes revenue & drives up the deficit! But it *talked* a lot about fiscal conservatism (when fighting social spending) & it became lazy Washington CW.

But the Dems, in their Clinton-era apologetic cringe, *actually took fiscal conservatism seriously*. They instituted PayGo rules & made earnest efforts to raise revenue to pay for their proposals &, most of all, trimmed back their policy ambitions. And they reduced deficits!

So we get our current situation:
1. GOP talks about fiscal conservatism a lot, enjoys the reputational benefits, but is utterly unconstrained by it in practice. They get all the rhetorical benefits but none of the political downsides of actually implementing it.

2. Dems, suckers that they are, actually implement it, thereby hamstringing their own policy efforts & disappointing their base, over & over. They get all the political downsides. But neither the GOP nor the press gives them any credit for it, so they get no reputational benefit!

Sometimes it is just wearying, contemplating how thoroughly Dems get played -- the same tricks over and over, Lucy with the football, and they never learn. Pelosi still thinks the empty gestures of "fiscal conservatism" are impressing someone, or gaining her something. Argh.