Yesterday House leaders formally proposed spending $10 billion to help recession-bruised, fiscally distressed states prevent layoffs of hundreds of thousands of teachers
The proposal saves teaching jobs without increasing the budget deficit by cutting other stimulus spending.
This is not good enough for conservative deficit hysterics.
The conservative Republican response appears to be: just lie and say helping teachers will increase the deficit anyway. CQ reports:
"We need to get a supplemental passed as soon as possible," [House Minority Leader John] Boehner said. "It should not be used as an excuse for tens of billions of dollars of additional social spending that will pile more debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren."
The conservative Democratic response appears to be: just tell teachers their jobs are not as important as saving a fraction of a percent of the national debt. Politico reports:
"...Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) said in an interview ... "There are a number of moderates [sic] who feel that any pay-fors should be for deficit reduction, not to offset new spending ... If you have $10 billion laying around for teachers, reduce the deficit by $10 billion [instead]."
Because of this mathematically illiterate resistance from the Right,
the White House may stop pushing to add these funds to the war spending bill, in order to get the underlying bill passed.Words fail.