Before you Republicans get too damn sanctimonious

Five years ago, Republicans backed tax cuts—but said deficits didn’t matter. Today, they say deficits are all that matters, but still like tax cuts. Peter Beinart on the party’s economic time warp.

What do the debate over the Afghan war and the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts have in common? They could both be taking place in 2005. The financial crisis has changed the world. But in Washington, the arguments have barely changed.

Five years ago, Washington Democrats said the war in Afghanistan was worth fighting because there really were terrorists there. Five years later, the Democrat in chief is still saying that, even though we now know that 1) most of the al Qaeda types are in Pakistan, 2) Hamid Karzai has largely given up on the war we’re fighting in his name, and 3) our superpower status is seriously threatened by debt. Five years ago, Republicans said the war in Afghanistan was worth fighting because the “Islamofascists” were today’s version of the Nazis and communists. Five years later, al Qaeda still hasn’t pulled off another attack anywhere in the world (let alone in the U.S.) even close to 9/11, and yet to listen to the GOP, ceding Marja to the Taliban remains the equivalent of letting Hitler have Paris. With the exception of Vice President Joe Biden, whose patience with Karzai seems to have run out, it’s hard to find a prominent Washington politician willing to allow new information to displace old dogma.

Today, everyone pretends that they’re worried about the deficit—and then pursues basically the same agenda they would pursue if they weren’t worried.

Feel free to read it for yourself at The Daily Beast