The perfect test of Republican economics is being setup

I love budget debates. They’re like professional wrestling but with words. On Thursday, we got to see Democrats body slam the president’s budget chief.

“The harm is real. The balance in 10 years, you know, is fantasy flim-flam.”

“Senator, I will deny that I know that.”

… While Republicans wiped him down, gave him a pep talk, and pushed him back into the ring.

“Thank you, Director Mulvaney. Really an outstanding job I think you’re doing.”

There was no real discussion and nobody’s mind was changed.

What I kept hearing was Democrats making the point that the Trump budget, especially the cuts in Medicaid and food stamps, will fall hardest on the struggling areas of the country that voted for Donald Trump. They really wanted to point out the irony of that.

Well, if that’s true, why fight it?

I don’t know if he intended it to work out this way or not, but the president has done a genius thing. He has set up the perfect test of Republican economics and he’s going to test it on the states that voted for it.

The Republican argument is that the states should have the flexibility to cut themselves loose from Washington. And the states mostly likely to do that are the red states. It’s Republican governors who will actually try all these options, like changing Medicaid, and setting up high-risk pools for the sickest people.

So why not let them? Enough debate! This is a chance to try it in the real world! Let the Trump states go it alone, if that’s what they want. See if it works.

If it does work, we all can copy it. If it flops, the only states hurt are the ones that voted for the experiment.

And then we won’t have to debate about it anymore.

“The only way you balance this budget is on fraudulent accounting.”

… Because we’ll know.

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