House and Senate Republicans have decided to hold the economy [hostage](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/us/politics/13budget.html?ref=politics) to regressive spending cuts, and **David Brooks** is [thrilled](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/opinion/13brooks.html?_r=1&hp): >I’m fiscally bipolar. Most of the time I think there’s no way the two parties will do anything to address the nation’s ruinous debt problem. >But some weeks there are rays of hope. This is one of those weeks. There is a lot going on behind the scenes of the debate over how to raise the federal debt-ceiling limit. Something good might happen. >Events are being driven by the Republican leaders. The playing field on the debt-ceiling fight is tilted in their direction, so they want to make this fight as consequential as possible. They want to use this occasion to reshape fiscal policy for decades. "Something good," of course, is shorthand for Medicaid cuts that would [harm](http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3409) millions of low-income children, pregnant women, seniors and people with disabilities, and Medicare cuts that would reduce medical coverage for millions of additional seniors. Even if Congress goes with the (hypothetical) spending plan produced by the Gang of Six (which Brooks is also excited about), it would likely include billions in additional cuts to programs for children and low-income people, again, including Medicaid. Any way you spin it, Brooks is essentially _giddy_ about the possibility of watching extraordinarily privileged people gut the remains of our tattered social safety net, despite the fact that our short-term fiscal problems have more to do with [tax cuts](http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3036) than anything else. Relatedly, it's worth [reading](http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/did-david-brooks-mother-tell-him-that-the-debt-is-qruinousq-or-does-he-just-enjoy-beating-up-the-elderly?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+beat_the_press+%28Beat+the+Press%29) **Dean Baker* on Brooks' nonsensical position on the supposedly "ruinous" debt. In short, "There is no obvious event in the world that could justify calling the debt problem ruinous."
