Howard Dean On Sequester: 'Let It Happen'

[octoberlib]

5. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to lose their job. Dean thinks if we don't pay now, we'll pay later

Here's Deans reasoning: Sam Stein: There’s a school of thought that says now is just not the right time to do any cuts of any variety. [Congressional Budget Office Director] Doug Elmendorf testified that if sequestration went through, you’d lose 750,000 jobs in the first year. So what about the argument that you should put off sequestration for a year and not have any cuts at all?

Howard Dean:Well, the problem is that it’s never a good time to do cuts. When I look at these guys on Sunday talk shows, they’re all over the place. They all say we need cuts and when you try to pin them down, they don't have any. So either they can be serious about the deficit or not. They're not. And I think cutting the Pentagon is the good thing to do. I don’t think we’re going to get another chance. If you want to put this off for six months, yeah okay. But I don’t want to miss this chance. We already missed our chance before.

In the last year, what they did was they made permanent the Bush tax cuts under $400,000. The Republicans kicked their ass in that deal. And inside the Beltway people spun it in a different way. But, in effect, the Republicans won that battle. And now, I think we’ve got to make the cuts and if we don’t make the cuts, then the deficit will be dealt with in a worse balance later on.



SS:The sequester is broad. It doesn't discriminate between good or bad programs. Aren't you worried about what effect hundreds of billions in Medicare provider cuts will have?

Dean:No. I’m not in the least worried about Medicare provider cuts. The president essentially proposed them in the State of the Union. Whether this comes from drug companies or provider cuts, we’re going to do those anyway as soon as they get around to doing what really has to be done, which is paying by the patient, not by the procedure.

It’s an odd view from the left. But there are actually some people who think I’m right.

SS:You’re comfortable risking a short-term recession to take advantage of this opportunity.

Dean:I think you’ve got to. It will be a short term, light, small recession. Look, we’re in deep trouble financially in this country. And, you know, there’s going to be a tremendous amount of pain. You can pay me later or you can pay me now, but paying later is going to be much worse and it’s going to hit much more vulnerable people than this does.