New York Times, Deficit Hawks, Tax Chickens, by Nancy Folbre (UMass, Department of Economics)

I’m not sure who invented the term “deficit hawk,” but it seems an odd name for a creature too chicken to raise taxes. The bird is strange in color, too — in Republican red, Democratic blue or Blue Dog purple.

Most politicians refused to get specific about the federal budget until after the election, then stood around waiting for bipartisan groups to stick their necks out. We have now heard from the chairmen of President Obama’s bipartisan deficit reduction commission and the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the feathers are flying.

Both plans propose cuts in taxes on individual and corporate tax rates, counterbalanced by elimination of some big tax breaks. Both also propose taxing at least one liquid whose consumption we want to discourage: gasoline or sugary drinks. The Bipartisan Policy Center would also impose a 6.5% national sales tax. …

Most critics on the right don’t like the proposed tax increases; most on the left argue that we shouldn’t obsess about the budget until we get the unemployment rate down and the economic growth rate back up. In other words, both plans to cut the deficit are hawkish, and the response to them largely represents hawks revealing their inner chickens.