GOLDBERG: Republicans’ deficit reduction a cynical performative gesture
For several years now, I’ve been told the old consensus of fiscal conservatism and limited government was dead. So, you might think I’m delighted by the sudden rebirth of budget-cutting zeal on display in the Republicans’ brinksmanship over the debt ceiling. For Trumpified institutions like the Club for Growth, fighting is defined as performative pugnaciousness. The House Freedom Caucus, the tail that wags the dog of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Republican conference, is such an institution.
