Budget hysterics.

• Position: Federal budget - Editorial

There's a hysteria sweeping Washington, the balanced-budget hysteria. And like all hysterias, this one is based on falsehoods and is bound to do grave damage.

The Republicans in the House and in the Senate have succeeded in persuading the American people that the budget deficit is growing so fast that it is going to overwhelm our children and our grandchildren.

That's not true. The deficit is not growing rapidly right now. And it is not jeopardizing the health of the American economy. Our deficit as a proportion of our gross domestic product is holding steady, and our debt burden is smaller than almost any other advanced industrial country. The U.S. government is in no danger whatsoever of going bankrupt. We are one of the most attractive markets in the world for investors.

But the hysterics have won the day. The Republicans have voted to slash at least $1 trillion in federal spending over the next seven years. And Democrats joined them in this folly. (The three Democratic Senators to vote along with the Republicans were Charles Robb of Virginia, Sam Nunn of Georgia, and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, Democratic powerbrokers all.)

On sheer economic grounds, these cuts, and not the deficit itself, will have catastrophic consequences. Government spending creates jobs. When you slash government spending, you slash jobs. Even the Republicans admit, when pressed, that their budget-cutting will increase unemployment by 750,000 jobs and bring the economy to a screeching halt.

Then there's the way in which these cuts are going to be made. The Republicans are swinging the axe wildly at any social program in sight. Medicare will lose more than $250 billion; Medicaid more than $175 billion. Welfare, food stamps, child nutrition, disability insurance, college loans, job training - all will be slashed.

"The poor are being asked to bear a large share of the burden of this economic program," Isabel Sawhill of the Urban Institute told The Washington Post. That newspaper conducted an in-depth study of the winners and the losers. Its conclusion: "The tax and spending cuts moving through Congress are likely to reduce the after-tax incomes of American families at the bottom of the economic ladder."

Meanwhile, the Republicans are not cutting corporate welfare. Instead, they're adding to it, offering more tax cuts to private companies and the rich. The House has $353 billion in cuts; the Senate, $170 billion, and they're going to hash out the difference over the next...