Republicans preach fiscal conservatism, yet they always find money for war | Kate Aronoff

Costs only become an issue when it comes to programs that run counter to Republican policy priorities

If you know who Sean Hannity is, you probably know that he is no fan of the Green New Deal. The proposal has blanketed Fox News since it debuted in November 2018, with Hannity and fellow hosts on the network narrowing in a particular line of attack, summarized during a radio spot he did last year: "What they are proposing is so outrageously expensive and cost prohibitive even they acknowledge that if we confiscated all the billionaires' wealth, it still wouldn't be able to pay for this mess of theirs." Along similar lines, Republicans circulated a bogus study from the industry-funded American Action Forum claiming a Green New Deal would cost $93tn, elevating the number into something of a meme among rightwing talking heads and politicians. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told his colleagues it would be more than enough to "buy every American a Ferrari".

Hannity and McConnell, along with most of the rest of the Republican party, have more recently been heaping praise onto Trump for assassinating Iranian Gen Qassem Suleimani. "This is a huge victory for American intelligence, a huge victory for our military, a huge victory for the state department, and a huge victory and total leadership by the president," Hannity boasted after the killing. Without consulting Congress, the president kicked long-simmering US-Iran tensions up to a boil that now threatens to spill over into another full-blown war in the Middle East. His threats to bomb cultural sites throughout the country - in violation of international law - make that even more likely. So why aren't Republicans asking how the government would pay for it?