Saturday, February 16, 2013

The deficit ain't the big problem…


The existing federal deficit/debt is NOT America's biggest problem right now. The news media and the cable TV talking heads should stop treating it like it is.

Our biggest national issue right now is: stimulating faster growth of the national economy, and helping to create more jobs for the Americans who are out of work. Let's work on those first.

Here's an interesting item from Evan Soltas at Bloomberg.com on the deficit hype:

"Of course, the news media seem obsessed with the subject. The Washington Post has run 2,310 separate stories with the word ‘deficit’ in them over the last year, according to the LexisNexis database of U.S. newspapers. That’s one deficit story for every 10 the newspaper publishes in its front and opinion sections. But this doesn't mean anybody actually cares. Deficit talk is a rhetorical ploy — a decoy justification for the unpopular-but-necessary component of both parties’ larger political agendas…

"Here's what's really going on: a schizophrenic conversation about the proper size and role of government. It's really easy to win political support for lower taxes or for particular government spending. It's really hard, by contrast, to win support for the concomitant part of the Republican or Democratic agendas:  big cuts to specific federal programs or increases in average tax rates on the middle class....

"Washington doesn't have deficit monomania. It has an acute case of deficit displacement syndrome: a tendency to use a budget shortfall as cover to expand or contract the federal government. Instead of talking mainly about tax increases or cuts to government services, both parties disguise the real issue by feigning concern about deficits.

"If you want to argue for more government, argue for more government. If you want to argue for less, argue for less. But don't keep saying that the deficit is the real problem, unless you actually believe it."

Both parties voted for all the past spending that created today's current national debt and deficits.
Let's concentrate on an open and candid debate about the proper size and role of the federal government.


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