Funny... when Reagan ran up huge deficits that built a mountain of debt, these same people were mum. But when Clinton took office, there was suddenly lots of talk about "lock boxes" and the need to bring the deficit down and remove those nasty "entitlements" that the little people held so dear. So Clinton bent to their will. But... then Bush 43 took a budget surplus and ran it into deficit and started a new run-up of debt. Funny how that works. Spending by Republicans is OK because it is "essential" but spending by Democrats is bad because it is "wasteful".
So... once again America has a Democrat in power. His mandate is to pull the country out of the ditch that Bush 43 ran it into. But what have the right wing ideologues contributing to this debate? The cry of "Debt!" They are yelling once again that debt is a monster that will swallow everything.
Here is a graph from a report by Auerbach and Gale published by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center that puts the lie to all this hullabaloo. See Figure 4:
Two things are obvious from this graph:
- The US has sustained far worse debt in the past, see WWII.
- The Reagan run-up of debt was far worse than anything Obama is planning to do to save the economy.
The Reagan run-up was of no concern to those now crying that the sky is falling. Reagan justified his deficits as necessary to "win the Cold War". OK, I'll buy that. But then who doesn't believe that a run-up of debt today isn't necessary to "win the war" against the oncoming Depression?
Oh wait... only the cozy rich who will pull their sacks of moolah over them and snuggle down living off dividends and rents until the ill winds of the economic recession/depression they created has passed. They are worried that taxes will be needed to pay off the debt. They don't want to spend their dollar to help out those thrown out of a job. Nope! No way! Where is good old American self-reliance?
Oh wait another sec... those Wall Street bankers just turned from anti-debt howlers to "please spend trillions on me" lemon socialists. They turned on a dime when their banks collapsed due to their own reckless disregard of financial risks. They suddenly went from "conservative" principles to "I need another hundred billion".
So... all this anti-debt wailing is simply a "not me" response to trouble. These fat cats (and fat cat wannabes) don't want government to waste money on the unemployed or those who have lost homes or suddenly run up big medical bills. No! But, wait another sec, if you've lost a half trillion here or a hundred billion there because of bad business practices... well... that's a different story. Now it is essential to the "stability of the system" that the government shower you with dollars and debts be damned!
Hypocrisy!
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