Deficits of Mass Distraction
Paul Krugman writes about the politicizing of federal budget deficits in today’s column:
To me — and I’m not alone in this — the sudden outbreak of deficit hysteria brings back memories of the groupthink that took hold during the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as then, dubious allegations, not backed by hard evidence, are being reported as if they have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now, as then, much of the political and media establishments have bought into the notion that we must take drastic action quickly, even though there hasn’t been any new information to justify this sudden urgency. Now, as then, those who challenge the prevailing narrative, no matter how strong their case and no matter how solid their background, are being marginalized.
And fear-mongering on the deficit may end up doing as much harm as the fear-mongering on weapons of mass destruction.
This is the year that the Bush tax cuts expire, so the Republicans will use their scare tactics to convince people that raising taxes on the rich is the wrong thing to do, and they’ll probably even argue that we should lower the tax rates to stimulate economic growth, because everybody knows that more money in the pockets of billionaires creates jobs, right? WRONG!
Obama has been making a point of placing blame for the deficit spending where it belongs – with the Republicans – and he has been pretty vocal about how their tax-cutting schemes have not worked in the past. He has pointed out that they are the party that reduced federal revenue by trillions of dollars by cutting taxes for the super rich, and they are the party that handed a blank check to Bush for the funding two very long wars. Obama should keep hammering on the Republicans about the deficit they created and he should be very firm with Reid and Pelosi about not extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
The Democrats in Congress should not be pressured by the deficit hysteria Krugman writes about. Now is not the time to cut funding for government programs that are essential to stimulating the economy and getting us out of this recession.
