"Last Night On Live TV, A Politician Called For An Economic Disaster — And Hardly Anyone Noticed"

[applegrove]

Last Night On Live TV, A Politician Called For An Economic Disaster — And Hardly Anyone Noticed

by Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/marco-rubio-calls-for-a-balanced-budget-amendment-which-would-destroy-the-economy-2013-2

"SNIP.............................................


The Republicans offered up a rising star, Marco Rubio, to deliver a rebuttal that was written even before the President's speech had been released. It was mostly a speech composed of generalities. And although there was a brief awkward moment with a water bottle, Rubio looked pretty good.

But there was one statement from Rubio that really stands out:

The President loves to blame the debt on President Bush. But President Obama created more debt in four years than his predecessor did in eight. The real cause of our debt is that our government has been spending 1 trillion dollars more than it takes in every year. That’s why we need a balanced budget amendment.

The weird thing about this line is that it's a call to enact an amendment which would destroy the economy. What's even weirder is that hardly anyone cared that a politician would call for it on live TV!


.............................................SNIP"

[freshwest]

1. That and the destruction of the Post Office. Neo-feudalism on the way.

[Ed Suspicious]

2. It's because once again they control a simple narrative free from nuance and loaded with false

equivalence. They posit that the U.S. Economy is like a household economy and when money gets tight you need to tighten the belt. They do this conveniently ignoring the deflationary effect this has on economies. I guess it makes sense however. A professor of mine once reminded us that deflation benefits banks and financiers. Inflation makes their money that is on loan relatively less valuable. Therefore it stands to reason that the party of bankers would prefer policy that would make bankers more rich.

[frylock]

3. business insider has not been pulling punches..

good on them for calling these fools out.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

4. Americans Are Clueless How Economies Work

You'll get a healthy percentage of the country to clap like trained seals if you say the words, "Balanced Budget Amendment." The people clapping just plain don't understand that enacting such a measure would KILL our economy. Thom Hartmann explains this really well, and I usually try to paraphrase him when I explain this concept to someone who thinks a Balanced Budget Amendment would be a great idea.

First of all, there has never been a time in this country's history when we WEREN'T in debt. The country was STARTED on a loan from the French, so on Day One of America's existence, we had debt.

More importantly, though, if the government had no way to SELL its debt (what do you think Treasury Bonds are?), it would have basically NO INCOME. And that doesn't even take into account all the people making a profit on the interest from government bonds, which also creates more income for the government when the interest is taxed as income.

Anyone who doesn't understand the concept of buying and selling debt should watch the sequel to the movie "Wall Street." When Gordon Gekko gets out of prison and decides to rebuild his fortune, what's the first thing he starts doing? He starts buying "distressed mortgages" (translation: he starts buying debt in order to get rich).

Take away the government's ability to sell its debt, and you can just shutter up the windows of this country, because we'll be bankrupt. That's why it always amazes me when some right-wing lapdog suggests a Balanced Budget Amendment. It's funny, but the stupidity of the right-wing SHOULD be just accepted as commonplace and normal to me, yet pretty much every time it takes me by surprise. Some of these people are so dumb that I don't know how they find their way home at night.