"4 Biggest Government Spending Myths Debunked" by Mattea Kramer at Mother Jones

[applegrove]

4 Biggest Government Spending Myths Debunked

by Mattea Kramer at Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/four-biggest-spending-myths-debunked?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2Fmain+%28MotherJones.com+Main+Article+Feed%29

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

Spending Myth 1: Today's deficits have taken us to a historically unprecedented, economically catastrophic place.

.........................

In fact, we've been here before. In 2009, the federal budget deficit was a whopping 10.1% of the American economy and back in 1943, in the midst of World War II, it was three times that—30.3%. This fiscal year the deficit will total around 7.6%. Yes, that is big. But in the Congressional Budget Office's grimmest projections, that figure will fall to 6.3% next year, and 5.8% in fiscal 2014. In 1983, under President Reagan, the deficit hit 6% of the economy, and by 1998, that had turned into a surplus. So, while projected deficits remain large, they're neither historically unprecedented, nor insurmountable.

More important still, the size of the deficit is no sign that lawmakers should make immediate deep cuts in spending. In fact, history tells us that such reductions are guaranteed to harm, if not cripple, an economy still teetering at the edge of recession.

A number of leading economists are now busy explaining why the deficit this year actually ought to be a lot larger, not smaller; why there should be more government spending, including aid to state and local governments, which would create new jobs and prevent layoffs in areas like education and law enforcement. Such efforts, working in tandem with slow but positive job growth in the private sector, might indeed mean genuine recovery. Government budget cuts, on the other hand, offset private-sector gains with the huge and depressing effect of public-sector layoffs, and have damaging ripple effects on the rest of the economy as well.
...........................................SNIP"

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R and the Readers' Digest edition

Though it's really a worthwhile read, if you have time:

Spending Myth 1: Today's deficits have taken us to a historically unprecedented, economically catastrophic place.

Spending Myth 2: Military and other national security spending have already taken their lumps and future budget-cutting efforts will have to take aim at domestic programs instead.

Spending Myth 3: Government health-insurance programs are more costly than private insurance.

Spending Myth 4: The Affordable Care Act—Obamacare—will bankrupt the federal government while levying the biggest tax in US history.

Recommended.

[JDPriestly]

2. The people who oppose social programs are the same people who

destroyed American manufacturing capacity and jobs. Forget them. They are not pro-American.
They are not patriots.

The debt is not the problem. The lack of opportunity and the lack of domestic industry, of domestic production of consumer goods is the problem.

Tax the 1%. And if they don't like it let them leave and take their "investments" with them. Americans will rebuild American industry without them. We are still an incredibly creative, resourceful people, and if the lazy 1%ers left and went to China, the creativity and resourcefulness that is natural to Americans would be freed.

When I read the details of Romney's takeover deals, how he sucked the capital out of some of the companies he bought, how he destroyed them, selecting which ones would make good hosts for his parasitic financial schemes, I think that American would be able to flourish without his ilk and their greed.

[woo me with science]

3. DU Rec