Is concern for the deficit a phoney issue?

[JamesA1102]

I ask because I don't remember all these tea partiers or conservatives being so concerned about this during the Bush years.

It seems like such an abstract for most. The deficit is not something tangible that affects people's daily lives like my spouse just got laid off or gas prices are going up, etc.

Also, for anyone who saw Bill Maher's show the other night, when he confronted the tea party woman and pointed out that Obama & the Dems lowered taxes and created the deficit commission, both of which the tea party says it supports but the GOP in congress opposed; she couldn't explain why the tea party supports the GOP instead of the Dems.

Maher also pointed out that the military is the biggest part of our budget, yet she doesn't support any reducution in military spending.

So isn't this all just an excuse for those who just don't like the Dems?

[iamjoy]

1. The Deficit Is A Football

Whichever party is in power keeps punting because kicking the ball down the field is easier than standing and fighting.

No party really wants to cut what they consider vital programs, or raise taxes. So, when they are in power, they borrow and spend to keep the American people content. The party out of power gripes about the deficit, but has few real suggestions on how to correct it.

[mrcheerful]

4. No your wrong as deficit is a pure R economic out come of cutting taxes on the top 2% while

increasing military spending. Deficit spending didn't get bad until Reagan, Carter had inflation run wild from Nixon and Ford policies as well as the OPEC shutting off oil production to artificially cause an oil shortage so oil prices went up. Sure D's voted for Reagan tax cuts, but Reagan had the nasty habit of shutting down government until the D's caved, they caved because no one was getting their government checks and they got the back lash from the people.

Todays deficit problem is from 8 years of Bush tax cuts, 2 unpaid wars and 8 years of R corporate off shoring American industry costing tax dollar losses as workers wages went down, workers that once were being paid $25 an hour are now doing the same work for $10 an hour, so less pay means less taxes. When Clinton left office there was a surplus not a deficit, the first surplus since JFK was in office. To say the R's and D's use the deficit the same is not true, then there is the fact that we have had 20 years of R making deficits with 10 years of D's cleaning the R's mess up.

[DonCoquixote]

2. No...BUT

The way it is being discussed is. Yes, there is a deficit, and yes, if we do not get it under control, it will cause problems, but it was caused by the very remedy the GOP wants; capitalism without a referee. It is because companies put short term profit ahead of their country that they made bloated military budgets, and ten thousand other means of corruption that ensure that, in order to get anything done, somebody with the proper connections has to make a dollar. You could look at everything from education to farm subsidies to Miles per Gallon, and you will see that one of the main causes of inefficiency is that some company is there trying to squeeze a dollar. All of this also ensures that, even though we spend a lot of money, said services are often crap, because the people making money make money by offering fake solutions to created problems.

Take for example, our war machine. The Military industrial complex has nothing to gain from wars that are won in quick, decisive, clear manners. If the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did not drag on like they did, Halliburton would not have made nearly as much money, so instead of the world war 2 ethic where business does everything to help the war effort (including losing profits if need be) you have an expensive military machine that cannot even get it's solider's bullet-proof vests, where relatives have to go to Florida Gun Shows to equip their sons and daughters. The war machine is working very well for they that profit from it, but then again, these companies would run Auschwitz if they could make a profit.

So, yes, there is a deficit, but if we were really serious about it, we would grab wall street by the throat, and get the profit motive out of government services, because most companies nowadays do not make profit by building the fastest sharpest handiest tool or service, but by manipulating people and conditions so that they gain the most power, even if it means that the customer gets screwed. The right rails on about incompetent government employees, but it is silent about many CEO's and executives that A) Ruined their companies B)Got hugely rewarded in profits and C) Went right on to get an even better job where they promised to use the same methods. I say this as a resident of Florida, where the main choices for the Governor's race are between A) A former executive of Bank of America, Alex Sink and B) A man who either lost or stole 1.6 Billion dollars from Medicare. Of course, B) is Rick Scott, the GOP candidate; that man should be in a Federal Prison, not a Governor's mansion, and I will vote against him. Sadly though, if you think I like the idea of putting an executive from Bank of America in power, you are mistaken; it's the choice between eating a maggot sandwich (edible but disgusting) or putting a shotgun to my face (not edible, and certainly not pretty.)

The point is, deficits are not made in government offices, they are made in back rooms and boardrooms. While the GOP has certainly made the conditions for deficits to bloom (after all, Reagan and Bush Jr. ran up the largest slice of the tab), they are not the only ones, and that is because Wall Street controls both. All the same, I know which party is the one that does most of the harm, and that is why, despite many disappointments with the Democrats, I will never be a GOP member.

[TexasObserver]

3. Yes, until we have 5% unemployment, it is.

No amount of cutting spending will balance the budget.

The deficit is primarily a function of reduced federal revenues, which can only increase sufficently to balance a budget when 95% employment exists.

You're right about the GOP and their Tea Partiers. They never whined about the deficit when Reagan, Bush I and Bush II never balanced a budget in their 20 years, and never even came close.

The only two presidents to balance a budget in the past 34 years are Carter and Clinton.

[lonestarnot]

5. It's a shiney issue created by the very fucks that are using it.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. it is a way of indirectly attacking "entitlement" spending from the right

[girl gone mad]

7. Yes, it's contrived.

The simple truth is that the deficit represents private sector savings. There is not much more to it than that. Our government must run high deficits unless the private sector ramps up spending. If the government reduces the deficit, our economy will contract.

It's sad when Dick Cheney represents the high water mark for American political rhetoric on monetary policy.