When Deficits Don't Matter

[kentuck]

If you can argue that deficits do not matter, you can give huge taxcuts to all your friends. You can spend all you want on defense or whatever program you wish. You can spend money to create jobs because it doesn't matter how much you go into debt. You can simply compare it to the GDP, as if that has anything whatsoever to do with it.

You can argue that thru your brilliance, you have spurred the economy forward. It is taxcuts that create a good economy, you can argue. But it's not really taxcuts - it's debt that spurs the economy forward. And just as in real life, there is no free lunch. There is a price to pay for running huge deficits because the GDP is not at the government's disposal when there is a limited amount of funds to either invest or to pay interest on your debt. There comes a time when you have to make a choice.

But, if you believe that deficits do not matter, you can have a healthcare system for all America. You can have prescription drugs for all our elderly. We can have the best education system in the world because price is no concern. We can have childcare for all the working mothers and fathers in America. We can have whatever we want becasue we can simply put it on the charge card and add it to the deficit, because it is only a small percentage of the GDP.

[gratuitous]

1. No, no, no

Deficits don't matter if the federal treasury is shoveled directly into the already overstuffed pockets of Republican campaign contributors. Deficits do matter if you're proposing budget busting schemes like providing jobs, or health insurance, or school funding. I hope this clears everything up.

[kentuck]

3. Perfectly clear, gratuitous...

That's why Bush mentions on occasion that Congress needs to cut wasteful spending...just in case someone wises up and tries to do the same thing he is doing by spending like a Texas NG on a long drunk...

[leftofthedial]

2. I agree with Ted Rall

When Democrats take power again, they should ignore the deficits created by the borrow and spend GOP. Dems should fund every expensive social and domestic program we can: healthcare for all, HUGE alternative energy programs, quadruple education funding, free college tuition for every American, massive infrastructure investments. Add to that deficit. Let some future GOP "president" deal with the problem.