The Deficit Hysteria MUST be Politically Challenged by Progressives Now to Win Hearts and Minds

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/yellow/37383/the-deficit-hysteria-must-be-politically-challenged-by-progressives-now-to-win-hearts-and-minds

In the first place, the GOP seems to have no idea what the vast majority of Americans want. According to a recent Washington Post/NBC poll allowing tax cuts for the rich to expire was widely supported by a nearly three to one margin while cuts to Medicare and Medicaid were opposed by the same three to one margin;

"The potential solution to the debt crisis that gets the strongest support is raising taxes on Americans who make $250,000 or more annually, an idea that Obama campaigned on in 2008, backed away from last year to make a legislative deal with Republicans but has returned to as he’s begun discussing his vision for long-term fiscal responsibility. Of those surveyed, 72 percent said they support tax increases on people with incomes of more than $250,000, including 54 percent who strongly support them."

Cutting the federal budget without revenue increases will not only make deficits worse in the future but also slow the economy and increase needless suffering to millions more.

There are three main sources of the current deficit problem according to Chad Stone, Chief economist with the Washington based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In Congressional testimony earlier this summer Stone told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that the recession itself, the more than $2 trillion in Bush tax cuts for the rich-and their recent extention which is said to cost another $700 billion over the next ten years-and, of course, the unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have consistently accounted for more than two-thirds of the annual budget deficits since the start of the recession four years ago. According to the very same testimony, Stone also stressed that projections based on Congressional Budget Office data show that those three factors, if unchecked, will increase the current publically held debt as a share of the economy (GDP) from the current 65% to nearly 90% by 2019! The national debt as a share of total GDP without these three factors falls precipitously from about 25% of GDP presently to about 20% by 2019! The obvious course is to end the wars, raise taxes steeply on the rich and increase stimulus to expand the economy and create revenue generating growth and jobs while reducing the cost of automatic stabilizers.

More at the link --

[nashville_brook]

1. k and r