THE INSINCERITY OF DEFICITS HAWKS

As all progressives must restate to begin with…I am in FAVOR of living within my means, both on a personal and public basis. However, today’s versions of “deficit hawks” are insincere to say the least. Hopefully their insincerity can provide a lesson for the future.

The lesson is really pretty simple. First, we took our foot off the gas as far as deficit reduction during the George W. Bush Administration in 2001. As Dubya took office we were running a $300 billion surplus. We were taking in $300 billion more dollars than we were spending. We were running a national debt ( we owed borrowed money from years past) even as we started accruing this annual surplus allowing us to pay down the national debt. But, the Bush Administration preferred to enact a tax cut policy for the wealthiest individuals in our country. This policy on its very own squandered the annual surplus. To be fair Dubya is not the only one to blame. He was encouraged to pursue this policy by Alan Greenspan, who has probably been the most overrated Fed Chairman in history. Alan Greenspan was good at one thing…giving bad advice, and that record becomes more clear every day.

Second, we engaged in two major wars without paying for them. This is completely counter to our record for other wars in our national history. We always understood there would be sacrifice when we engaged in war. We understood the sacrifice in lives lost, and we understood the cost in the treasury lost. War is expensive and we borrowed to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These mistakes in tax policy and wars were made in fiscal terms. The mistakes are NOT being made now that we find ourselves in a fragile condition. The dollars are not being squandered today on stimulus and spending that we are pursuing domestically. Not to stimulate our economy as we did in 2009 would have meant a longer more protracted recovery period that would render us in peril of failure everyday it lasted. We are fortunate to have the size and economic system that allows us to use our government to stimulate and restore our economic well being.

The recovery will eventually bring us back to where we were…growing and strong. Hopefully will have learned our lesson and use budget surpluses properly in the future to control our overall national debt and prudently choose the expenses we pursue.