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Usually you post good articles. This entire paper reads like Arianna Huffington wrote it.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Column...getary-CrackupThe philosopher George Santayana once said that a fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts after losing sight of his goal. By this standard, many congressional Republicans are fanatics, fighting a war on the deficit that is largely won, using methods grossly disproportionate to the nature of the problem.
When they control the White House, Republicans are very blasé about the deficit. George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton and, with the enthusiastic support of Republicans in Congress, systematically dissipated it with huge tax cuts and unfunded wars. Republicans even repealed budget rules that Bush’s father had fought for in 1990 to allow them to cut taxes without constraint.
The budget went from a surplus of 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product in fiscal year 2000 to a deficit of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2004, a turnaround of 5.9 percent of GDP, the greatest 4-year deterioration in the deficit since World War II. The deficit improved a bit afterwards, but fell apart in Bush’s last year due to the financial crisis that developed during his presidency, which raised the deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP in 2008 and 10.1 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2009, which was actually Bush’s last budget, beginning on Oct. 1, 2008.
On January 20, 2009, Republicans suddenly got religion and decided that the deficit was the greatest economic problem of our time. Despite a continuing economic crisis that three-quarters of Americans believe has yet to end, they insisted that the budget be balanced ASAP.
In truth, vast progress has been made on the deficit. After peaking in 2009, the deficit has fallen steadily to 9 percent in 2010, 8.7 percent in 2011, 6.8 percent in 2012, and 3.9 percent this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which projects a deficit of just 2.1 percent of GDP next year. This represents the sharpest deficit reduction since the immediate post-World War II era.
Moreover, just this week, the CBO released new projections showing that the federal debt as a share of GDP will actually fall from 74 percent of GDP next year to 68 percent in 2018 and will remain essentially flat through 2026.
The CBO report shows that the U.S. still has a long-term debt problem, but there is no short-term problem whatsoever. The idea that drastic action must be taken today to cut the deficit immediately is just complete nonsense.
Indeed, on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board warned that the deficit is actually falling too fast. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke complained that excessively rapid deficit reduction was causing fiscal headwinds that will reduce real GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points this year—a very large impact.
This was the key reason that the Fed declined to reduce its policy of quan ative easing, which markets had anticipated for some months. The economy needed additional monetary stimulus to compensate for fiscal tightening, the Fed believes.
Yet despite these facts, Republicans in Congress are prepared to both shut down the federal government on October 1 and risk default on the national debt by refusing to raise the debt limit unless President Obama and congressional Democrats, who control the Senate, agree to their demands for immediate, further deficit reduction and repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Usually you post good articles. This entire paper reads like Arianna Huffington wrote it.
You have no idea who Bruce Bartlett is, do you?
how is that relevant? He's been attacking Repubs for a while now. Him pulling a David Brooks is not news.
So how is my knowledge of the author relevant, oh great mind of our time? What does it have to do with the content of the article, Alfred Binet?
Good job maintaining your standard of not posting anything relevant.
Not only are you a moron, but a political hack too. I don't pretend to attribute the decreasing deficit to Obama, but I'm also not so stupid that I deny reality. The budget deficit is decreasing under Obama. Bartlett is simply acknowledging a fact and that's a win for deficit hawks. You're so emotionally opposed to Obama, you don't have the capacity to acknowledge this reality. Just one example why I think you're a moron.
Is this link supposed to refute anything in the OP?
lib ed!The CBO report shows that the U.S. still has a long-term debt problem...
Even though I don't believe that is a correct portrayal of me, that isn't a correct definition of moron.
So your view of someone with intelligence is one who thinks like you do? Glad you cleared that up.
snc do you deny that the deficit has seen a significant reduction in the past 4 years?
WH, this is one of the most interesting articles I have read recently and I thank you for posting it. I read it because I happen to like Bruce Bartlett. He is undoubtedly one of those horrid human beings being exposed today as 'moderate republicans' (the very idea!), and therefore worthy of being drawn and quartered by the loudest voices from the republican right in the House of Representatives.
I have not been paying much attention to politics lately (it all seems so 'same story different verse'), and so I was frankly surprised when I heard what Bernanke was saying this week, and surprised that the Fed made the decision they did. This article clarifies that for me from a source that reasonable minds will acknowledge is not a hack for either party.
The fact that we still have a long term debt problem is in no way denied in the article, but is put in a perspective that makes the decisions by the Fed at least understandable and the decisions by the far-right republicans (not all of them are like the crazies) exposed for the political demagogues that they are.
Well done finding it and sharing it with us.
And I rather do like the Santana quote. I may have to get a t-shirt made with it.
"long term debt problem"
... is untouchable because so much of it is the 1% and capitalists are profiting from it the dividends. They own govt through the Treasury debt. It's just another wealth transfer/redistribution mechanism.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 09-22-2013 at 03:58 PM.
RISE THE PROLETARIAT!!!!
people duped by the tea party, foxnews and rush limbaugh will never believe anything is getting better as long as we have a black president.
people that believe everything the GOP is telling them=
theY are protecting big business like Hilter did=
Last edited by PublicOption; 09-22-2013 at 08:59 PM.
http://www.davemanuel.com/charts2/us..._and_2013.html
so of the nearly $17T US debt, foreign debt holdings are only about 33%, meaning the 2/3 of the debt is held by domestic orgs.
public option=power to the people.
Boom...been saying this for years...unless the GOP gets into power in 2016 and starts another useless war..we are on the path for rapid (too rapid) debt reduction...The CBO report shows that the U.S. still has a long-term debt problem, but there is no short-term problem whatsoever. The idea that drastic action must be taken today to cut the deficit immediately is just complete nonsense.
Indeed, on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board warned that the deficit is actually falling too fast. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke complained that excessively rapid deficit reduction was causing fiscal headwinds that will reduce real GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points this year—a very large impact.
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