Posted on 12/14/2012 9:38:35 AM PST by darrellmaurina
We are not having a debt crisis.
It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt.
No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. The modern Republican Party’s grand, radical agenda lies in ruins — but the party doesn’t know how to deal with that failure, and it retains enough power to do immense damage as it strikes out in frustration.
(SNIP)
Since the 1970s, the Republican Party has fallen increasingly under the influence of radical ideologues, whose goal is nothing less than the elimination of the welfare state — that is, the whole legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society.
(SNIP)
The answer, for a long time, has involved two strategies. One is “starve the beast,” the idea of using tax cuts to reduce government revenue, then using the resulting lack of funds to force cuts in popular social programs.
(snip)
Arguably more important in conservative thinking, however, was the notion that the G.O.P. could exploit other sources of strength — white resentment, working-class dislike of social change, tough talk on national security — to build overwhelming political dominance, at which point the dismantling of the welfare state could proceed freely.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just had to see the name “Paul Krugman” and the virtual ignore button gets pushed . . .
The fed is printing 85 billion a month and the chief buyer of gov bonds. What could go wrong?
They really **DO** believe, in accord with what they consider textbook Keynesian economics, that when the economy is in trouble, the solution is for the government to step in and spend lots of money to help prevent a recession from becoming a depression.
As conservatives we need to understand their viewpoint to fight it.
As social conservatives, we have the ability to rebut some of Krugman’s arguments in ways that secular conservatives cannot. Unlike some types of conservatives, we can effectively reach out to Hispanics based on faith issues. We can rebut the accusation that we care only about the rich. Those are false claims about many conservatives, but social conservatives are particularly well-suited to prove them wrong.
I've love to ignore Krugman.
Unfortunately, he is one of the key popularizers of the Keynesian view of economics that underlies the whole idea that the government not only can but **SHOULD** spend lots of borrowed money when the economy is in trouble.
We need to understand what motivates this view of economics in order to fight it.
It's not that the Democrats are too stupid to understand how to balance a checkbook. On the contrary, they're often very smart people. The problem is they are dead wrong on some very important core issues, including their argument that we can tax and spend ourselves out of a recession.
That is dead wrong and it needs to be fought. Quoting Krugman is a good way to explain what they believe and why it is wrong.
I hope sane Americans live long enough to see Krugman begging for bread in the winter streets of NYC. He has no idea how close the revolution is.
I can’t imagine why no one reads the New York Times anymore.
No, not a political crisis but we are witnessing the destruction of America into a communists dictatorship. King Obama will remain in power for many terms.
Anyway that is what the voters decided they wanted and the Republicans just didn't want Romney so the didn't vote. Thanks for the Republican rats. Used to think the vast amount of conservative Republicans had brains. They apparently never heard of the lesser of two evils.
The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows.
Kind of like saying that sexual relations between siblings is no big deal.
Having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit.
Talk about sounding like a stoned teenager,man the nets.
The left have went over the cliff and can’t be saved.
Look how low the rates are on home-equity loans! It would be crazy NOT to buy that new SUV and hot tub! /sarc
Um, if the borrowing rates are near historic lows, that means they have been higher in the past. This strongly implies that they will (cough, cough) be higher in the future.
Apparently not, they keep running socialism light expecting to win.
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