Deficit Spending is not always good, and not always bad

I studied a little Keynesian Economics in college. Conservative economic theorists always distort the Keynesian philosophy and try to explain it as government spending, all the time in a managed, socialist economy. That's not how I was taught. Keynesians, in a simple explanation, believed that there are economic cycles in every Capitalist system. When things are very good, unemployment is down, GDP is strong and there are no national emergencies, the government should be squirreling away money. Creating a budget surplus, thus evening out the cycle and "saving for a rainy day". We saw this example of Keynesian economics practiced under the Clinton years, with tax increases while times were good, leading to a budget surplus when he left office.

During times of crisis, either through war or severe economic downturns, like the Great Depression and WWII, and the crisis that President Obama inherited in 2009, government deficit spending and stimulus packages and necessary to "right the ship".

The Republicans get it backwards. They cut taxes when things are good (when they inherit a strong economy from Dems, such as 2001 and 2017). And then when we inherit a collapsing economy (1933, 1993 and 2009), that's when they want to balance the budget.

I know this is basically a simple explanation to Keynesian economics, but it can be useful in family discussions this week.

<snip>Keynesian economists generally argue that, as aggregate demand is volatile and unstable, a market economy will often experience inefficient macroeconomic outcomes in the form of economic recessions (when demand is low) and inflation (when demand is high). These can be mitigated by economic policy responses, in particular, monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government, which can help stabilize output over the business cycle.[3] Keynesian economists generally advocate a managed market economy – predominantly private sector, but with an active role for government intervention during recessions and depressions.[4]<Snip>

Link;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics