Mark Halperin Was Right

Mark Halperin Was Right
By Marshall Auerback

http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com

It may not have been the most felicitous choice of phrase, but Mark Halperin’s characterization of Barack Obama was not far off the mark, even if he did get suspended for it. The President is a dick, at least as far as his understanding of basic economics goes. Obama’s perverse fixation with deficit reduction uber alles takes him to areas where even George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan dared not to venture. Medicare and Social Security are now on the table. In fact entitlements of all kinds (excluding the myriad of subsidies still present to Wall Street) are all deemed fair game.

To what end? Deficit control and deficit reduction, despite the fact that at present, the US has massive excess capacity including millions of unemployed and underemployed, a negative contribution from net exports, and a stagnant private spending growth horizon. Yet the President marches on, oblivious to the harm his policies would introduce to an already bleeding economy, using the tired analogy between a household and a sovereign government to support his tired arguments. It may have been impolitic, but “dick” is what immediately sprang to mind as one listened incredulously to the President’s press conference, which went from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Discussion of government budget deficits often begins with an analogy to a household’s budget, and the President continues that horrible pattern of misinformation. Obama challenged the view that the government might side-step the debt ceiling constraint by just paying “interest on the debt” and said:

This is the equivalent of me saying, you know what, I will choose to pay my mortgage, but I’m not going to pay my car note. Or I’m going to pay my car note but I’m not going to pay my student loan. Now, a lot of people in really tough situations are having to make those tough decisions. But for the U.S. government to start picking and choosing like that is not going to inspire a lot of confidence.

Let’s state it again: households do not have the power to levy taxes, to issue the currency we use, and to demand that those taxes are paid in the currency it issues. Rather, households are users of the currency issued by the sovereign government. Here the same distinction applies to private businesses, which are also users of the currency. There’s a big difference, as all us on this blog have repeatedly stressed: Users of a currency do face an external constraint in a way that a sovereign issuer of its currency does not.

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His only interest in using that was to imply that the President was being too harsh on the Republicans.

The author totally mischaracterizes the intent of that remark.

Obama pivoted to deficit hysteria in the midst of a severe employment crisis. That's an act of cruelty and ignorance on his part. It doesn't represent the compassion and intelligence one would expect from a supposedly progressive leader.

Without any conception of context.

The notion that Halperin is "right" is just over-clever rhetoric, Too clever, because it reveals a lot about the author,

It is why I am tiring of authors who write this way. Big Fail.

There is no word-parsing, spin or bullshit speculation there.

"dick". It was because he was being "too tough" on the republicans

and perhaps auerback does not realize the implications of not raising the debt limit if congress cannot come to an agreement. All Social Security and Medicare benefits payments STOP. Many government workers stop receiving their salary

Also, Mr. auerback seems to be upset and blaming the President for this whole fiasco. I would like to suggest by far the majority of the issues and economic problems we have are due to republican policies, and guess what, the house is controlled by those same republicans

A sovereign currency government can only default by choice. Obama has consistently ceded ground to the right wing and now finds himself in a trap partly of his own making.

SS and Medicare payments do not need to stop. The federal government can always meet its fiscal obligations. Obama must be aware of that since his Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars out of air to backstop Wall Street, with no congressional approval needed or sought, no public debate or pronouncements, no drama, and no questions really asked. So to pretend now that we've got to cut "entitlements" over some ginned up debt-ceiling crisis is a little absurd, no?

I am sorry if being mean to Republicans offends your author.

This is what is wrong with so many bloggers - deliberately misunderstand something that was said, engage in dumbshit word parsing, and then over-reach.

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but it appears that you and the author share Alperin's opinion....
which is why you can sit there and defend the vile name calling and demeaning
asshole righteousness of some paper pusher.

that's all this is.

This comment doesn't make the least bit of sense to me.

I'm glad the headline caught your attention. Auerback raises some important issues here.

and willfully misinterprets Obama.