Some Quick Thoughts About National Debt and the Upcoming Budget

http://practical-vision.blogspot.com/2009/03/some-quick-thoughts-about-national-debt.html

Some Quick Thoughts About National Debt and the Upcoming Budget
Posted by Political Heretic at 7:02 PM

Earlier today I scribbled down some notes about concern over the national debt in relation to the size of the spending requested in Obama’s proposed federal budget.

It bothers me when some of my friends on the left tend to blow off concern over our escalating debt, as though somehow even talking about it is some sort of right wing conspiracy. That’s ridiculous.

And its a shame that some people have that attitude because historically speaking, contrary to popular myth the hard data shows that it is Democratic leaders, not Republican ones, that drive down national debut, while Republican leaders engage in the most outrageous deficit spending even while running on campaign platforms of fiscal responsibility.

Here are some points to consider from a liberal who is very concerned about our rising deficits and national debt (which are different things, by the way:)

* When our national debt is considered as a percentage of GDP, then we discover that even now our debt is not as high (percentage wise) as it has been in times past for our nation - we spent when we had to and we the paid down that debt all the way up until Ronald Reagan and "fiscal conservatives" drove it back up with deficit spending.

* So while adding to our huge national debt is a sobering concern that we take very seriously, hyperbolic overreaction about the debt is more of a political ploy than true concern

* Our priorities have been so disastrously out of whack for so long that our country is literally falling apart. This massive spending isn't for kicks and giggles - its crisis spending, investing desperately needing money into the very fabric of our social infrastructure which is teetering on the brink.

* We now trail the world in health care, primary education (and are losing our edge in secondary education as well), quality of life indexes. We have the highest overall poverty and child poverty of all of our peer nations, we have the highest income inequality, and on and on.

* America is having more than a Wall Street crisis. America is bleeding out after thirty years of conservative rape of the public commons and real American values. It's not going to be easy, its going to cost us in the short run, but we must start addressing these things.

* When we repair our society by reinvesting in the commons and healing the social sicknesses that have diseased our nation for decades thanks to conservative poison, then we will have some tough work ahead to balance future budgets, to reinstate Pay as you go rules, and to fight to maintain responsible tax rates and use the surplus to pay down the debt that we must incur right now before its too late.

* Anyone blowing off the deficit and national debt is an idiot. I believe Obama's priorities are the right priorities to stop the bleeding America is doing, but I get very angry at anyone who tries to act like our debt is not a big deal. It's a huge deal, which is why we need to grit our teeth and spend the money we need to spent now to stop the bleeding and repair our social foundations so that we can begin tackling our debt crisis from a place of stability.

* People who want to complain about the huge debt need to stop voting for republicans who give us the huge debt. Note in the graph below, we spent money when we had to, even if it meant huge debt as it did during WWII. Then under mostly democratic Presidents (though some under Nixon/Ford) we paid it back down during a period of huge economic expansion. Then came the so-called “Reagan Revolution.”



* Under Obama our debt will rise again because it has to to meet urgent needs. But just like we’ve done in past history, we’ll have the opportunity to take responsible action and pay that debt down during future economic expansion built on a stable social foundation brought about by the spending will undertake right now.

If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it. Obviously, missing source info sort of weakens the value of the graph a little bit, but I saved the image and now can't remember where I saved it from!

EDIT to clarify - not whitehouse.gov, I mean it came from like newsweek or something....

in areas like energy, health care, and education every 100 billion not spent today will be a trillion spent less effectively in the future.

We ignore the big picture at our peril.