Ever see a parade with elephants? There's always some schlimazel walking behind the elephants with a big push-brush and a bucket to scoop up the manure left by the passing of the elephants.
Now look at any Democratic administration that followed a Republican one (whose symbol, in a quirk of fate, turns out to be an elephant). See any similarities? Democrats always have to clean up the mess that was made by the uber-patriotic, true Amurrican GOP, expert at destruction but incompetent at positive creation - of anything at all.
Did you see Obama try to put in major changes so that the depression caused by the GOP at the end of 2009 might never happen again? The Republicans blocked him at every turn. Or go back to FDR having to clean up after Hoover, or Grant having to clean up as best he could after Johnson.
One of the very worst situations to be in is Biden having to clean up after 4 years of a totally incompetent and corrupt Trump administration. So of course the national media is down on Biden because he didn't fix everything magically in his first week of office.
I am in awe at how well republicans succeed in controlling the narrative. The American public deserves some transparency; why don't democrats fight back with the same wit and energy (that does not include you, Mr. Reich) to give it to us??? What makes them so afraid of reaching out to their constituents, especially when the stakes are so high, by hammering down some factual truths on mainstream media the same way their republican colleagues do with their lies?
Certainly the democrats of this country need a propaganda machine equal to Fox- if we don't, we are totally foxed. The deficit demagoguery and the damage it has done to the earth is personal to me. My father was one of Reagan's fiscal policy creators and propagandists. He and the men with whom he worked had the same unhealthy psychological profile - but in fact, so do a huge number of Americans, and that's why that garbage worked, and is still working. It's Outraged Entitlement.
What to do: 1. deploy a television and social media propaganda machine equal to Fox in market appeal. 2. Grassroots organize like mad, particularly among communities of color that are impacted by the gerrymandering. 3. get funders to buy TV ads in "moderate" democrat and republican media markets, extolling the virtues of the moderate senators and congressmembers whom we need to vote for specific legislation. For example, the Joe Manchin Freedom to Vote Act. 4. circumvent the filibuster on voting rights legislation. https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-warner-backs-carve-out-filibuster-voting-rights-legislation-2021-7 5. Look at 2022. Keep eye on prize.
It seems that this is an oft repeated tale. The new Democrat in office is instantly crowned the most profligate of them all, because that is the way Democrats roll. I remember reading that when Clinton entered office there was a large deficit and he better clean it up. Same story when Obama took the reigns. The media seems to be owned by Republicans and I'm tired of the way so many headlines are slanted towards the downward starting with 'Dems' look to increase the deficit with blah blah blah'...When in fact there are stories about how the Democrat actually left office with our economy in better shape. Similar to when Obama came in. It did not help that McConnell announced that the intention of his party was to make Obama's Presidency a one term one and they intended to block everything he tried to accomplish. The old image of the working class person who was a 'dese' 'dem' and dose' guy is where this comes from. calling those who support or are from the lower income 'working class' 'Dems'. it is classism and a specific dog whistle that extends to people of color. It is happening now. Our former guy runs up a huge deficit and now it will be laid at Biden's feet. No mention of the trillions given away before Biden entered office and huge spending by the previous administration. Really nothing new. But it took a Democrat to pass a large (not large enough) spending bill to deal with infrastructure and give working families some help. Have not seen that from the Republicans since Eisenhower.
The objective behind the deficit obsession is laissez faire capitalism, that the wealthy and large corporations should be free to do whatever they want to accumulate more and more wealth, while ordinary Americans are merely slaves to help them accomplish this. Reagan recruited one Grover Norquist, who was never elected to anything, to found Americans for Tax Reform with intent to, as he famously said, "shrink it [government] down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." He induced numerous Republican members of Congress and state legislatures to sign pledges to never raise taxes. If you lower taxes and you obsess about getting rid of the deficit, then cutting government services, including work place safety and pollution reduction enforcement, is the only option. To this day, Grover Norquist is very influential in conservative circles and with the news media.
I agree with other commenters that Democrats must change the narrative. If a member of the news media asks Democratic officeholders whether some legislation will increase the deficit, they can reply, "Why are you concerned about the deficit when a Democrat is in the White House, but not when a Republican is in the White House?" Repeat as needed.
In simplest terms, the Dems should speak to the Public about this so that they can understand what our current administration is up against. We need to point out to them the bad that Trump and the GOP had done, but before you say all that, we need to keep saying all the good things Biden has done. Start off by stating: Do you like that the roads are going to be fixed? Don't have to worry about Tires being blown and alignments needing to be done every 5 months... sort of like that. Keep honing it in. When talking to college students, their parents, or college-bound young people, remind them that Biden cut 2 billion dollars off of student loans debt. That's huge!
Responsible citizens should study both science & history to avoid the mistakes of the past. GOP supply-side economics has been falsified, read "After the Music Stopped". Consider Hoover(The Great Depression), George "W" Bush ( Greatest Financial Crisis since the Great Depression) & Trump (great inequality, slow growth, & huge deficits). In fact, trickle-down economics provides false hope for our future, read "The Rise & Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism". To reduce wealth & income inequality, & grow our economy, moral or stakeholder capitalism is the best theory, read "Prosperity" by Colin Mayer. Another great book is "Making Capitalism Work for the Many, not the Few" by a man who could have been a great tunnel rat. In accordance with timeless wisdom, ALL Americans can better flourish, in a more JUST economy. As an educated but humble citizen, I would rather be approximately right, than definitely wrong.
If we raised the minimum wage by $2.25 each year, for the next 5 years, the $7.25 Federal minimum wage would increase to $18.50 per hour and then linked all future increases to inflation, we would get more people off of government assistance and onto tax roles all over the country. We would save Social Security and Medicare plus people would live better that do not have a college education. Some would call this inflationary but inflation came and is here without those wage increases. We have been bandaging this inequity with government programs that add more taxes rather than let the capitalistic system work it's self out.
"... the debt is more than $4 trillion and the yearly deficit more than $300 billion ..."
Any time I see a number with more than nine zeros I have to translate it to terms I can comprehend:
"... the debt is more than $30,000 per household and the yearly deficit more than $2300 per household ..."
By comparison, American household debt is $14.6 trillion (translation: $110,000 per household). Unlike national debt, we don't think of home loans, car mortgages, etc. as evil. People should think of the national budget as an extension of their personal household budget. What do you get for your money? Taking out a home improvement loan to fix roof leaks and broken pipes ("infrastructure") is a no-brainer if the alternative is a home ruined by water damage.
On the other hand, what do we get for the $750 billion ($5500 per household) that we spend on the military every year? We would probably get the same economic benefit from a public works project to dig another Grand Canyon.
Has anyone read Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth"? ......or any other economists describing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)? She makes the distinction that families and a government that prints its own currency are essentially different, and we need to better understand that difference. I agree with Robert. We have a very unhealthy deficit obsession that we need to better understand, and then move on to address the real problems of meeting people's needs.
We need to curtail the outrageous military budget that does nothing for people, besides killing many innocent ones. We use far too much money on an already bloated military to use to take other countries resources. Letās get real about this! Why do we need to be 15 times larger than any military on earth?
"Deficit-mongering" is a racist tool like the filibuster - both used by a White Majority Corporate Media and White Majority Congress to execute class-warfare against the poor and middle class.
The DOD budget is the biggest expense to the American people yet "deficit-mongering" is NEVER USED in discussing DOD budget considerations.
What we should do is create a U.S. gov't expense account funded by Congress depositing a multi-trillion dollar currency instrument directly into a U.S. gov't bank account at the U.S. Treasury Dept. WITHOUT BORROWING A DIME FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE.
One day Americans will wise up to the bi-partisan false claims bi-partisans use to prevent government funding of the poor, middle class and social programs.
You can thank Republican racist Newt Gingrich for creating the 1980's GOP talking points that Republicans and moderate/conservative Democrats still use to this day to justify their opposition to government funding of the poor, middle class and social programs.
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #1 - Inflation Fears;
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #2 - Deficit Fears;
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #3 - The economy will fail if we give away too much money and benefits to Americans;
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #4 - We are heroes who force the American people to go to work everyday thanks to our austerity measures and actions. We oppose gov't funding of UBI and other social programs because if we don't, lazy Americans won't get up and go to work in the morning;
UBI:
In the United States, proponents of guaranteed income as a matter of economic justice have included the Black Panthers and Martin Luther King Jr., while the libertarian economist Milton Friedman advocated it as a form of negative income tax. Even President Richard Nixon proposed providing cash directly to families, without conditions. His planāproduced after 1,000 economists urged it in an open letterātwice passed the House, but got rejected by the Senate.
Yet another instance of the DNC utterly failing to control the discourse. The data are clear. GOP control increases deficits (and produces other financial and other evils) and yet "the Dems are the fiscally irresponsible party".
Many of the comments on this forum bemoan the fact that Democrats have poor and inept messaging. When the Fairness Doctrine rule was abolished, the Republicans took full advantage to build a right wing media empire. The Democrats did little to nothing. I suggest that the Democrats should go to school on the Republican experience and build their own media empire. Surely their is sufficient money that can be had and talent (Mr. Reich, for example) to tap. Having the best message does no good if the other side drowns you out!
Why did we barely hear anything about the deficit when Donald was in office. It seems to me that only Republicans use this argument whenever they are trying to gain votes. And Democrats do not use it to their advantage when campaigning against a Republican presidential candidate. Question: where is the $300m a day that we are saving from no longer being involved in Afghanistan going?
Using a comparison of government finance with household finance to explain or make an argument is such a tricky matter.
Leaving the roof unrepaired and calling it thrift: an apt comparison with āfiscal responsibility.ā
Household debt and government debt: so absolutely utterly different things, with governmentās effectively infinite lifespan and ability to print money exemplary instances.
Ever see a parade with elephants? There's always some schlimazel walking behind the elephants with a big push-brush and a bucket to scoop up the manure left by the passing of the elephants.
Now look at any Democratic administration that followed a Republican one (whose symbol, in a quirk of fate, turns out to be an elephant). See any similarities? Democrats always have to clean up the mess that was made by the uber-patriotic, true Amurrican GOP, expert at destruction but incompetent at positive creation - of anything at all.
Did you see Obama try to put in major changes so that the depression caused by the GOP at the end of 2009 might never happen again? The Republicans blocked him at every turn. Or go back to FDR having to clean up after Hoover, or Grant having to clean up as best he could after Johnson.
One of the very worst situations to be in is Biden having to clean up after 4 years of a totally incompetent and corrupt Trump administration. So of course the national media is down on Biden because he didn't fix everything magically in his first week of office.
Ain't no justice!
I am in awe at how well republicans succeed in controlling the narrative. The American public deserves some transparency; why don't democrats fight back with the same wit and energy (that does not include you, Mr. Reich) to give it to us??? What makes them so afraid of reaching out to their constituents, especially when the stakes are so high, by hammering down some factual truths on mainstream media the same way their republican colleagues do with their lies?
Certainly the democrats of this country need a propaganda machine equal to Fox- if we don't, we are totally foxed. The deficit demagoguery and the damage it has done to the earth is personal to me. My father was one of Reagan's fiscal policy creators and propagandists. He and the men with whom he worked had the same unhealthy psychological profile - but in fact, so do a huge number of Americans, and that's why that garbage worked, and is still working. It's Outraged Entitlement.
What to do: 1. deploy a television and social media propaganda machine equal to Fox in market appeal. 2. Grassroots organize like mad, particularly among communities of color that are impacted by the gerrymandering. 3. get funders to buy TV ads in "moderate" democrat and republican media markets, extolling the virtues of the moderate senators and congressmembers whom we need to vote for specific legislation. For example, the Joe Manchin Freedom to Vote Act. 4. circumvent the filibuster on voting rights legislation. https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-warner-backs-carve-out-filibuster-voting-rights-legislation-2021-7 5. Look at 2022. Keep eye on prize.
It seems that this is an oft repeated tale. The new Democrat in office is instantly crowned the most profligate of them all, because that is the way Democrats roll. I remember reading that when Clinton entered office there was a large deficit and he better clean it up. Same story when Obama took the reigns. The media seems to be owned by Republicans and I'm tired of the way so many headlines are slanted towards the downward starting with 'Dems' look to increase the deficit with blah blah blah'...When in fact there are stories about how the Democrat actually left office with our economy in better shape. Similar to when Obama came in. It did not help that McConnell announced that the intention of his party was to make Obama's Presidency a one term one and they intended to block everything he tried to accomplish. The old image of the working class person who was a 'dese' 'dem' and dose' guy is where this comes from. calling those who support or are from the lower income 'working class' 'Dems'. it is classism and a specific dog whistle that extends to people of color. It is happening now. Our former guy runs up a huge deficit and now it will be laid at Biden's feet. No mention of the trillions given away before Biden entered office and huge spending by the previous administration. Really nothing new. But it took a Democrat to pass a large (not large enough) spending bill to deal with infrastructure and give working families some help. Have not seen that from the Republicans since Eisenhower.
The objective behind the deficit obsession is laissez faire capitalism, that the wealthy and large corporations should be free to do whatever they want to accumulate more and more wealth, while ordinary Americans are merely slaves to help them accomplish this. Reagan recruited one Grover Norquist, who was never elected to anything, to found Americans for Tax Reform with intent to, as he famously said, "shrink it [government] down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." He induced numerous Republican members of Congress and state legislatures to sign pledges to never raise taxes. If you lower taxes and you obsess about getting rid of the deficit, then cutting government services, including work place safety and pollution reduction enforcement, is the only option. To this day, Grover Norquist is very influential in conservative circles and with the news media.
I agree with other commenters that Democrats must change the narrative. If a member of the news media asks Democratic officeholders whether some legislation will increase the deficit, they can reply, "Why are you concerned about the deficit when a Democrat is in the White House, but not when a Republican is in the White House?" Repeat as needed.
In simplest terms, the Dems should speak to the Public about this so that they can understand what our current administration is up against. We need to point out to them the bad that Trump and the GOP had done, but before you say all that, we need to keep saying all the good things Biden has done. Start off by stating: Do you like that the roads are going to be fixed? Don't have to worry about Tires being blown and alignments needing to be done every 5 months... sort of like that. Keep honing it in. When talking to college students, their parents, or college-bound young people, remind them that Biden cut 2 billion dollars off of student loans debt. That's huge!
Responsible citizens should study both science & history to avoid the mistakes of the past. GOP supply-side economics has been falsified, read "After the Music Stopped". Consider Hoover(The Great Depression), George "W" Bush ( Greatest Financial Crisis since the Great Depression) & Trump (great inequality, slow growth, & huge deficits). In fact, trickle-down economics provides false hope for our future, read "The Rise & Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism". To reduce wealth & income inequality, & grow our economy, moral or stakeholder capitalism is the best theory, read "Prosperity" by Colin Mayer. Another great book is "Making Capitalism Work for the Many, not the Few" by a man who could have been a great tunnel rat. In accordance with timeless wisdom, ALL Americans can better flourish, in a more JUST economy. As an educated but humble citizen, I would rather be approximately right, than definitely wrong.
If we raised the minimum wage by $2.25 each year, for the next 5 years, the $7.25 Federal minimum wage would increase to $18.50 per hour and then linked all future increases to inflation, we would get more people off of government assistance and onto tax roles all over the country. We would save Social Security and Medicare plus people would live better that do not have a college education. Some would call this inflationary but inflation came and is here without those wage increases. We have been bandaging this inequity with government programs that add more taxes rather than let the capitalistic system work it's self out.
"... the debt is more than $4 trillion and the yearly deficit more than $300 billion ..."
Any time I see a number with more than nine zeros I have to translate it to terms I can comprehend:
"... the debt is more than $30,000 per household and the yearly deficit more than $2300 per household ..."
By comparison, American household debt is $14.6 trillion (translation: $110,000 per household). Unlike national debt, we don't think of home loans, car mortgages, etc. as evil. People should think of the national budget as an extension of their personal household budget. What do you get for your money? Taking out a home improvement loan to fix roof leaks and broken pipes ("infrastructure") is a no-brainer if the alternative is a home ruined by water damage.
On the other hand, what do we get for the $750 billion ($5500 per household) that we spend on the military every year? We would probably get the same economic benefit from a public works project to dig another Grand Canyon.
Has anyone read Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth"? ......or any other economists describing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)? She makes the distinction that families and a government that prints its own currency are essentially different, and we need to better understand that difference. I agree with Robert. We have a very unhealthy deficit obsession that we need to better understand, and then move on to address the real problems of meeting people's needs.
We need to curtail the outrageous military budget that does nothing for people, besides killing many innocent ones. We use far too much money on an already bloated military to use to take other countries resources. Letās get real about this! Why do we need to be 15 times larger than any military on earth?
"Deficit-mongering" is a racist tool like the filibuster - both used by a White Majority Corporate Media and White Majority Congress to execute class-warfare against the poor and middle class.
The DOD budget is the biggest expense to the American people yet "deficit-mongering" is NEVER USED in discussing DOD budget considerations.
What we should do is create a U.S. gov't expense account funded by Congress depositing a multi-trillion dollar currency instrument directly into a U.S. gov't bank account at the U.S. Treasury Dept. WITHOUT BORROWING A DIME FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE.
One day Americans will wise up to the bi-partisan false claims bi-partisans use to prevent government funding of the poor, middle class and social programs.
You can thank Republican racist Newt Gingrich for creating the 1980's GOP talking points that Republicans and moderate/conservative Democrats still use to this day to justify their opposition to government funding of the poor, middle class and social programs.
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #1 - Inflation Fears;
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #2 - Deficit Fears;
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #3 - The economy will fail if we give away too much money and benefits to Americans;
BIGASS BI-PARTISAN LIE #4 - We are heroes who force the American people to go to work everyday thanks to our austerity measures and actions. We oppose gov't funding of UBI and other social programs because if we don't, lazy Americans won't get up and go to work in the morning;
UBI:
In the United States, proponents of guaranteed income as a matter of economic justice have included the Black Panthers and Martin Luther King Jr., while the libertarian economist Milton Friedman advocated it as a form of negative income tax. Even President Richard Nixon proposed providing cash directly to families, without conditions. His planāproduced after 1,000 economists urged it in an open letterātwice passed the House, but got rejected by the Senate.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/05/07/1024674/ubi-guaranteed-income-pandemic/
Yet another instance of the DNC utterly failing to control the discourse. The data are clear. GOP control increases deficits (and produces other financial and other evils) and yet "the Dems are the fiscally irresponsible party".
Many of the comments on this forum bemoan the fact that Democrats have poor and inept messaging. When the Fairness Doctrine rule was abolished, the Republicans took full advantage to build a right wing media empire. The Democrats did little to nothing. I suggest that the Democrats should go to school on the Republican experience and build their own media empire. Surely their is sufficient money that can be had and talent (Mr. Reich, for example) to tap. Having the best message does no good if the other side drowns you out!
Why did we barely hear anything about the deficit when Donald was in office. It seems to me that only Republicans use this argument whenever they are trying to gain votes. And Democrats do not use it to their advantage when campaigning against a Republican presidential candidate. Question: where is the $300m a day that we are saving from no longer being involved in Afghanistan going?
Using a comparison of government finance with household finance to explain or make an argument is such a tricky matter.
Leaving the roof unrepaired and calling it thrift: an apt comparison with āfiscal responsibility.ā
Household debt and government debt: so absolutely utterly different things, with governmentās effectively infinite lifespan and ability to print money exemplary instances.