Monday, May 9, 2011

The Unwisdom of Elites - NYTimes.com

The Unwisdom of Elites - NYTimes.com


What happened to the budget surplus the federal government had in 2000?

The answer is, three main things. First, there were the Bush tax cuts, which added roughly $2 trillion to the national debt over the last decade. Second, there were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which added an additional $1.1 trillion or so. And third was the Great Recession, which led both to a collapse in revenue and to a sharp rise in spending on unemployment insurance and other safety-net programs.

So who was responsible for these budget busters? It wasn’t the man in the street.

President George W. Bush cut taxes in the service of his party’s ideology, not in response to a groundswell of popular demand — and the bulk of the cuts went to a small, affluent minority.

Similarly, Mr. Bush chose to invade Iraq because that was something he and his advisers wanted to do, not because Americans were clamoring for war against a regime that had nothing to do with 9/11. In fact, it took a highly deceptive sales campaign to get Americans to support the invasion, and even so, voters were never as solidly behind the war as America’s political and pundit elite.

Finally, the Great Recession was brought on by a runaway financial sector, empowered by reckless deregulation. And who was responsible for that deregulation? Powerful people in Washington with close ties to the financial industry, that’s who. Let me give a particular shout-out to Alan Greenspan, who played a crucial role both in financial deregulation and in the passage of the Bush tax cuts — and who is now, of course, among those hectoring us about the deficit.
And this is why we shouldn't take any politician or pundit seriously unless their proposals start with: letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire, getting us out of Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as possible, and re-regulating the financial industry. IMO, all of that should come after doing whatever it takes (including increased deficit spending) to reduce unemployment. Jobs are the cornerstone. It would be great if some of government's main goals were putting to people to work on things like infrastructure projects (bridges, roads, rail ...) and (administering, teaching in, building new, and fixing old) public schools.
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