January 15, 2013
Jerry Springer made himself famous by having a television show in which he encouraged people to say and do outrageous things. The Washington Post applies the same standard to people who rant about the debt and deficit on its opinion page.
Today’s entry is from Marc Thiessen, who argues that the deficit is out of control due to excessive spending. Of course as all budget wonks know the reason that we have large deficits today is that the economy plunged after the collapse of the housing bubble. In fact, one of the best pieces making this simple point was written by the Post’s own Evan Soltas.
The economic downturn caused tax collections to plummet and led to an increase in benefit payments for items like unemployment insurance. It also led to deliberate efforts to boost the economy with temporary tax cuts, like the payroll tax holiday and temporary spending measures. However, the structural deficit is little changed from what it was before the economic downturn when the debt to GDP ratio was falling.
But hey, when it comes to discussions of debt and deficit the Post doesn’t have time for numbers. Let’s see some chairs flying, it’s the WAPO opinion pages!
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