November 22, 2010
The lead story on Morning Edition presented Joe Minarik, from the Committee of Economic Development, as a neutral budget expert to talk about the deficit. Minarik assured listeners of the need to both cut spending and raise taxes. Mr. Minarik never bothered to point out that the long-term deficit problem is entirely a health care cost problem. If per person health care costs in the United States were comparable to costs in any other wealthy country (all of which enjoy longer life expectancies) the long-term projections would show huge budget surpluses, not deficits.
The piece also implies that the deficits being run at present pose a serious problem, with the host asking Mr. Minarik whether some of the current $1.4 trillion deficit can be seen as a “good” deficit since it involves an investment for the future.
In fact, all of the current deficit can be seen as a “good” deficit since it is increasing output and employment. If the government was currently spending less or taxing more it would be putting less money into the economy. This would lead to less demand and fewer jobs. In other words, we would be throwing our children’s parents out of work. It is difficult to see how this helps them.
It would also have been useful to find a budget expert who knew that when a debt is accumulated makes a difference in terms of its burden. A debt that is run up as a result of deficits when the economy is far below its potential need pose no burden whatsoever. The central bank can simply hold the bonds issued to finance the debt. This means that the interest is paid to the central bank which in turn pays it right back to the Treasury.
If debt is run up due to a weak economy, then an economy can sustain much larger levels of debt. For example, Japan now has a debt to GDP ratio of almost 230 percent. Yet, it can still borrow long-term in financial markets at just a 1.0 percent interest rate. This indicates that debt levels that are far higher than anything currently projected for the United States can be easily sustained. A real budget expert would know this.
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