Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The Washington Post used some bizarre economics to tell people that Trump’s tax cuts and military spending are bad (they are) because:
“The federal debt is also rising in the United States. That means there will be less money to spend in a downturn, …”
Ummm, why? The limit on federal spending is the risk that it will lead to too much demand in the economy, thereby causing inflation. If the economy is in a downturn, we don’t have to worry about too much demand by definition.
So, we get that the Washington Post doesn’t like deficits and has long been crusading for cuts in Medicare and Social Security, but it would be nice if it tried to stay in the fact-based universe with its arguments.