February 14, 2012
Those familiar with economics know that government deficits can help sustain demand in a downturn, keeping GDP from falling and unemployment from rising as much as would otherwise be the case. This could mean that it would be desirable to have large deficits in response to a steep downturn like the one we have seen following the collapse of the housing bubble.
But the NYT doesn’t buy it. A news story on President Obama’s 2013 budget told readers:
“The one charge the White House has no defense against is that with the new budget, Mr. Obama has broken his 2009 promise to cut the deficit in half in his first term. The deficit that year was a record $1.4 trillion. The deficit in fiscal 2012 will total $1.3 trillion.”
The economic downturn was far more severe than what President Obama’s advisers (like most economists) assumed when he made this promise. President Obama and his advisers certainly can be blamed for failing to recognize the severity of the damage that would be caused by the collapse of the housing bubble, even as late as 2009, however most people might consider the worse than expected downturn, kind of a like or a war or enormous natural disaster, to be a pretty good defense here.
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