Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Scott Sumner — The Tea Party won



The recovery has since picked up speed, so the deficit should be falling especially fast right now. Unfortunately, the FRED data site does not have updated figures, but the deficit is no longer falling. Indeed it’s exploding, expected to reach $1.1 trillion in 2019. Nothing like this has ever happened in America during a period of peace and prosperity. There is such a firehose of spending that Washington is hardly able to shovel dollars out the door as fast as they are being appropriated…
This is what happens when you give the GOP full control over the government.
Hardly anyone is reporting this story, even though it’s one of the most bizarre things to have happened in America during my lifetime. Perhaps this is because none of our “tribes” has an incentive to acknowledge these facts. The GOP wants to tell voters that it’s a responsible, small government, conservative party, pushing back against the deficit spending of the Obama years. The Dems want to tell voters that the GOP is a mean-spirited, small government, conservative party. Both are lying. The press plays along with this framing, because it lets the two tribes set the terms of the debate. The GOP is actually a big governmentparty. Neither the NYT nor Fox News will tell you that.…
The Money Illusion
The Tea Party wonScott Sumner | Professor of Economics at Bentley University

14 comments:

Andrew Anderson said...

One can have a small government but with big spending, e.g. how much would government have to grow if Social Security payments were doubled? ans: Not at all.

So let's please not conflate big Federal Spending with a big Federal Government since the former does not require the latter.

Matt Franko said...

“Both are lying.”

His thesis is true so he is calling any anti-thesis a lie.... but if his thesis was false then he wouldn’t call any anti-thesis a lie... he would just say it was false or that he disagreed with it...

Clint Ballinger said...

Great point Andrew!!

Tom Hickey said...

So let's please not conflate big Federal Spending with a big Federal Government since the former does not require the latter.

Conservatives equate these by definition. It's part of their world view. So there is no arguing with them on this point. Debate ends there.

Andrew Anderson said...

Conservatives equate these by definition. Tom Hickey

The Tea Party was ridiculed for saying "Don't touch my Social Security" as if that was inconsistent with reducing the size (and intrusiveness) of government.

So they do not equate big spending with big government.

It's more likely, in my experience, that Progressives conflate the two - their world view being an elitist one where people can't be trusted to run their own lives properly.

Matt Franko said...

“Conservatives equate these by definition.“

It’s not conservatives it’s any person with underdeveloped abstraction abilities....

There are plenty on left who do the same thing...

Tom Hickey said...

So they do not equate big spending with big government.


They don't know that SS is a government expense. They think it is paid-in insurance.

Andrew Anderson said...

They think it is paid-in insurance. Tom Hickey

Nor do I recall any conservative outcry over Obama's stimulus checks (or Bush's).

Tom Hickey said...

Nor do I recall any conservative outcry over Obama's stimulus checks (or Bush's).

Bush's loose fiscal policy is a major reason that the Bush dynasty is now history and won't be returning anytime soon.

Don't you know anything about US politics?

Andrew Anderson said...

We're talking specifically about direct cash payments to citizens, not all Federal spending.

Deliberatively obtuse, Tom?

Andrew Anderson said...

Make that deliberately.

Tom Hickey said...

That doesn't prove the point, AA.

You are constantly pick up straws and missing they haystack, as it obvious from your interpretation of the Bible, too.

Moreover, you are self-satisfied twit.

Ok, how does it feel to be insulted yourself, after doing this interminably to other for a long time here. Or are you too obtuse to be affected?

Andrew Anderson said...

Ok, how does it feel to be insulted yourself, after doing this interminably to other for a long time here. Tom Hickey

Huh? Are you confusing me with Bob Roddis (calling the folks here numbskulls, etc.)? Or Franko (calling people incompetents)?

What truly affects me is a good refutation of what I'm saying and I suspect you too but while it sometimes hurts, I don't consider a good refutation an insult.

Matt Franko said...

I had to look up ‘obtuse’...