Tuesday, May 30, 2023

The Deficit Myth is Hanging On for Dear Life — Stephanie Kelton

For months, Speaker McCarthy has been telling the American people that republicans wouldn’t agree to raise the debt limit without a plan to get the nation’s “fiscal house back in order.” Never mind that he and most of his republican colleagues voted—without any preconditions—to lift the debt ceiling on three separate occasions when Donald Trump was president. To retain his gavel McCarthy needed to cut a deal that his members could get behind....

In response, President Biden said, “Speaker McCarthy and I have a very different view of who should bear the burden…to get our fiscal house in orde…...
The Lens
The Deficit Myth is Hanging On for Dear Life
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders

7 comments:

Matt Franko said...

“To sell the American people on the idea that it would be irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without negotiating around the budget, McCarthy invoked every deficit myth in the book. Literally.“

This is the worst description of what he did…

He didn’t use “myths” he used figurative language.. figures of speech…

Here: “ to complain that raising the debt limit is like allowing your child to go crazy with the family credit card. He said it was “common sense” that the federal government “can’t afford” to spend more than it takes in. He raised concerns about “borrowing money from China” to “pay for” social programs. And he invoked rhetoric that the national debt is a burden on future generations by saying, “Every new child that was born today just got a $94,000 bill.”

These are all analogies or metaphors…

Then she says “literally “.., where does she get this? It’s not literal it’s figurative…

Her use of “myth” here is also figurative…

Matt Franko said...

You can’t use a figure of speech to clarify the the use of another figure of speech… or you can’t use figurative language to explain figurative language..

Where has that ever worked?

Peter Pan said...

If something isn't a myth, then what is it?

Matt Franko said...


Myth | Definition, History, Examples, & Facts | Britannica:

“a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief.“

Peter Pan said...

What is the opposite of myth?

Antonyms:
truth verity
certainty fact
non-fiction reality
materiality actuality
nonfiction accuracy

Matt Franko said...

Right just use proper literal descriptions…

Peter Pan said...

That the US "deficit" is a myth, or an egregious example of political theater, is indisputable.