It certainly speaks volumes about the state of our discourse, of our political leadership class, that the Most Pressing Issue of our time is how we can drive prosperity by spending less money on stuff because, presumably, public-sector spending crowds out private-sector spending, so if government reduces its level of spending, the private sector will rush in to make up for the decreased demand. It's a novel theory---heck, it might even be true!---but an obvious problem arises when one realizes that for the theory to hold water, people in the private sector must have more money to spend than they did in years past. Unfortunately, at present, the opposite is true.
They had the opportunity to resolve many of our economy's structural imbalances four years ago, when the wind was in their sails, their approval ratings were in the 70s, and talk of "change" was in the air. They started in the right direction, then stopped abruptly. At the time they told us that they'd reached the desired destination, that the Recovery Act was all that was needed to kick-start the economy again, that now it was time for all of the serious persons to turn their attention to deficit reduction. But anyone who was paying attention could see that they were many miles short of the ultimate policy goal. It's really a shame, because they were advised at the time not to let a good crisis go to waste. But that's pretty much what they did.
---Baron V
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