Ledger Logic

by: Jersey Jazzman

Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 05:00:00 PM EDT

For the record, the government has a spending problem and a revenue problem.

Washington spends an amount equal to 23.8 percent of GDP, the highest level in at least 40 years. But it is taxing at only 15 percent of gross domestic product, the lowest level in the same period. (See accompanying chart.)

If you look at only one side of this equation, then your brain has been damaged by ideology.

Here's the chart:

Now, maybe I'm just "brain damaged," but it occurs to me that this chart doesn't account for the decline in GDP because of the recession!

Think about it: if GDP goes down, and government spending stays the same, the percentage of GDP devoted to government spending goes up, right? Even without ANY new spending or programs.

Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman estimates about half the rise in this ratio is due to the recession and subsequent decline in GDP. The other half is simply the social safety net kicking in: "...unemployment insurance, food stamps, SSI, refundable tax credits..." and, of course, Medicaid.

Before the Star-Ledger tut-tuts at liberals, they should take minute to understand what they're talking about. But that would take time away from kicking dirty hippies:

Obama was slow to join this fight, even when his own commission offered a blueprint to address the debt. But by compromising with Republicans, and explicitly supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, he has broken with Pelosi and the liberal wing of his party. That's leadership.

Yes, breaking with the people who want to save the greatest anti-poverty programs in the history of the US while the country reels from massive economic inequity is what the S-L terms "leadership."

Oh, and Dean Baker reminds us that there was no commission "blueprint": they couldn't come to a consensus.

It's called Google, fellas.