There are essentially 2 kinds of debt

[JayhawkSD]

51. I know I will get flamed, but that's not supported by facts.

Name one progressive politician who has proposed any one of the things you claim progressives favor, because no one has proposed actually doing any of those things. Some high speed rail was included in the laughably named “stimulus bill” of 2009, but not enough to complete any one intercity project, and certainly there was no pretense of even beginning a transcontinental one.

On the other hand, the Democratic Congress of 2007-2011 not only continued military spending unabated, it funded increased spending for the “surge” in Iraq and it passed TARP to bail out the banks. I can’t say that Treasury money went into the bonuses for bankers, because Congress did specify that TARP money could not be used for that purpose.

It was a Republican Congress, on the other hand, the passed Medicare Part D. Too much unfunded liability, and it didn't help as much as it should, but it was neither needlass war nor enrichment of bankers and it did help people.

As for using the bad kind of debt to prevent progressives from creating the good kind of debt, they don’t have to do that because in all the years I have been following politics I have never seen a politician suggest doing any one of the things you suggest that good debt would do.

You don’t have to stop someone from doing what they aren’t trying to do.

Or maybe the Democratic Party is not progressive, and is actually a conservative party in disguise.