A wake-up call for Dems, labor, and the left

[cjs118]

53. I think Democrats have to address the *deception* issue

Democrats have made attempts at resolving the deficit, and even balanced the budget during the Clinton years, while Republicans have consistently supported policies that increase the deficit. The mark of a truly great propagandist is the ability to successfully attack their enemies for their own flaws and failures - projection. And the people who do that are simply not arguing in good faith. And my frustration with Democrats is that it is completely pointless to try to argue in good faith with people who are not doing the same.

So I think that when we try to simply respond to Republican attacks about the deficit without dealing with the deception behind them, we are wasting our breath. We should absolutely deal with the deficit in a responsible manner (which in part means when the economy is back on track), but the Republicans have no interest in dealing with the deficit in a responsible manner. In fact, Republican strategies have contributed greatly to the deficit.

In particular I am talking about the long standing strategy called "starve the beast" - cutting revenues from government to eventually force cuts to government programs. It is rather obvious that this will lead to large deficits - what would you expect when you cut someone's allowance but leave them with a huge credit limit? And that was what it was intended to do - create large deficits which could then be used to force cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security. And it is an underhanded way to do this - if you want to cut spending, then you should cut spending. But the Republicans were too chicken-shit to go to the voters and touch the third rail. So instead they tried sabotage.

So, I think Democrats should deal with questions of the deficit by addressing the deception behind these Republican's attacks as well as their ulterior motives. Then we can discuss the real causes of the deficit - loss of revenue as well as increased health care and military spending. And then we can point out how Democrats have worked to address those issues in spite of Republican obstruction. Because in the end, Republicans have no credibility on the deficit.