The Democrats' Moment of Truth By: John Zogby

[Lefty Thinker]

3. Deal with the deficit?

The idea that President Obama and Congressional Democrats need to "deal with the deficit" is a trap. National accounting clearly shows that if the private sector is saving (like the trillions of dollars in cash corporations have been building up) and the country is importing more than it exports (over which the government has little if any control) then the government must run a deficit to avoid GDP contraction. Last week's report, in fact, shows that our deficit is too small.

The whole issue of "national bankruptcy" is also a trap. This improperly and fallaciously conflates ideas about private finance with the public sector. Please see my previous post on this for a more detailed analysis.