Today's deficit fears are baloney, as they always have been

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is out again Friday with another screed in the Wall Street Journal against deficit spending, this time framed as an attack on the $3.5-trillion spending bill favored by his Democratic colleagues in Congress.

As is invariably the case with the work of deficit hawks, Manchin's concerns are entirely specious.

-snip-

What Manchin is promoting is an ideological claim about the federal deficit. Thankfully, the estimable Wall Street investment manager and financial commentator Barry Ritholtz is out Friday with a concise, comprehensive debunking of deficit hawkdom (introduced with a blunt but unprintable term).

Ritholtz asks: "What do you do if you have a philosophy that over the course of half a century, is continually proven wrong?"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/column-today-s-deficit-fears-are-baloney-as-they-always-have-been/ar-AAO4zBO

[unblock]

1. Also a big difference between deficit pissing away money and deficit investment

If the government spends in infrastructure, then not only undoes the spending directly improve gdp, the knock-on effect of that spending increases gdp as well, as Americans getting paid to rebuild our bridges and such then spend that money as well.

As gdp grows, so does tax revenue, so the increase in deficit isn't as bad in absolute terms. Moreover, what matters is deficit as a percentage of gdp, which is also not as bad due to the increase in gdp.

Finally, to whatever extent their argument makes sense, it applies way more to tax cuts, especially for the rich, who are far more likely to invest it overseas instead of spending it locally.

[HariSeldon]

3. The MMT view

I've become an adherent of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which holds that a government with a fiat currency can deficit spend (without even the need to borrow money, just adding it to the ledger) without risk of inflation if it uses the additional money to employ idle economic capacity.

[lees1975]

4. The Republicans supported spending $800 million a day in Afghanistan

and we aren't spending any more of that now. So deficit fears are indeed baloney and Republicans don't believe that the deficit is a problem, if there really is even such a thing as a deficit.

[Stuart G]

5. Idiots....U.S.A. does not have a larger deficit (as related to potential worth ??) as compared to

other countries

,,,,,The deficit and talk about it is "bulls**t" As a percentage of the U.S.A. 's worth it is not important...
...Erasing the deficient over time is not that hard...just raise taxes on the rich and corporations and everyone else and
that will do the trick................................................except.....................one idea...........................................

And that idea is....huge increase in taxes to pay off the debt would cause a ..........major world wide depression

....If all U.S.A. tax payers stopped spending their money on..."stuff"....all kinds of stuff"
.............in order to pay increased taxes...then who would have money to buy ...stuff??

....So buying .....stuff basically runs the economy...All kinds of stuff....like cars, TVs, airplane rides to
vacation spots like ...Florida in the winter...(like many New Yorkers and others do)...and other kinds of stuff..
like food and earings, and computers, and other ..."stuff"..

....So, if a lot of ..."stuff companies" have trouble selling ...their stuff companies lay off the stuff producers..and
people are out of work...(lots of people)......

The U.S.A. deficit is a ...."phony baloney issue " as all economists know...Stuff is also defined by economists as
services so getting the car fixed is kinda "stuff"......The deficit is OK..Does it appear that the U.S.A. is going broke?
....not really...Is the treasury selling all the office equipment?...NO!!! People in the Treasury Department keep their
stuff, because they know the department will keep going on even if the deficit is increased by a little or a lot.

....The Treasury Department is kinda a producer of..."stuff"....??? It prints the money & the coins...Is that correct?

...........Is the money and the coins...... important stuff?

.................and if you don't know that answer, well..then...I got a bridge to sell you across the Atlantic Ocean and
I will give you a very good price on that bridge....very good, and I guarantee the quality and length of the bridge....
even if you can't believe that I am selling such a bridge...