Reply #14: What we do about our deficit is to get people back to work and paying taxes. [View All]

[Jim Lane]

We run a short-term deficit to get the economy growing again. We can't get that growth without a public deficit because the private sector can't provide the necessary demand.

In addition, of course, we take a few other common-sense steps -- well, they're common sense to everyone except right-wing ideologues. We address our structural shortfall in revenue by repealing the Bush tax cuts. We address one major component of rising federal spending by acting on health-care costs -- preferably with single payer, but at least Obama's health-insurance reform bill takes some steps toward reducing overall costs.

Beyond that, a step that admittedly isn't common sense, because there's an ideological component, is that we end our imperialistic wars. Democratic ideology is that spending on things like schools in the U.S. is better than spending on trying to control Afghanistan and Iraq. We could cut our bloated military establishment and make Ryan's cuts look like chicken feed.