Now Is The Time

...for all good men to come to the aid of the party. A good friend -- and honest lefty interlocutor -- sends this graphic:




And asks: "What is the real benefit of maintaining a HUGE national debt?"

I respond:

1) I treasure my position as your favorite Republican, but I cannot defend the GOP on spending. They have lost their way. I can’t really handle the loony Libertarians, but if I had a choice for a tight-fisted party, I would take it. I am happy that Senator McCain, my third choice in the primaries, is known for being tough on spending. Senator Lott is retiring and Senator Stevens will soon be in jail – the party might find its small government roots after all. Current Democratic candidates are pursuing far more spending than Presidents Clinton or Carter.

2) To answer your question, there is no benefit to debt, the benefit is the thing you bought with the money. I owe $xxxxxxx on my house and don’t claim my mortgage as my favorite thing in life. But I am pretty happy to have a house and it has been good for me emotionally and financially, well worth carrying manageable debt. (Personal segue, we are giving up on stairs and are moving to a one-floor condo.)

3) President Reagan increased the debt in a Faustian bargain with a Democratic Congress, He told Leader Wright that they could continue with domestic spending if they would fund his war on Communism. The debt shot up, but the Berlin Wall fell ten years later. That is pretty good ROI. President Bush “spent the money” on tax cuts, which are an unalloyed good, and defense, covered in point four.

4) As a general rule, I would suggest that the Republican administrations’ spending tended to be on defense, which enjoys a clear Constitutional purview. I oppose many Democratic programs not for their cost as much as their expansion of the scope and size of government. Again, I cede point #1, President Bush has been no angel. I could have left No Child Left Behind behind and am pretty soft on Medicare Part D.

5) Your graphic is instructive, but I would like to see it with two changes: One, index for inflation -- real debt or better still, showing debt as a percentage of GDP would be more instructive. Bringing back the mortgage analogy, my payments have doubled since I bought my first house but my income has quadrupled; graphing my indebtedness would look worse than your graph but wood not capture significant data. Second, I would color it with sweet gridlock in a pretty mauve, and one-party rule as diarrhea brown. W’s reign has expanded government because he lacked an opposition party. He who governs least governs best in my world.

Anybody else care to take the bait?

Spirit of '94 Posted by jk at April 3, 2008 2:53 PM