Barry Ritholtz on today's deficit hawks:

After writing positively about Reagan's approach to the economy and budgets, he concludes with this: (emp add)

I continue to see the Austerian movement in the United States as thinly disguised partisan politics. These are people who will say anything to keep the subsidies and tax benefits flowing to their electoral base. They will say anything –regardless of whether they actually believe these things — to thwart the opposing fellows priorities.

Anyone who believes the new deficit fighters care about deficits has not been paying attention. This is simply about power and money and legislative priorities and cash. With only a very few exceptions, it has nothing to do actual fiscal priorities and debt loads and deficits.

The vast majority of these new deficit chickenhawks — who voted for unfunded entitlement program (prescription drugs), who gave away trillions in unfunded tax cuts, who voted for a trillion dollar war of choice, are simply not to be believed. Their past actions speak far louder than anything they might say today.

Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats have no easy answer for their actions over the last 10 years when they failed to speak up about the deficit, but now can't seem to talk about anything else.


posted by Quiddity at 7/13/2010 06:46:00 AM