It's the Tea Party's Fault
Rob Long ·
Aug 1, 2011 at 2:22pm
I'm Facebook-surfing today, and came across this perfect, pithy gem from Richard Miniter, who writes mostly about foreign policy and terrorism -- his excellent book, Mastermind, is chilling and real -- but in his recent status update, expressed a very important point:
The only crisis is that the House GOP and the Tea Party are winning; tax hikes are off the table. The "crisis" is that Democrats may have to reduce their bribes (i.e. programs) to their base. As for the Moody's downgrade: debt to GDP was roughly 40% when Obama was elected and is nearly 98% now. Who did that, the Tea Party?
Our country is on the brink of crippling indebtedness. That isn't the Tea Party's fault.
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Jun '10
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
if I find myself in a mess caused by other people, I tend to direct my scorn at those that created the mess, not those that are trying to help me out of the mess. Here is a graph of federal spending since 2006, including the total accumulated debt as well as the breakdown of where the money is spent. We could go back further and cover all the GW Bush years, but it wasn't until 2006 that his deficits started adding significantly to our debt. Click on the highlighted word and examine the chart. Our total debt went from 8.24 trillion in 2006 to 14.3 trillion in 2010. So for 235 years this country accumulated a debt of 8 trillion and in 5 years we have added 6 trillion to that debt. It's hard to believe. I must be doing something wrong with my math. How could we have increased our country's total debt burden by 75% in just that short time? But wait. When were these Tea party folks elected? Well they actually didn't take office until this January, so all of the above occurred before most of these Congressmen were there.
Edited on Aug 1, 2011 at 4:56pmApr '11
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
@cdor: and who took over congress in January 2007? The GOP definitely started this trajectory, but the Dems shoved it all into overdrive. Without the Tea Party representatives, we'd be headed over the cliff. We still may get there, but at least they've shifted the debate.
May '10
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
Perhaps someone more knowledgable about macro-economics will correct me, but isn't Steyn right that we should be worried as much or more about the objective amount of debt as we are of relative debt?
In other words, European nations can get away with much larger debt-to-GDP ratios than America can, because our economy is larger to the point of a difference in kind. How do lenders handle the sheer volume of America's debt... especially while holding up every other government of the West and then some?
Jun '10
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
Yes, DSD, but everyone who is in Congress now and/or was in Congress for the past 10 to 30 years is responsible for this debt crisis. That is both parties. Are the Dems more responsible? No doubt, but does it matter? Only the "Tea Party" current crop and a few old guard conservatives are free of blame. Of course, those are precisely the folks taking the heat for hampering a deal. The deal, of course, is more of the same.
Jun '10
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
Good point Aaron. My not so politically involved wife, upon hearing of this deal this morning, asked me. "Who is going to lend us this extra money?" I had to laugh. Pretty damn good question. My guess is the presses at the Fed are smokin'. And no, the economy hasn't grown by 75% in the last 5 years. So the relative debt to GDP is obviously growing astronomically as well.
Edited on Aug 1, 2011 at 3:04pmJul '10
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
Aaron Miller
Perhaps someone more knowledgable about macro-economics will correct me, but isn't Steyn right that we should be worried as much or more about the objective amount of debt as we are of relative debt?
In other words, European nations can get away with much larger debt-to-GDP ratios than America can, because our economy is larger to the point of a difference in kind. How do lenders handle the sheer volume of America's debt... especially while holding up every other government of the West and then some?
Putin has thrown out a few quips today about America sucking the world financial resources dry. Now I understand the huge and aesthetically questionable movement to rehabilitate vampire stories. The questions should be:
In this case we are paying trillions in tribute to the morons who gave us doodlesquat lightbulbs.
Mar '11
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
This explains why our dear VP confused the hobbits with terrorists (he probably hasn't read the book).
Edited on Aug 1, 2011 at 3:16pmApr '11
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
Aaron, you are absolutley correct. The total debt is difficult to deal with due to its shear size. Think about this, in all probability the debt compromise will probably be signed today. Even if we assume that all the future cuts actually happen (a very dubious assumption) we will still be ADDING $7 Trillion to the debt. So in 10 years, we're looking at a total debt of $23 Trillion and 2020 is the year the CBO estimates Medicare will go bankrupt. Throw in our trade imbalance and we're staring at a very scary situation.
I believe that the agencies will downgrade our bond rating soon and Michelle Bachman will come out smelling like a rose (notice how Romney came out today against the deal after being silent for weeks?). These candidates realize that this deal is a drop in the buket. When the bond rating declines and interest rates go up, people are going to want to know why, since Obama told the world these past few weeks that we needed to increase the debt ceiling to avoid this problem. Bachmann with her votes and Roney will be able to say, "we told you so".
Edited on Aug 1, 2011 at 3:33pmJan '11
Re: It's the Tea Party's Fault
I believe I heard (here/NRO?) that the inevitable downgrade from AAA to AA would add any extra 100 billion or so to our budget in 2012 - has any watercarriers in the media asked the President where this extra cost will come from?
The GOP avoided a shut down at all costs during the CR-,budget talks early this spring. They avoided at all costs a shut down over the debt ceiling. If that downgrade comes in the next 3-4 months - I think they could force a shut-down over the 2012 budget (the ceiling & spending 'cuts' were part of this deal, I don't think the 2012 budget was part of that deal without the blame/risk that they seem scared off. Obama may have got the ceiling raised till after the election, but he can still get dragged through the mud on a responsible budget.