Debt Wrong: Media Matters
January 1st, 2012
Tweet
I understand cause and effect. Countries like England went down the road of spending as a means of economic stimulus. What they ended up with, was massive debt.
“Topping the European debt league is Greece with 142.8% government debt to GDP ratio, followed by Italy (119.0%), Belgium (96.8%) Ireland (96.2%), Portugal (93.0%), Germany (83.2%), France (81.7%) Hungary (80.2%) and the United Kingdom (80.0%)” (CNN, 2011).
European bureaucrats convinced themselves and their constituents that government spending would stimulate the economy into producing enough tax revenue to pay for itself. They were wrong.
It is disgusting, dishonest, and discraceful how hard Media Matters is pushing government spending as this country’s salvation. They run a constant drip of pieces with titles like:
"Right-Wing Media Use CBO Director's Testimony To Launch Bogus Attack On Stimulus" (Media Matters 2011)
"Memo To Politifact: Conservatives Lie About The Stimulus All The Time" (Media Matters 2011)
"Krauthammer Repeats Myth That Stimulus 'Achieved Practically Nothing'"(Media Matters 2011)
The justification for this economic philosophy comes from John Maynard Keynes. Keynes was a British Economist whose macro-economic theories heavily influenced the world. Keynes theories themselves are sound. The problem comes when the theories are misapplied.
CNN Money interviewed Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University. Meltzer has been referred to as, “one of the most influential monetarists of the past 50 years.” (CNN Money, 2010) He was an economic advisor for President Reagan and worked in the Department of Treasury during the Kennedy Administration.
This is what Meltzer said regarding the implementation of John Maynard Keynes’ economic principles in the Obama administration:
“He (Keynes) would roll over in his grave if he could see the things being done in his name. Keynes was opposed to large structural deficits. He thought they chilled rather than stimulated the economy. It’s true that we are stuck with large structural deficits now. The goal should be to reduce the deficits, not to take on new spending that makes them worse” (CNN Money, 2010).
So yes, in a sense Obama’s stimulus is stimulating one part of the economy and creating jobs. The problem is this is being done at the expense of other parts of the economy. The left’s job creation numbers do not take into account jobs being lost in another part of the economy. This is like announcing to everyone on the sinking Titanic that everything will be ok because some of the boat is still working fine. This administration has been like a hull-piercing iceberg. We are sinking in debt.
~RC
Works Cited
CNN. (2011, July 21). European public debt at a glance. Retrieved December 31, 2011, from CNN.com:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/06/19/europe.debt.explainer/index.html
CNN Money. (2010, February 5). How Obama got Keynes wrong. Retrieved December 31, 2011, from
CNN.com:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/04/news/economy/meltzer_keynes.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2010020511&iid=EL
Media Matters. (2011)