I'm refraining from posting anything about Sen. Kennedy. There is more than enough material out there, and it seems more fitting to leave his memory to those who knew him. Instead, we return to a familiar topic at The ModCon, deficit and the national debt, and in particular, their impacts on the health insurance/health care (depending on the week) debate. This post begins a series of discussions between BMG and a more liberal friend who will be posting counter-point (or at least, alternative ideas).
A recent article by David Gergen at the CNN AC360-blog site, was entitled "Deficits: Why they might threaten health reform - and what Obama might do." The implied question - "Can the President win the health reform debate given the dramatically increasing deficit and debt burden?' - is an excellent one. Putting aside the merits of particular aspects to the five bills circulating through the two houses of Congress, the very fact that the deficit and total national debt have grown so dramatically in the last eight months, is a large factor in much of the opposition to the proposals. The heart of Gergen's musings are laid out in four paragraphs:
'Yet even the Bernanke story cannot fully deflect attention from the other economic story engulfing the administration today: its official announcement of new economic projections – in particular, its acknowledgment that deficits over the coming decade will be even higher than it said only three months ago. Now, the administration is predicting that instead of $7 trillion in new deficits, the country will rack up a staggering $9 trillion in new deficits for the 2010-2019 period. (The Congressional Budget Office has published its own numbers today that are largely parallel.). Deficits of that magnitude would be extraordinarily dangerous and irresponsible for the country. They would double the national debt, risk much higher inflation, saddle future taxpayers with annual interest payments of over $900 billion, make us even more reliant upon China as a creditor, and over time would weaken us as a great nation. Talk about trend lines that are unsustainable! ... In view of all this, President Obama has a choice. He can push forward with health reform efforts, giving short shrift to these deficit concerns. If so – if he continues to insist that Washington is just too “wee-weed up” — he will find that some of his strongest allies will become more reluctant on a big health reform bill this year. Or he can come to grips with these grim forecasts and present to the nation a credible, comprehensive plan for reining in long-term deficits before Congress acts on health reform. The second path demands more courage – and is also the one of real leadership.'
The CBO's economic projections for the next decade were grim to begin with, and have been revised further downward over the last month. Spending $1 trillion on overhauling 1/6 of the economy, when the debt has been revised upward to $9 trillion (and the deficit to $1.6 trillion) and within months of TARP 2, the stimulus package and the largest budget in US history, is going to be a tough sell even to supporters.
Many of the Congressional leadership, and in the Administration, seems completely unwilling or incapable of accepting that much of the anger expressed in the Town Hall meetings is not about racism, gasping conservatism, or even plain contrariness, but rather a deep, abiding dislike of governmental creep and stratospheric debt. Dan Gerstein, a former adviser to Sen. Lieberman, recently published a telling article in Forbes.
'In the best-case scenario, the cumulative toll of all this spending and intervening would test most voters' tolerance for another major government expansion on health care. But for many already anxious Americans, it has rapidly resuscitated their skepticism about government and its competence in managing one-sixth of the economy. The fact that so much of what has come out of Congress is every bit as partisan and one-sided as the last eight years is only compounding those doubts--particularly for swing voters.'The concept that the President and Congress are trying to sell, that one will lower the long-term deficit and debt by increasing government involvement and spending, is ludicrous to most voters. They're well-aware that increasing spending, and increased involvement leads to increasing debt, and therefore the increased need to pay for that debt. There are only two ways to pay the bill: increase taxes, decrease spending. The latter is the principle reason there is so much concern over rationing and a loss of Medicare benefits. The former is already being floated by multiple Administration officials. The more sordid aspects (cronyism and favoritism in particular) of pushing a bill this large are not helping sweeten voter temperaments. Neither is the 'tone-deaf' aspect of the sales pitch coming from the President. Until 'listening' to these real concerns becomes important to the Administration and Congress, the people are going to continue to push back. They desperately need a new tact and fresh ideas; in fact, they should scrap all the current bills under discussion and begin anew. I doubt they have the sense, guts or humility enough to try.
