MAKES SENSE

The right has managed to scare people into rejecting their own beliefs and desires for jobs, more affordable and better healthcare, secure Medicare and Social Security, etc. with the idea that the debt ran up by the previous rightwing Republican administration, and compounded by their destruction of the economy and neutering of regulatory agencies and laws, is the new administration's fault and our biggest worry.

Most economists disagree. Many believe the problem was and is that the stimulus package was not big enough. Some on the right (see the comments threads on any political posts I've made here in the past few months) point to China as some kind of example (!) of how to grow an economy, when in fact the Chinese government made a much greater investment, i.e. stimulus package, in their country's economy (including infrastructure projects that will end up giving this recently "third world" power better bridges, faster and more efficient trains and railway system etc.) than we did!

In light of that, and the fact that often the McClatchy news service has been scooping the mainstream press, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, I thought I'd share this editorial on the national debt that makes a lot of sense to me.

[Here's a more recent article by the Nobel economist Paul Krugman from this morning's, Monday's, NY Times]