Deficit Scaremongering Undermining Economic Recovery

The Great Recession has left tens of millions of families facing
unemployment, underemployment and the possibility of losing their home.
However, concerns over the deficit threaten to derail efforts to turn
around the economy and spur employment. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) corrects many of the misperceptions about the deficit that have brought the issue to the center of national debate.

"There would be no short-term or long-term benefit from reducing the current deficit," said Dean Baker,
co-director of CEPR and the author of the report. "If the budget
deficit were smaller we would see higher levels of unemployment."

The report, "The Budget Deficit Scare Story and the Great Recession,"
shows that the most-cited claims of leading deficit hawks are driven by
unfounded fears and misrepresentations of basic economic relationships.

One such example cited in the report is that the worsening of both the
short- and long-term deficit picture was driven not by a spendthrift
Congress, but almost entirely by the economic crisis brought on by the
collapse of the housing bubble. The small portion of the budget
deterioration driven by legislative actions was primarily the result of
increased defense spending associated with the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq.

As
well, the study demonstrates that the true long-term deficit problem is
skyrocketing health care costs and any meaningful attempt to deal with
deficits would start with reining in health care.

"The nation does not really have a long-term deficit problem," Baker
writes. "What we have is a long-term health care problem."

The study
also refutes the notion that the budget deficit is the source of
concern over the threat of foreign government ownership of U.S. debt.
If budget hawks were truly worried over the prospect of foreign
ownership of debt, they would focus on the trade deficit. Given that
the trade deficit is driven by a high dollar, this should be a focus of
their attention, but the people raising this concern almost never
discuss the over-valued dollar.

These misrepresentations and others are more than diversionary
arguments of no consequence. In a time when cogent, effective policies
are needed to address the suffering stemming from the economic
downturn, the tactics of the deficit hawks distract the public and
policy makers from the policies necessary to bring the economy back to
full employment.

The full report can be found here.