Debt Super Committee: Blame Democrats?

04 September 2011 |permalink | email article

HOURS before President Obama delivers a critical prime-time national address this Thursday which will change the focus to a new round of economic stimulus measures12 members of the new joint deficit Super Committee will hold its first hearing on the origin, drivers and potential consequences of U.S. debt.

For nearly all experts, as Talking Points Memo observed, this is a matter of settled fact. Most current U.S. debt stems from a combination of Bush administration policies (massive tax cuts, unfounded wars), automatic consequences of thr great recession (unemployment benefits, reduced revenues), and President’s stimulus bill. The key driver of future debt is health care costs, which will make Medicare unaffordable, and the ramifications, should policymakers fail to control the debt in the long run, would be economically catastrophic.

But for weeks, the committee’s Republican co-chair, Rep Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has been repeating an inaccurate version of this talking point, from a recent official statement. “The American people know we have a debt crisis not because they are undertaxed; it is because this President and previous Democratic Congresses have spent too much.”

If Hensarling’s intention at the first meeting is to build good will, he will have to back down from that claim, not only because it’s false, but it falsely implies that Democratic policies are at fault, that Democratic policies should bear the brunt of the Committee’s cuts. Undaunted, Obama will make the case for huge infrastructure spending and job training for the long-term unemployed, and suggest both parties can work together and produce real results to help job creators get people back to work. 

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