Issue discussion: Deficit and national debt

finesse said:
They didn't show a plan because it was more important to pay the war debts the Republicans left behind. Quit that bosiding BS. How much did we owe from the war when Obama took over? Remember he literally used up every bit of political leverage he had in getting the ACA through. If you're remotely sentient, you know that. Name one thing the the Republicans have done for the everyman's benefit that didn't favor their elite more.
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I believe there were a few posts on this thread about the myth of Republicans being great for the national debt in the voter mind. Now you can recite all the proof you want about how that is not true and I would agree with you.

However, the point is messaging............ and how Dems have no credibility in messaging on the issue and obviously according to prior posts the voters see it that way. So its going to take some heavy lifting to change that perception. Are you scarred of a little heavy lifting?

I geared my comments toward what it was going to take for Dems to change all that. Now if you got better suggestions on how to change messaging and get results........than by all means, I'm listening.
 
superrific said:
The deficit is the rate of change of the debt. You literally cannot talk about reducing the debt without talking about the deficit, implicitly or explicitly.

Yes, the debt increased under Obama. That's what it means to have a deficit. And, if he did well on the deficit, he did well on the debt.

What people often don't understand is that the deficit is the problem, not the debt. We can grow our way out of the debt, but if the deficit is larger than the growth rate (as it is now and always is under the GOP) then we will not be able to and it will eventually bite us.

One great way of keeping the debt in check would be to decrease the military budget, not expand it to 1.5T. You can see why spending money on weapons system is so stupid. If we don't have tons of weapons, then people like Trump can't waste them on pointless endless wars.
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My focus is on messaging. But if we going to talk about Obama and progress made on deficit as proof of progress on national debt then there's a flaw. His debt to GDP ratio went up every year except it stayed the same for 2014 and 2015 before going up again in 2016. Sure, great recession he struggled with. He wasn't a big spender by my measurements. thou but was perceived as such. And then we're back to messaging.
 
BlueSmoke said:
My focus is on messaging. But if we going to talk about Obama and progress made on deficit as proof of progress on national debt then there's a flaw. His debt to GDP ratio went up every year except it stayed the same for 2014 and 2015 before going up again in 2016. Sure, great recession he struggled with. He wasn't a big spender by my measurements. thou but was perceived as such. And then we're back to messaging.
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Large Deficits are pro-inflationary. Trump 1.0 with excessive QE in 2019 and massive deficits for billionaires and the massive bank stimulus package 1.0, even though my fed. taxes went up 30%, primed the pump for post-COVID inflation...especially when essential workers and truckers quit of were sick and the supply chain constricted.

Then Putin's War on Ukraine spiked oil $. But Biden, 1st CoS Ron Klain, and a slow Fed Reserve hike share only part of the blame. This time around inflation 100% Trump's fault, instead of 50%. Jeff Zients was a much better CoS and as Ukraine held, inflation dwindled. But the deficit is 80%+ Trump's fault. Trump 1.0 increased the debt more than any other POTUS.

But don't worry - Pubs will get religion again when there is a Dem. POTUS or even a Dem House/Senate.
 
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