Paul Krugman posts this depressing but rather sobering observation:
But the political argument against focusing on the deficit is even stronger than he realizes — because there are very good odds that even if Obama exhibited iron fiscal discipline, voters wouldn’t notice. There’s a remarkable, depressing paper by Achen and Bartels that includes an analysis of voter views of the deficit in 1996 — by which time the huge deficit that Bill Clinton inherited had been drastically reduced. Here’s what voters thought they knew:
Yep: after one of the biggest moves toward budget balance in history, a majority of Republicans, and a plurality of all voters, believed that deficits had increased.
Perception and reality don’t always align in politics. There are people who would swear on a stack of Bibles that Reagan cut taxes and was fiscally responsible despite giving people the biggest tax increase in history. Republican branding of Democrats as “tax and spend” has obviously worked – just look at how suddenly the deficit is important again right when Obama got elected like it suddenly appeared on January 20, 2009. I guess it’s always going to be up to the Democratic party to clean up the messes left by the Republican party and not get any credit for doing it.
There is a big difference between what people say and what people actually do. Like I’ve said before, people in general are short-term concrete thinkers. It’s not that people are incapable of making long-term decisions, they are and many do. People know they need to spend less money and save more, but have trouble doing it. There’s always a need – Christmas, birthday, repairs to the car. Planning for the long term is difficult and that’s why most people don’t do it.
I think Democrats should address the budget deficit – eventually. It’s more important to get the economy working again, not just for huge megabanks but also for middle class people. Right now I feel that politicians are using deficits as an excuse to do nothing and to try to force Democrats not to live up to the promises of change that they made. I hope Democrats realize that their path to victory lies in putting successful programs in place and not slashing aid to people that need it.