Disconnect

Can't we all just get along?

"It would be amusing if it weren't so sad..." is a common refrain around the Internets over the debt fiasco.  Watching the Speaker get pantsed by the Tea Party was funny, but default really isn't funny.

Neither is the fact that the subtitle for this whole summer melodrama should be "Macroeconomics: You're Doing It Wrong!"

Cropping up around the internet are clips, articles and clips about articles with economists of many different persuasions all saying the same thing: "You shouldn't cut spending in a weak economy."

The response from the Tea Party/Austerity Fetishists is "People tighten their belts in a downturn, so should the government."

Economists are looking at macroeconomics, Teatards are looking at microeconomics.

We've been over this a ton before, but there are a number of reasons why we are running budget deficits.  Some of them (wars) can be ended soon hopefully.  Some of them (tax cuts) are likely to linger along somewhat in some form.

But one of the biggest reasons is that we are in a terrible "jobs" recession.  Unemployed people not only don't pay taxes, they collect unemployment insurance.  Getting them back to work would seem to be the number priority for anyone who wants to cut the deficit.  Would you rather pay someone unemployment insurance?  Or pay them to fix a bridge or the electrical grid?  The second would be more expensive, but also more stimulative and have a longer benefit to the country.

But the Teatards aren't interested in "experts" with their "book larning".

As the Standup Economist put it, "These are people who believe in Social Darwinism, but not Darwin."