Who Is to Blame for the Deficit? (Hint: It Doesn't Matter)

David Leonhardt’s column in the NYT yesterday went to great lengths to attempt to assess blame for the current budget deficits and those that are projected.

I wanted to avoid commenting but given the amount of play it’s getting, I feel obliged to at least offer a few links that put it into perspective.

Predictably, it lays most of the blame on Bush and given the liberal nature of the blogosphere has been received with scant effort to analyze what he proposed. For the liberal view I recommend Ezra Klein and the Economist Free Exchange.

Fortunately Megan McArdle took the time to analyze Leonhardt’s article and wrote a fairly lengthy post exposing the fallacious logic that underpin his arguments. The bottom line is that you can do just about anything you want with numbers if you cook the assumptions.

Actually, the real bottom line is that Leonhardt’s column is a waste of time. There are a lot more things to worry about and projects to tackle than concocting fanciful blame scenarios.

Comments

[cynewulf:]

Avoid politicians of both parties as toxic WASTE. BIG WASTE OF TIME ASSIGNING ONE OR THE OTHER SIDE BLAME. Blame democracy. Crackheads vote for crack.

Jun 11 09:59 AM

[Larry House:]

Blame doesn't help. The damage is the same. My grandkids will be the worse for the decisions today.

Jun 11 10:04 AM

[MainStreet:]

Nearly all DC politicians and the people who elect them are to blame.

Jun 11 11:27 AM

[user396040:]

I tend to agree as to the futility of assessing blame. I do think that going forward we have to get our heads on straight and recognize that there is a big difference between incurring a deficit during a recession or depression and incurring a deficit during boom years characterized by investment bubbles. The former is necessary to preserve the economy, the latter probably just makes the bubble worse. For the very reason that there will be times when deficits are necessary, we should be disciplined at those times when they are not.

Jun 11 05:50 PM

[Robert O. P...:]

More constructive would be to place blame where i think it belong:
Two places, mainly, 1) Bush starting a war and refusing to pay for it for eight years=7Trillion Dollar deficit. Reason 2) Boards of Directors, of Corps, Banks, Mutual Funds NOT BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE, and instead blithely agreeing to virtually everything CEO's were doing, including spreading the wealth to the top.
Bob Pritchard, Cheboygn, MI

Jun 12 10:20 AM

[1RuleNoRules:]

Not knowing who to blame is not knowing how to vote.
We definitely don't know who is to blame.

Jun 12 12:46 PM

[TinyTim:]

"assess blame for the current budget deficits "

Is that with or without TARP?

Jun 12 03:01 PM