Cause and Effect, Again

Let's go back to the old cause-and-effect model, shall we, courtesy of Seeing the Forest.  I just posted on this dynamic a few days back, here, relating to military vets.  I need to quote extensively from Seeing the Forest to capture the point. 

Just ten years ago we were paying off debt at a rate that would have completely paid it all off by now. But under George W. Bush we cut taxes for the rich and more than doubled military spending. We deregulated and stopped enforcing laws. We let the big corporations run rampant. Our federal budget turned from huge surpluses to massive deficits....

And then, under and because of Bush, our economy collapsed.

The guru of Seeing the Forest, Dave Johnson, then nails it pretty succinctly: "To Fix The Damage, Undo The Cause." 

The way to fix deficits is to undo the damage Bush did, by raising taxes on the rich, and cutting back the huge, bloated, extreme, massive, astonishing, incredible, stratospheric military budget. And we have to boost the economy by investing in rebuilding our infrastructure to get people employed. We have millions of jobs that need doing, while millions are looking for jobs. Then those people will be paying taxes instead of collecting unemployment and food stamps. And the infrastructure improvements will boost our economy's competitiveness. This is all so simple and obvious that only DC insider types could miss it.

Cutting spending doesn't cut the need, it shifts the burden. Cutting government spending does not cut the costs to society and the overall economy of meeting those needs. Cutting government spending just shifts -- or privatizes -- those costs onto the backs of people who can't afford to spend that money. That need and cost is still there in the economy, except without government -- democracy -- handling it, doing it for all of us, less expensively. Cutting government's role opens those functions up to private profit, instead of We, the People taking care of and watching out for each other -- and making the decisions.

Do you really think that if you phase out Medicare, that old people won't still need the medical care? Of course they will still need it, but the government won't be negotiating cost-savings for them, they'll be on their own, up against the giant insurance monopolies.

I'm no economist, but I'm a pretty smart guy otherwise, and this post captures in a nutshell what we must do: simply go back to the policies that were in effect when the economy still worked.  Duh!