The Importance of the Deficit

In commenting about John McCain's budget plans, Matthew Yglesias threw out this comment: Given the present circumstances, I can't think of any good reason for a presidential candidate to be promising to that we'll be at balanced budgets in four years. It would be nice to see the deficit on a decreasing trajectory rather than an increasing one, but achieving short-term ...

Obama Personality Cult Redux

Sara Robinson has an interesting examination of the question of Barack Obama’s cult of personality. She begins by a look at the literature on actual cults and shows why the Obama campaign doesn't qualify. While worthwhile from a technical standpoint, though, that's not really what the debate is about. Perhaps "cult" is a poor word choice but people ...

Curing McCain Derangement Syndrome

While there are plenty of cases of McCain Derangement Syndrome, the irrational belief by conservatives that John McCain is to the left of Teddy Kennedy, evidence is mounting that the malady can be treated by a steady dose of reflection about the prospect of President Hillary Rodham Clinton. Romney supporter Dr. Rusty Shackleford describes the symptoms: What drives MDS? Some people ...

Bush Favoring Larger Stimulus Package

Amidst fears of a recession and a jittery stock market Bush has signaled that he is open to a larger fiscal stimulus package--i.e. larger deficits. Jolted by global recession fears, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates Tuesday, and President Bush and leaders of Congress joined in a rare show of cooperation in promising urgent action to pump up the economy with ...

By Way of Introduction

James has graciously asked me to guest-blog at OTB for a few days and I accepted with joy. I'm a constant reader and frequent commenter here. I have an advanced degree in my field and have owned my own small business for more than 25 years. I'm a Democrat but I think my politics are best described as eclectic. I ...

Is Divided Government Better?

Jacob Sallum argues that the Republicans deserve to lose control of Congress because they've been so abysmal at controlling the size of the federal government. He cites AEI's Kevin Hassett's finding that the number of federal employees "shrank by 200,000 under Bill Clinton but have grown by 79,000 under George W. Bush." But that's a pretty stupid metric ...

Amazingly Bad Reporting

Like Michael Cannon, this article in the Washington Post strikes me as a particularly bad case of reporting on economic policy. The article is on tariff suspensions and is caste in a typical fashion of domestic businesses being beaten by foreign competitors, Wal-Mart bashing and how it is bad for tax payers. Lets take the last one first. The ...

Conservatives Abandoning the GOP?

Mark Tapscott argues, persuasively, that the Republican "compromise" on spending is further alienating them from fiscal conservatives. The reality is the compromise would preserve the bulk of the earmarks treasured by the Senate's Old Bulls while reducing funding needed by the military in the War against Terrorism. [...] This is the kind of fundamental smoke and mirrors dishonesty that has helped fuel the ...

Balancing the Federal Budget: What to Cut?

Duncan Black and Kevin Drum call B.S. on Andrew Sullivan's statement that, "I'm in favor of Bush's tax cuts, but want spending cuts to match them; I favor balanced budgets . . . ." Black writes that, "It's a nice little fantasy to fetishize 'small government' and imagine that liberals fetishize 'big government' but that just isn't the reality. Put up ...

Yeeeaaaarrrrgh!

Karl Rove has agents everywhere; Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are privately bristling over Howard Dean’s management of the Democratic National Committee and have made those sentiments clear after new fundraising numbers showed he has spent nearly all the committee’s cash and has little left to support their efforts to gain seats this cycle, ROLL CALL reports. Congressional leaders were furious last ...