Matthew Zeitlin, a NYT reporter covering finance and economics, editorially ponders (perhaps) the sociopolitical upside of government intervention via deficit spending.
"As people reap the benefits of their belated concessions," he writes, "they’ll likely see that the nation’s public finances remain intact, despite fearmongering … [from] the remaining supply-side voices and small-government types in the Republican Party like Senator Ron Johnson [who] were so afraid of [deficit spending] they either threw roadblocks in front of new relief bills or opposed them altogether: If government can afford to bolster the incomes and living standards for a broad segment of the population in a crisis, they might ask, then why couldn’t it have done more from the start?"
Is the fear of deficit spending as so alarmingly circulated by the Sen. Johnsons of this country sincere? It sure wasn't when they jammed through Trump's flippant tax cuts in a non-recessionary period which are producing, and will continue producing, enormous government-budget gaps. When a Republican president is in the White House, their deficit fear turns to nothing but joy.
Also, no matter the reams of macroeconomic analyses that testify to the unalterable fact that tax cuts don't pay for themselves, that massive deficit spending is essential in bad economic times — again, no levelheaded economist would advise that particular spending during good times — and that the alleged fear, when we have a Democratic president, of imperative red ink is empirically unfounded, "supply-side voices and small-government types in the Republican Party" merrily go about bewitching their base over the fiscal barbarity of providing proper aid to struggling Americans.
But, their base is plenty accustomed to buying into bullshit: Whether they believe the bullshit is irrelevant; bullshit contributes mightily to owning the libs. And what could be sweeter? Nearly half of this nation dwells in wanton, politically crack-addled crapola, and there they will stay. They'll persist in fellating millionaire politicians in obvious no need of help, such as Ron Johnson, even though they need it themselves.
What a swarm of suckers and self-harming cretins. Much more harmful, however, is that they preserve this country in frivolous yet ominous divisions.