Forecast August 29, 2009: Not the end, only the start

    Seattle Post-Intelligencer

    August 29, 2001

    This is only the start, not the end

    Dear Editor:

    Friday's P-I took some healthy shots at George W. and the vanishing surplus. Yes, the president rammed through a tax cut that may cost us baby boomers our Medicare coverage. He also assisted Alan Greenspan in bungling the prosperity they were handed by the Clinton administration. The president and Texas Oil turned their backs as the economy got sucker-punched by high energy prices. But now the recession or slowdown or whatever you call it is on top of us, and the danger is that we frame questions in a way that equates a balanced budget with prudent economic policy.

    Balancing the budget in a recession is not prudent. In spite of happy talk, we have not seen the light at the end of the tunnel in this recession. The next few months are very crucial. Yes, there is a sickening similarity to the first years of the Reagan administration and the psychology that created the huge public debt. Yes, it is a sad sight to see the Republicans now saying phooey on paying down the debt when for so many years they played the other side of the political fence. But we need to get investment started again in this country. If the private sector elects to sit on the sideline, so be it. Let the government invest. A fiscal surplus is the result of good economics, not the cause. The world cannot afford Bushenomics, but it can less afford a political stalemate over balancing the budget and keeping Social Security in a lockbox.

    Alan Harvey