Thoughts from Coakley phonebanking: IT'S THE DEFICIT, STUPID

[Recursion]

That's what I've been getting. People are afraid of the deficits we're running, and we need a convincing (and honest) answer about how we're going to get rid of them.

Now, I'm off to vote for Coakley.

[uponit7771]

1. "...the American people don't care about deficits...." and they don't they care about jobs. If our.

...leaders are in a bubble they will let "deficit" memes get out of control like Churchill did as if England wasn't fighting a freakin war and as if Obama didn't walk into a financial mess.

[still_one]

2. and where were these people the last 8 years? no wait, where were they since

reagan, when due to military spending the deficits started getting out of control?

[renegade000]

4. seriously

you got to wonder how the republicans are able to pull off these magic tricks of public relations; they have serious power to shape people's (mis)perceptions of reality.

[Clio the Leo]

3. I'd be interested to know how many of those people even know what the deficit is....

.... either way, God speed Recursion!

[livetohike]

13. +1

Believe me, I have asked several people this exact question. They can't even B.S. an answer.

[Cosmocat]

5. JESUS FRIGGEN CHRISTMAS ...

I just do not get, it is completely unfathonable, that people who are worried about the deficit as the number one issue in a national level race would, after ON GOD DARNED YEAR, turn to the idiot party that ... FRIGGEN CREATED IT!

HOW on gods green earth does the friggen party that was HANDED the debt get burned by it getting it handed to them, and the friggen party that CREATED is the one people now want to turn to because of it ...

Even with the MSM enabling it, how do people with ANY sense to them at all, get turned around so friggen easily?

[lapfog_1]

14. Yes, every time the repukes are in power

it's spend spend spend. On war, military, tax cuts, etc. Deficits don't matter.

As soon as they are out of power it's "The Democrats are tax and spend, they never want to pay for things, look how they sponsor these big expansion of government things. Health care, bailouts, the poor! We need a fiscally responsible party in power!"

I think this is what Thom Hartmann calls the "Two Santa Claus Theory" of how repukes win elections.

[high density]

6. eh?

It's the worthless GOP talking points that have been rolling on for decades.

In Natick, the persistent flow of voters included Rex Kidd, 48, the owner of a local masonry and paving company who voted for Brown because of his pro-business, conservative views.

"I respect Martha Coakley and what she's accomplished in her career. But I think she's going to preserve the status quo," Kidd said. "Scott Brown can take us to the next level ? is going to decrease my taxes and get rid of all the wasteful spending that Deval Patrick has done. Cutting taxes fuels the economy, not charging more taxes and spending it on social programs."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/polls_open_in_s_1.html

Dunno how a senator controls a governor, but the guy is voting for a Republican after all.

[TheKentuckian]

7. We've got immediate problems that deficit hawking ain't going to address

It is an issue but one that won't matter if we can't get the economy at least functioning again.

I don't think this can be squeezed into an effective soundbite but its pretty clear that Hooverisim isn't going to help right now.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter" - Dick Cheney. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

10. Bingo! If you're worried about deficits, don't elect Republicans n/t

[BeyondGeography]

9. HCR actually reduces the deficit

Getting people to understand and/or believe it is another matter...

[uponit7771]

20. EXACTLY!!! The response to deficits should be JUST THAT the CBO says it'll reduce it!!!

[BeyondGeography]

28. "Deficit" is code for "Stop giving the colored people money"

No other way to look at it. These are the same "independents" who kept voting R while Bush was turning a surplus into a deficit with income tax cuts for the rich and an unnecessary war. The fact that HCR reduces the deficit matters less to them than the thought that government subsidies would be going to people not like them. And the "jobs" programs, you know who they benefit...

[lapfog_1]

11. Unfortunately, there isn't any way to get rid of the deficits right now

not without tanking the economy into a 10+ year depression.

We need the jobs back, then the tax base expands.

One of the frustrating things that democrats (and the left do) is say things like "Well, if we didn't spend XXX dollars on {war, military, bank bailouts, corporate bailouts, tax cuts} we could afford {health care, more schools, infrastructure, solar power (I'm guilty of that one), housing for the homeless}. What nobody says is {run a surplus for 20+ years to pay down the debt}.

It's like having a credit card with no limit, interest only payment plan. No incentive to pay it off. Ever.

If we want to be the superpower we once were, which is ALWAYS grounded in economic power, not military power... we need to get the jobs back and make stuff here, impose huge tariffs on any import, and develop our own energy production. At this point, that might well mean a war with China and India. Our war with the Japanese in WWII was largely over trade with Japan. But at this point, our nation is at stake. And we need to break up the banks and re-institute Glass-Steagall or similar rules. And invest in our infrastructure. Put everyone back to work. Kill off Wallmart. And do it by running large deficits for at least 2 more years. Roll back the tax cuts (but that won't affect the deficits all that much). Give up on health care reform for another 5 years and then do a single payer system. Kill off the insurance companies. And then, and only then, increase taxes to produce a surplus. $400 Billion a year for 50 years now. $20 T by the time we start paying it down.

But we won't do it. We are addicted to the big credit card.

[karynnj]

30. As you said the only non painful way to reduce the deficit is to expand the economy

It is also possible that we are past the worst. I would expect that even this year, we will see some improvement over 2009.

I don't know the federal numbers, but in NJ the state lost $19 billion in tax revenue for the 2010 budget. This refects that many lost jobs, but another reason is that NJ has many people who worked in the financial world who lost income and capital gains were WAY down. Well, the financial companies are back making large sums and I assume so are their employyees. Now the market is getting close to where it was last September for many stocks. This should mean that as people sell, they will be more likely to incur a capital gain (that they will be taxed on), than a capital lost (that they can even to some degree use to not pay taxes on some amount of other taxable income.

If this is true, tax revenues (federal as well as NJ) will increase which will make the deficit a bit smaller.

[lapfog_1]

36. Except that payrolls are down 10 million people.

Or more.

And the main source of revenue for the federal government is direct payroll tax. Worse, the only source for Social Security is the payroll tax.

State deficits are only being papered over right now with borrowing from the Feds ( or, rather, stimulus money from the Treasury which the Treasury borrowed from US Debt purchasers). States can float a year to year debt like the Fed, so this stimulus money is letting them (temporarily) transfer that debt to the Federal government. But it's just a shell game.

The only thing that will fix it is more jobs.

The only thing that will bring jobs back is ending the free trade agreements and the "import whatever you want from China" mentality.

[NJmaverick]

12. Clinton turned record deficits into record surpluses

which Bush turned into record deficits again. You want debt, elect a Republican

[lapfog_1]

16. But only for a very short time.

and it was all undone in the first 4 months of the Bush mis-administration.

We didn't run a surplus long enough to put a big dent (or even a small dent) in the national debt.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. "We didn't run a surplus long enough to put a ... dent in the national debt."

I think that's one big reason that we got Bush.

We were talking about paying off the debt.

That would mean a lot less money for the people -- whoever they are -- that are currently collecting interest on that debt.

So we got a guy who started by wasting $35 million to send us letters telling us he'd be handing back even more money before he lowered taxes on the rich and started two wars.

[lapfog_1]

24. Possibly, I suspect that a lot of debt is held

by pension funds and foreign investors. The US has never defaulted on a Treasury bill. Which makes them very attractive to long term "safe" investors.

[quiller4]

15. That is what I kept getting, too--almost no interest in health care

and lots of complaints about stimulus and bank bailout. Worried about and opposed to a big jobs package, too.

[FVZA_Colonel]

17. So people don't want Obama and the Dems to actually do anything (especially on jobs),

but then they'd probably start bitching and moaning about what a failure they all are when nothing happens?

[uponit7771]

18. Cause these people only care about the deficit now?! They don't know what a deficit is then

[timeforpeace]

25. But we'll shove health care down their throats. That's usually called Tone Deafness. aka lost

elections.

[Cha]

19. bushcheneyrove created them.

[LeftHandPath]

21. If we were borrowing trillions of dollars a year...

for schools, alternative energy, mass transportation, health care it would be one thing.

But we're borrowing trillions for war and to pump up a fraudulent financial system.

$700 billion is next years budget for the Pentagon. WTF?

[timeforpeace]

23. Everyone wants their taxes raised to balance the budget? Then do it!

[Festivito]

26. Bush borrowed 3X what Clinton borrowed. Bush 4.8T, Clinton 1.5T

You want Republicans and lower debt, first you need to get a brain.

This can be looked up for ones self going to debt to the penny. Google it. Find it. Get the numbers. Make the calculations yourself. It will take you an hour. Jan 20th to Jan 20th, 1993-2001, 2001-2009.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

27. Then the nation is doomed. Seriously.

[RememberWellstone]

29. Thank you Bushhole

It's the smell of 8 years catching up to us now...fuk Bush.

[Recursion]

31. Anyways, just got back from voting. Decent crowd at 6:30 pm.

I'm not feeling too bad.

[Unvanguard]

32. Nobody on either side really has a clue. But our fiscal mess is simply not Obama's fault. n/t

[Azathoth]

33. Translation: The GOP talking points are taking hold

They drove the deficit into the heavens, and now they're gonna take us down by blaming everything on us.

[Recursion]

35. I don't know. I think Indies will bounce from party to party until someone actually fixes it

Just my read of it.

[ibegurpard]

37. And the Dems haven't given us any reason to be excited enough

to get out there refuting them.

[WI_DEM]

34. without a doubt it's the deficits that the indies are most concerned about.