Debunking Debt Duplicity

Instead of taking the word of political hacks producing YouTube propaganda clips and email messages designed to scare you into voting for a spate of right-wing ideologues, click the link under the graph below, read the article, then decide for yourself if you should be scared to the point of voting to cut essential social programs based on a myth about the nation's debt.

Remember this:

Data is data; interpretation of data is spin.

Scare tactics work on folks who are too damned lazy to do the work of thinking critically about complex issues. They also work on folks who see the glass of the American dream as being half empty and the amount of liquid as shrinking.

I prefer to associate with folks who see the glass/liquid dream scenario as a dynamic system in which the level in the glass fluctuates as working Americans both consume the liquid and replace what they've taken with even more, which can then be shared with others.

Those in the "half empty" group work very hard at preventing others from drinking from what they consider to be their private watering hole.

Those in the "dynamic system" group know that the watering hole is on public land. They work to secure drinking rights for all who are thirsty.

If you're one of the people who has bought into the GOP's sudden epiphany that the deficit - and in particular the interest on the deficit - is the biggest problem facing America today, look at the graph below. Pay particular attention to these two facts from the article from which the graph was taken (link below):

Interest refers to interest the government pays on the national debt. In 1987, the interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds was around 9 percent, driving up the share of government spending that went to interest. Today, the rate on 10-year Treasuries is roughly 2 percent.

Bonus Numbers! Federal spending has grown roughly as fast as the overall economy over the past 50 years. In 1962, federal spending was $707 billion and accounted for 18 percent of U.S. GDP. In 2011, federal spending was $3.1 trillion and accounted for 24 percent of GDP. (The dollar figures are adjusted for inflation.)

Finally, remember it was the Bush administration which cut taxes while prosecuting two unfunded wars with no concern for what effect those policies would have on the deficit.

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50 Years Of Government Spending, In 1 Graph
Of each dollar the federal government spends, how much goes to defense? How much goes to Social Security? How much goes to interest on the debt? And how has this sort of thing changed over time?

The graphic below answers these questions. It shows the major components of federal spending 50 years ago, 25 years ago, and last year.

Link to full article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/14/152671813/50-years-of-government-spending-in-1-graph?sc=emaf