E. J. Dionne Jr. in full-out denial on federal deficit and debt

“Crisis” is one of those word frequently used by liberals as they refer to problems with the education system, obesity and health care. But labeling the federal government’s deficit and $14 trillion debt as a crisis? Oh hell no! It’s simply a problem.

The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne really does not think we’re broke.

“We’re broke.”

You can practically break a search engine if you start looking around the Internet for those words. They’re used repeatedly with reference to our local, state and federal governments, almost always to make a case for slashing programs — and, lately, to go after public-employee unions. The phrase is designed to create a sense of crisis that justifies rapid and radical actions before citizens have a chance to debate the consequences.

Oh, you mean like the health care crisis that demanded Congress take action immediately before people died? The rapid and radical actions Congress took were so rapid and radical we just found out we’re there is an additional $105 billion of spending that we did not really know about.

From the American Spectator.

Dionne may be technically right that we are not at this moment in a state of fiscal crisis, although, as Matt Welch points out, there are plenty of local governments that are literally bankrupt, and all the projections for the federal government are not much brighter.

And there may be, on paper, “many different paths” to fixing budgets (although the route he hints at — taxing the “wealthiest among us” is not one of them). The problem is that there are a lot of interests, lawmakers, voters, etc. making it more complicated.

Dionne was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell yesterday.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_VsFodd-7c

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

7 Comments

  1. Don Lombardo on March 17, 2011 at 4:47 am

    Dionne has been nothing but a Liberal piss boy for years. (He's the guy holding the bucket for Harvey Korman in History of the World-part 1.) 



  2. Dimsdale on March 17, 2011 at 5:46 am

    Never trust a liberal with bad hair and a lisp, especially one that works for PMSNBC.

    If Bush were still president, references to another "Great Depression" would be inundating the media, with Dionne at the front of the pack.

     

    How can he sit there and say that with the burgeoning deficit/debt hanging over our heads (and more importantly, the heads of our children) like the sword of Damocles?



  3. RoBrDona on March 17, 2011 at 6:16 am

    "It's good to be the king" Don L …… and the king wannabes will continue to push through programs that have already failed in Europe, with no genuine economic debate on the cost. In this instance, institutionalized ignorance breeds complete contempt.  



  4. mynoc3 on March 17, 2011 at 9:17 am

    This reminds me of Star Wars: "These aren't the droids you're looking for."



  5. GdavidH on March 17, 2011 at 10:37 am

    Luckily very few people saw this on MessNBC, and the ones who did see it don't care about the country anyway.



  6. Eric on March 17, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    Dionne is a real flame, much like Michael Moore. Most of what he says is more like what he wants to believe, and not what really is. Typical liberal… can't trust a word that comes out of his mouth!



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