Pages

Monday, June 25, 2012

Deficit Reduction

Wallowing in Wishful Thinking


 ~ I expect the over-long political season to perseverate on the debt and the deficit, and there's no doubt that many voters identify this as an important issue. (Voters still identify jobs and the economy as more important, however.)

Slate has published revealing polling results that highlight the yawning gap between the embrace of political slogans and the willingness to make the tough decisions necessary:

Slate graphic of Dartmouth study on preferred solutions to the deficit, by party

Magical thinking will not solve real-world problems. Nor will a doctrinaire austerity. There are many good, fact-based overviews of the problem and what might form the basis of real solutions. For example, see here and here. One can object to various aspects of such analyses, but in broad brush they paint a realistic portrait that cannot be credibly dismissed by a broad ideological retort.

Bottom line: vote for solutions, not solipsisms.

No comments:

Post a Comment