Beyond Deficit Scare-Mongering

Conservatives’ real aim in their fiscal brinkmanship is to gut Social Security and Medicare.

By Ellen Frank

U.S. politics seems stuck in an endless debate about the size of the federal deficit and federal debt. From congressional Republicans’ refusals to lift the debt ceiling, fears of the “fiscal cliff,” disputes about the “sequestration” and its automatic federal spending cuts, and upcoming debates on a new federal budget and the need for so-called entitlement reform (primarily cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid)—all hinge on the presumed need to get the U.S. budget in balance and curb deficit spending.

 

In a February appearance on ABCs “This Week,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the chair of the House Budget Committee and his party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2012, repeatedly raised fears of an imminent “debt crisis” if the government deficit and debt were not cut quickly and dramatically. “We want economic growth. We want job creation. We want people to go back to work. We want to prevent a debt crisis from hurting those who are the most vulnerable in society,” Ryan argued, “from giving us a European-like economy. In order to do that, you’ve got to get the debt and deficit under control and you’ve got to grow the economy.”