The Deficit Poseurs

From Dan Gross at Newsweek:
"A once endangered species is staging a robust comeback: the deficit hawk. Hunted nearly to extinction during the Bush years, many varieties not seen in Washington in a decade are now perching on branches and dropping their wisdom. Look, there's the Puff-Chested Congressional Peacock Hawk, strutting around Sunday-morning television-show sets complaining about pork while emitting loud honks upon the receipt of stimulus funds. The Furrowed-Brow Warbler Hawk (natural habitat: the op-ed pages) loathes deficit spending for the purpose of funding social insurance, but loves it when it's used to finance military actions abroad. The Blue-Bellied Partisan Hawk nests in think tanks; it goes mute when members of its own party run the show but squawks loudly when opponents run up debt. And on Nov. 3, birders sighted the rare Skinny Parrot Hawk, which repeats back the calls about fiscal probity. Said President Obama: "The government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels."

The deficits are large. But a lot of this debate is for the birds. It's not uncommon for senators of both parties who oppose health-care reform because it's fiscally irresponsible to call for the elimination of taxes on the ultrawealthy's estates. Too often, "deficit reduction is a form of defense—as a shield for policies they don't like," says Maya -MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB), a bipartisan group that was worried about deficits back when we were running a surplus..."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/221272

TW: I really liked Gross' deficit hawk depictions, they ring true. So much of the deficit discussion is led by hypocrites with agendas having little to do with actual fiscal responsibility. If someone was talking about deficits in 1995 and 2005 and not just since Obama became POTUS then she has credibility. If someone recognizes the cyclicality of much federal spending, then he has some credibility. Otherwise, stfu, thou art a poseur.