No the truth is you don’t cut spending in a downturn, Hoover tried it, and FDR tried it in 1937-38, and both times the economy crashed.

Spread the wealth and fiscally stimulate during the downturn

Obama be able to take the “fiscally responsible” mantle away from the Republicans?

Republicans Fiscally conservative?

What planet, exactly, have you been living on for the past 30 years?

As Dick Cheney is fond of saving, in the early 1980s, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter. Since Reagan, we’ve had only one president who even toyed with the idea of fiscal conservativism and that was a Democrat.

Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 combined for more than 70 percent of the national debt since 1776. That’s pretty mind numbing

“… will Obama be able to take the “fiscally responsible” mantle away from the Republicans?” – JG

That should not be hard. Talk about setting the bar low. I heard no details nor anything to intimate that there will be anything that vaguely can be described as budget cuts are in the offing. But based on what he said in the 60 Minutes interview one whole week ago…

Kroft: “Where is all the money going to come from to do all of these things? And is there a point where just going to the Treasury Department and printing more of it ceases to be an option?”

Mr. Obama: “Well, look, I think what’s interesting about the time that we’re in right now is that you actually have a consensus among conservative Republican-leaning economists and liberal left-leaning economists. And the consensus is this: that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we’re gonna have to spend money now to stimulate the economy. And that we shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. “

… for the next two years there will be zero fiscal discipline and we will be spending, borrowing and printing money like drunken Republicans.

Obama light on economic details

Thanks largely to the bailout and the declining economy, current projections are that the budget deficit is likely to be near or even above $ 1 trillion next year. Nobody seems to be talking about this, or to understand just what it means that the the deficit will be equal to nearly 50% of the total budget itself. For one thing, it means that Obama’s stimulus plan is likely to be a lot smaller than advertised, unless he wants to spend us even further into debt.

I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with tomorrow, but cutting out this year’s version of the Bridge to Nowhere isn’t going to amount to anything