Views of the Truth

Editorial - The Truth About the Deficit - NYTimes.com

Unsurprisingly, the NYTs has the (largely unstated) assumptions behind the linked column:

• Government takeover of medicine will save money.
  
• Taxation has no detrimental effects on economic growth -- taxes can be raised with impunity, and revenue will simply rise. There is no downside.
• The Republican led congress bore no responsibility for the budgets in the black, significant responsibility (along with Bush) for the budgets in the red from '01-'06, but when the Democrats took over congress in '07, they bore no responsibility. Here is their key quote ...
• HOW DID WE GET HERE? When President Bush took office in 2001, the federal budget had been in the black for three years, and continued surpluses were projected for a decade to come.By the time Mr. Bush left office in early 2009, the government had run big deficits for seven straight years, and the economy was on the brink of another Great Depression.
• Republican's must be inherently evil or incompetent, or both. Certainly the above (largely unstated) assumptions are true, and there is no reason discussing them as we face the deficit question.