This is in response to all the interesting posts about the ridiculous public "debate" about the deficit. I think Mike Meeropol, Peter Dorman and others have done an excellent job explaining the sorry state of affairs, and I have a proposal to do something about it: how about we get a statement signed by economists that says, "There is no economic reason to balance the federal budget in seven years, ten years, or any other set number of years. Nor does the bulk of economic research support the idea that doing so will help the US economy." If we wanted to go further, we could add: "The federal budget deficit does not pose any economic problem for the United States, so long as our national debt does not grow faster than the economy (which it is not doing now)." Why I think this could make a difference: 1. Some hundreds of economists, including the ususal Nobel prize winners, signed a similar statement against the balanced budget amendment. It got pretty prominent news coverage in the NYT, and if I remember right, the vote in the Senate was extremely close. (A similar tactic involving some hundreds of pro-Nafta economists got even more play, but of course theirs was guaranteed). 2. I'd be willing to bet that the same crowd that signed the anti-balanced-budget-amendment statement would sign on to the first two sentences, and possibly the third, although the first two would be good enough. 3. With a bit of press work, I don't think the media could ignore it-- even without any signature ad. There are plenty of journalists and editors out there who understand that the whole budget-balancing circus is a scam. (I wrote a couple of op-ed pieces on the subject this past summer, and they were readily taken by the San Francisco Chronicle, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Miami Herald). Their main problem is not that they are all brainwashed (altho a good number of them are), but they don't have the requisite authorities to point to. And who are they to stand up to the leadership of both political parties, Alan Greenspan, and Wall Street (note the outrageous two-page ad in the NYT Tuesday [Dec 19, pA10- 11] signed by dozens of Fortune-500 CEO's demanding a "credible plan to balance the budget") without any back- up? The only problem is that this project would take some work-- the last one on the Balanced Budget Amendment was organized by the Economic Policy Institute, and it required a lot of effort. I would be willing to to help get the ball rolling, but unfortunately I am moving next week, and will be out of the country the week after, so I can't co-ordinate this effort. Anyone else interested in this project? Mark Weisbrot 500 1/2 6th, #12 Charleston IL 61920 (217) 345 4983 fax: (217) 581-5997 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
