Rant of the Week: Why Dems Should Push Balanced Budget

When Bush took over from Clinton the Federal government was running a surplus. After five complete years of Bush's economic policies the Federal government is running record deficits. Republicans used to describe Democrats as "tax and spend" liberals. The Bush administration is made up of "borrow and spend" conservatives. Given the Bush's administration record, it should be easy for Democrats to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility, but we aren't. Why?

For some reason Democrats are afraid to push for a balanced budget. It seems to us that Democrats in the House and Senate are afraid that if they push for a balanced budget, the Republicans will use that as an excuse to do away with social programs. Consequently, while they attack Republicans for the fiscal insanity they have visited on America, they don't have a simple, coherent message for the American people.

The message they should be sending is that we need to balance the budget and quit running up huge deficits. Given the records of the Clinton and Bush administrations regarding fiscal policy, it is a message that we can believably deliver. Delivering this message allows us to talk about reckless tax cuts, the transfer of wealth that takes place when tax revenues are used for interest payments that go to the rich and not programs for the middle class, and about how the Chinese are buying a bigger and bigger share of our national debt.

Is there a risk to such a strategy? Sure, but we need to change what we are doing to win elections. We need to take definite stands and tell the American people why they should trust us with the national goverment. Balancing the budget is a good place to start.