The curious lies of Andrew Sullivan: Economics and Deficits!

You can tell Andrew Sullivan is lying when you see he is talking, typing, or posting something now a days...

Sullivan posted this graph yesterday to argue
that all are problems stem from Bush tax cuts...and it is not true.

This sort of hyper partisan BS is what we can expect from Sullivan now.  The Bush Era tax cuts are to blame for the deficits?  Really now?  Given that Barack Obama and a Democratic controlled House and Senate kept those tax cuts after 2008, how is that Bush's fault.  And it is a lie, and Sullivan knows it is a lie, that had the Democrats revoked those cuts that revenues would have gone up.  If anything, they would have gone down further due to the negative effect such taxes would have on the economy.  That Sullivan, who used to write how he consider Reagan and Thatcher heroes on such reform, would not be so in the bag for the left is pathetic.

Romney wants to cut spending and not increase taxes (even cut them further)--and most Republicans would revolt against him (and rightly so) if he proposed doing what Sullivan is proposing.  Barack Obama wants to increase spending and increase taxes (he says he does not want to increase spending (just like he said he thought marriage should be limited to one man and one woman), but his proposed cuts are tiny and he wants to expand government and entitlements, you have to increase spending to do that).  Our problem is not under taxing of the wealthy--they actually pay fairly high tax burdens compared to the world and comparable now to those in Western Europe.

Our problem is we are over spending and promising entitlements without any means of paying for them.  Is there bi-partisan blame for this?  Of course.  Bush's sin was not in cutting taxes, but not cutting government spending at the same time (and expanding entitlements).  Obama doubled down on the tax cuts and then increased spending dramatically.  I am watching the GOP very closely for any retreat on the larger goal.

If Sullivan really wants what he says he wants, he would be supporting Paul Ryan's plan for deficit reduction.  The Ryan proposal is hardly radical, it is the minimum effort required to get this country back on the road to prosperity.  We need less government and major entitlement reform.  That will get us heading toward growth which will then increase tax revenues.  Austerity works when it is done right.

Our economic worries far far from over.  Obama wants to see this country be more like Europe.  Given the meltdown happening right now in Europe, be careful what you wish for.

Prior EBL posts:
Larry Summers and Barack Obama...
The continuing curious lies of Andrew Sullivan on the economy...
Andrew Sullivan is either confused or lying on the economy  (We know he is lying).

Update:
Could Europe sink Obama?