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 | Krugman's Got Some Balls Mentioning JFK Posted by Fred Bartlett on 7/13, 1:02pm | |
| "The first thing you need to know is that America wasn’t always like this. When John F. Kennedy was elected president, the top 0.01 percent was only about a quarter as rich compared with the typical family as it is now — and members of that class paid much higher taxes than they do today. Yet somehow we managed to have a dynamic, innovative economy that was the envy of the world. The superrich may imagine that their wealth makes the world go round, but history says otherwise." Seriously. I'll repeat it for the 50th time, because it is his very argument. JFK's early 60's federal budget, 50 years ago, was $100B, over half of which was for defense at the peak of the Cold War, in a nation half our present population. In 2012, federal bloat is $3800B/yr. 2:1 population.... 38:1 federal bloat in current dollars. (Government debt caused)inflation only accounts for 7.5:1 of that bloat. We can fully account for 15:1, based on population growth and inflation, not 38:1 JFK's 100B would be $1500B/yr today, not $3800B/yr. That is $2.3T/yr over and above JFK's level of federal overburden...over half of which was for defense. If JFK's defense budget was adjusted by that factor of 15, it would be at $780B today. Yet the GOp was just chastised for increasing the Obama administrations request from 70% of JFK's fully adjusted number, to 71% of JFK's fully adjusted number. Well of course; it should be lower. We aren't in the middle of the Cold War. So if defense is at 71% of JFK's fully adjusted number, then why is total government spending at 253% of JFK's fully adjusted number? Indeed, at JFK levels of federal overburden, in Krugman's own words, "Yet somehow we managed to have a dynamic, innovative economy that was the envy of the world." Sure: at the equivalent of $1500B/yr in federal overburden, that was true. At $3800B/yr in federal overburden...not do damn much. Give that Princeton genius another Nobel prize, because he's just shined a spotlight on -exactly- what is tubing the US economies; vastly over-bloated federal spending. We don't need to trim $2.3T in public debt fueled spending over ten years to get back to JFK era vitality; we need to trim $2.3T every year for the next ten years. Thank you Paul Krugman for shining a light on the real issue. Indeed, when you stand back over 50 years and look at where we were and where we are now, the answer is obvious. | ||
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