Yesterday, Sen. Judd Gregg gave a scary-yet-accurate picture of what America’s fiscal outlook will look like if President Obama gets his budget adopted. The president’s plan means:
Seventeen trillion dollars worth of debt at the end of 10 years, $11 trillion at the end of five years. This translates into a debt-to-GDP ratio which we have not seen in this country since the end of World War II when we were trying to pay off the war debt. Basically, you take national debt up to about 80 percent of gross national product. That’s the public debt. Historically, it’s been about 40 percent.
Gregg explains the implications: “When you get up to an 80 percent ratio, where your public debt is 80 percent of your gross national product, and you maintain that ratio for years to come, you’re basically running your country into the ground.”
Thankfully, some Democrats get it. The fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition in the House and a new alliance of centrist Democratic senators led by Evan Bayh of Indiana have been really vocal about their dissatisfaction with projected deficits and the president’s budget.
Back at the beginning of March, Senator Bayh was already causing trouble for the Democrats in Congress by opposing the Omnibus bill.
As a result, he and his blue-dog colleagues are now the targets of the Campaign for America’s Future’s attacks. The liberal advocacy group has gone on the offensive with a lobbying campaign that urges the public to “dog the dogs.”
Robert Borosage, co-director of the campaign, for instance, accuses them of “treacherous opposition” to pieces of Obama’s agenda. According to Borosage, “House Blue Dogs threaten constantly to join with Republicans to cut vital investments and limit basic reforms. But it’s the Senate where the opposition is most damaging.”
Here is his best insult: “Sen. Bayh’s group wants to be called ‘moderate,’ but their complaints about President Obama’s policies are conservative complaints.”
For a misguided list of complaints that reads like compliments to my ears go here.
And for a list of the blue dogs go here.