Mr. Andrea Mitchell Gets It

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, first appointed to the post by conservative president Ronald Reagan and supported over the years by both Republican and Democratic administrations, has come out with what I consider to be reasonable criticisms of how both main political parties are mishandling the national economy, particularly the national debt. Greenspan believes that too much federal deficit spending at the current relatively low interest rates can eventually create an unsustainable situation in the not-so-distant future where inevitably-higher interest rates would combine with the incurred national debt to compound it and possibly even shut down the economy. His reasoning seems sound to me.

The Republicans keep insisting on making across-the-board tax cuts permanent and are primarily responsible for the enormous deficit spending for most of the previous decade through the Iraq invasion and occupation, while the Democrats are holding on tightly to the old Keynesian concept of deficit spending to stimulate the economy as well as preventing various institutions from going under. To me, seeing these parties criticize each other for skyrocketing the national debt while each one is substantially responsible for it may be one reason why some otherwise reasonable, tolerant, and skeptical people are embracing the Tea Party movement.

Not that either Greenspan are I are teabaggers, by any stretch of the imagination. But both of us (notice how I'm associating myself with Greenspan as if we're equals in economic expertise, hah) are worried that no one in Washington seems to grasp that fiscal responsibility is a combination of maintaining a sustainable, regular influx of revenue to match up with a cautious and appropriate dispersal of funds. I don't think it takes an economic whiz like Alan Greenspan, an honest and thoughtful man who has been candid about his own mistakes while Federal Reserve chairman, to see this. Is there anyone else besides me and Mr. Andrea Mitchell who gets this?