Deficit Is Concern for Public, White House - WSJ.com

WSJ ^ | 8/7/09

[FromLori]

It has long been an article of faith among politicians and pundits that the federal budget deficit is too arcane a subject to have real political impact.

Time to rethink that notion.

There's strong new evidence that the deficit is emerging as Democrats' main problem, an impediment to a health overhaul and the biggest underlying concern about President Barack Obama's agenda.

Administration officials complain this is a bum rap. They note that the deficit was already heading north of $1 trillion for this year when the president arrived, thanks to sagging revenue, a $700 billion financial-sector bailout that was under way, billions of dollars already sent to auto makers, and Bush administration deficit spending on two wars and a Medicare prescription-drug plan that were never fully funded. And they are right.

Yet the deficit now is their problem, and it casts a large shadow. Recent public polling suggests broad worries that this year's fiscal stimulus made it worse and fears that a health overhaul would add to it.

"The public's main criticism of how Obama is handling the presidency is that he is spending too much money, which has increased the deficit," write Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff in their analysis of the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

One number from that poll, completed last week, illustrates the political problem this poses for Democrats.

In early 2008, Americans were asked which party could better deal with the deficit, and by 42% to 20%, they said the Democrats rather than Republicans.

In the latest Journal/NBC survey, the parties have changed places, with Americans by 31% to 25% saying they think Republicans could better handle the deficit.

More broadly, one in three ranked the deficit as one of the top issues facing government, placing it behind only jobs

[musicman]

[Vince Ferrer]

At this point in Bush's presidency, he was a pacifist president whose biggest foreign policy move was to unilaterally cut our nuclear weapons. Yet only a couple of weeks later the World Trade Center would be gone, and whatever he had wanted to do in his presidency was gone in an instant. He turned on a dime, and his presidency from then on was about fighting terror, and he was the president we needed at the time.

Quit complaining because Bush already got us into massive debt so now you can't squander the public's money on your own legacies. You wanted the job, and McCain would have had the same problems too. What are you doing with the hand you have been dealt, Mr. President?

[the invisib1e hand]

What are you doing with the hand you have been dealt, Mr. President?

piling on the chips. And bluffing.