Debt

There's lots of ways to look at it:

* In the long term--after 2020--we get health care spending under control or else.

* In the medium term--between 2012 and 2020--we don't have a debt and deficit problem if congress sticks to PAYGO; we do if it doesn't.

* In the short term--between now and 2012--our problem is not that our deficit is too large but that it is too small.

Which is why Obama signaling a move to deficit reduction over job creation is deeply troubling. He's capitulating to the GOP-sponsored stereotype that liberals are lascivious with public dollars (please forget the actual economic records of recent administrations) and the Wall St.-backed hype that more borrowing could hurt the bond market (because hey, after all someone has to look out for the big guys). Meanwhile, the economy needs another injection of cash to stem unemployment:

In December 2008 Lawrence Summers, soon to become the administration’s highest-ranking economist, called for decisive action. “Many experts,” he warned, “believe that unemployment could reach 10 percent by the end of next year.” In the face of that prospect, he continued, “doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much.”

Talk about what the fuck. Worrying about the deficit is political suicide when all 2010 is going to be about is the unemployment rate. Deficit reduction doesn't put food on the table.