Economic "Simpletons" Have Tea Party

"...The Tea Party crowd would have more credibility if they had chanted calls to abolish all farm subsidies and student aid and waved placards to repeal the Medicare drug benefit, to shrink the Army and Air Force to 1938 levels and return the Navy to coastal defense as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson.

What these simpletons are unwilling to acknowledge is that if you don't cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, are not willing to shrink the armed forces drastically, and don't repudiate our contractual commitment to pay interest on the national debt, you could cut all other federal spending to zero and we still would have a substantial budget deficit.

You cannot close the deficit without raising taxes, period.

Other nations, including Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, which all faced similar deficits a decade or so ago, did that and found they could still prosper.

Until the general public is willing to face the facts in the choices we confront, politicians will continue to pander to self-delusion. And we will leave our grandchildren with a poorer nation..."

Read more by Ed Lotterman.