How to Tell When Deficit Spending Crosses a Line
The U.S. can afford a $350 billion job-guarantee program. But if you tie that to a Green New Deal, then all bets are off.
Mike Enzi, Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
When I was the chief economist to the Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee in 2015-2016, I attended a number of hearings, all called by its chairman, Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming. He would invariably open with prepared remarks that included his observation that deficits are evidence of “chronic overspending.”
Democrats just as invariably would attack Republicans like Enzi for voting for the December 2017 tax cut, calling it was a boon for the rich that produced a “shortfall” that inflated the deficit. But as I have written, the impact of the tax cuts on the deficit is not the issue Democrats should be emphasizing. Instead, we should be focused on the substance of Enzi’s argument itself.