article by Ezra Klien: ******* Print Back to story Donât Worry About Deficit That Will Heal Itself By Ezra Klein - Apr 4, 2012 Iâm not particularly worried about the budget deficit. In fact, of all the major problems the U.S. faces, Iâm least worried about the deficit. Thatâs not because we donât have to get the problem under control; itâs because Iâm pretty sure we will. Why? The budget deficit is unique: If Congress is unable to agree on a remedy, the problem goes away on its own. Would that all of our challenges were so cooperative. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke calls the end of 2012 âa fiscal cliff.â The Bush tax cuts are set to expire. The $1.2 trillion spending sequester, enforcing cuts in the defense and domestic budgets, is set to go off. Various stimulus measures -- including the payroll tax cut -- are scheduled to end. âTaken together,â writes the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, âthese policies would reduce ten-year deficits by over $6.8 trillion relative to realistic current policy projections -- enough to put the debt on a sharp downward path.â In fact, if Congress gridlocks -- and what does Congress do these days but gridlock? -- we face the prospect of too much deficit reduction too fast. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that barreling over the fiscal cliff would increase unemployment by 1.1 percent in 2013. Common Goal Inaction isnât inevitable: Deficit reduction is an unusual issue in that both parties fundamentally agree on the goal, even if they donât agree on how to achieve it. This past week, for instance, President Barack Obama and Representative Paul Ryan traded barbs on how best to go about it. The same canât be said for issues such as catastrophic climate change or access to health insurance, in which the two parties disagree on whether thereâs even a problem that needs federal action. Finally, Washington is thick with potential crises -- real and invented -- that will be used to increase the urgency of deficit reduction. There are appropriations bills to pass in order to keep the federal government functioning. Thereâs raising the debt ceiling, which weâre expected to breach at the end of 2012. Thereâs the expiration of the various tax cuts and stimulus measures. And, if all this is somehow surmounted without further deficit reduction, thereâs the eventual pressure the bond market will exert on the economy and policy makers. No other issue is subject to such a varied and continuous array of forcing mechanisms. Some of those mechanisms have already proved their effectiveness. The 2010 debt-ceiling debate led to the Simpson- Bowles commission. The 2011 government-shutdown debate led to a small deficit-reduction package -- the participants estimated it at $37 billion over 10 years. The 2011 debt-ceiling debate, though a disaster for the economy, led to a deficit-reduction plan of $2.1 trillion -- about half the size of the Simpson- Bowles plan. These outcomes point the way to deficit deals that might be struck in the next year or two, with the potential to stabilize our finances for the next decade or more. That wonât comfort some of the most ardent deficit hawks. They are, for better or worse, considerably more farsighted. They brandish charts showing scary red lines reaching out to 2080. Those charts show a huge problem that requires radical solutions. I know those charts well. Iâve used them myself. But those charts are really about health-care spending, as you can see here. What theyâre really telling us is this: If you look at how medical costs have risen in recent decades and you draw that line out for 70 more years, weâre really in trouble. And thatâs true: We are. But thereâs something ridiculous about extrapolating current trends all the way out to 2080. By that point, weâll probably either be robots, the servants of robots or a bit of both. Either way, the health-care system will probably undergo dramatic change. No Pacemakers Look what happens when you turn back the clock 70 years from today. That puts you in 1942, the year John Bumstead and Orvan Hess first saved a patientâs life using penicillin. There were no pacemakers, oral contraceptives or chemotherapy. Water wasnât fluoridated, and health insurance was a niche product. Imagine trying to predict the trajectory of todayâs health-care system from that vantage point. How incredibly, hilariously wrong would we have been? In part for that reason, we donât balance the budget for 70 years at a time. Indeed, we usually donât even balance it for 10 years at a time. Instead, we muddle through, striking deals that are smaller than wonks like, but sufficient to keep us out of the woods. Thatâs what we did in the 1990s, which featured deficit-reduction bills in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997. Weâll probably follow a similar path in the decade to come. Of course, you can muddle wisely or muddle stupidly. I worry weâll choose the latter. Evidence is already mounting: The sequester is a stupid way to cut spending. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire all at once is a stupid way to raise taxes. And repeatedly forcing the country to the brink of default is a stupid way to manage our budget. Worse, too much deficit reduction too fast will hurt economic growth. You can see that happening in Europe, where an excess of austerity has tipped a number of nations into fiscal holes they canât seem to climb out of. In a city as obsessed with deficits as Washington, yet unwilling to strike smart deals that pair long-term deficit reduction with short-term support for the economy, a bad turn in the economy or a set of policy misjudgments remain a real threat. Nevertheless, Iâm confident that we will, one way or another, muddle through. Because when it comes to the deficit, Congress really has two choices: Do something to solve it, or do nothing and let that solve it. The same canât be said for issues such as infrastructure and loose nukes and climate change and preparing for pandemic flu. On those questions, congressional inaction isnât enough to make the problem disappear. So those are the issues I worry about. (Ezra Klein is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) For Related News and Information: Todayâs highlights: The View editors on the real Mitt Romney, austerity in Spain and the Muslim Brotherhoodâs political rise; Caroline Baum on scapegoating oil companies; Jonathan Weil on Grouponâs IPO; Susan Antilla on the JOBS act; and Rowan Jacobsen on atrocities in Myanmar. To contact the writer on this story: Ezra Klein in Washington at wonkbook@gmail.com. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Francis Wilkinson at fwilkinson1@bloomberg.net. ®2012 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Ah yes... It'll all work itself out in the wash..... How did Greece, Portugal and Italy fair when their debt-to-GDP hit 130%? How do you suppose America will fair, in what? 3 years? When we hit 130%?