If the Democrats were proposing increasing the debt by $1.5 trillion with even a mixed package of tax cuts and spending increases, the conversation would be completely dominated by the usual suspects, defrosted from their cryogenic capsules at the various astroturf groups and suddenly respectable think Tanks, arguing that the Debt was going to kill us all.
I'm glad the Democrats are mostly (not entirely) not making this argument about Teh Deficit, but when they are in charge, the Republicans don't even have to, because the New York Times, NPR, and presidential debate moderators will do it for them. It is baked into objective journalism that Deficits Are Bad When Democrats Can Be Blamed For Them.
Nobody really cares about the deficit, which is why I am glad the Democrats are (mostly) not obsessing about it, but when totebaggers and NYT readers get this stuff broadcast into their brains daily it has an effect, especially because it doesn't come from nasty partisans but from objective journalists and Bipartisan Commissions On How The Debt Is Worse Than Nuclear War.
Remember The Can Kicks Back? That was funny. I wonder where those kids are now. Probably Treasury Undersecretaries or Goldman Sachs Vice Presidents by now.
