[lbo-talk] Kucinich? Come on!

Seth Ackerman sethia at speakeasy.net
Thu Oct 30 08:30:28 PST 2003


From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>


> >Dean: "Set the nation on the path to a balanced budget, recognizing that
we
> >cannot have social or economic justice without a sound fiscal
foundation."
>
> Classical Swedish social dem believed that - I don't know what it
> believes now. Jim O'Connor said somewhere - maybe in Fiscal Crisis of
> the State? - that debt increases capital's power over the state. And
> there's nothing like a deficit to fuel the "we can't afford X" line.
> Borrowing money from rich people is a cowardly and self-defeating
> substitute for taxing them.

Yeah, but in the US, 'fiscal conservatism' is usually a code for restraining spending and cutting entitlements. In the 90's, Dean supported the atrocious proposal to cut the Social Security COLA by 1% a year. The deficit-hawk Dems are against cutting taxes for the rich, but not usually for raising taxes on them, and certainly not for dramatically expanding social spending.

Seth



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