> Back when liberalism still stood on the podium, balanced budgets used to
be
> the right's main attack against progressive social programs. Back when
the
> New Deal was not a shamed distant memory, liberals used to argue
(correctly)
> that some kinds of deficit spending pay themselves off. Pairing the
> "balanced budgets" fetish with charges of "big spending" is running to the
> right of Bush.
All this I know and was not trying to contest. I was just trying to point out that of course there's a liberal case for balanced budgets: they're generally a good thing. Moreover, I think liberals ought to run on a platform calling for fairer taxes (i.e. the rich ought to pay a lot more than they do). Letting conservatives equate tax fairness with rate flatness has been one of the lib-left's biggest failings.
-- Luke