Here is a chart I copied from a Tim Cavanaugh post at Reason magazine's hit & run. It shows that from2008 to 2011, federal expenditures went from about $2.9 trillion to $3.8 trillion, the deficit from about $460 billion to $1.6 trillion. Tht's a 30 percent increase in spending, but that fact doesn't keep people like Ari Berman in The Nation magazine from babbling about the new "austerity class" that is supposedly in control of the U.S. capital, ruining our chances at recovery by making common-sense spending unpopular.
Cavanaugh nores:
Do I expect the anti-austeritists to be persuaded by these facts? I do not. I predict the “austerity class” will become a popular trope, repeated with knowing nods among the 99 Percent.
