David Sirota’s Column in the D&C
First off a big hat tip to the D&C for running David Sirota’s column called David Sirota: Be wary of ‘deficit disorder’. We will get to the column in a moment but look at the the D&C’s syndicated columnist list and there is nary a true progressive voice among them. David Sirota is a syndicated columnist, Author, OpenLeft writer and a bunch of other titles. He is a prolific progressive writer and adding Sirota’s column to the D&C on a regular basis would be amazing and needed.
Do want to see more Sirota in the D&C? email Jim Lawrence (jlawrenc@democratandchronicle.com) and tell him so.
Now to the column -Just read this and you get the idea,
Where, for instance, were conservative organizations marching on Washington when President Bush vastly expanded the deficit with his massive tax cuts for the wealthy? Where was Sen. Lincoln’s concern for “deficit neutrality’ when she voted to give $700 billion to the thieves on Wall Street? Where was Obama’s “dime standard” when he proposed a budget that spends far more on maintaining bloated Pentagon budgets than on any universal health care proposal being considered in Congress?
Where were demands for fiscal sanity by Brooks and other right-wing pundits when they cheered on the budget-busting war in Iraq? Where were any calls for raising taxes from these supposed deficit hawks when they backed all this profligate spending? And where were the journalists asking such painfully simple questions?
They were nowhere, because those plagued by Selective Deficit Disorder (as the name suggests) are only selectively worried about deficits.
When it comes to spending on priorities like health care reform that would help ordinary Americans, the illness’s victims scream about deficits and overspending. But when it comes to handing over trillions of dollars to financial firms, defense contractors and other corporate interests, deficits suddenly don’t matter to the disease-addled politicians, protestors and journalists underwritten by those interests.
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Here’s the letter I sent:
Thanks for running David Sirota’s column today. I am a subscribed and generally read the paper when I get home after work, but I saw a link to Sirota’s column at the Rochester Turning blog today (link).
I am a liberal. I think that in general the selection of syndicated opeds the D&C runs is poor. Cal Thomas, Bill O’Reilly and George Will are especially bad - frequently factually inaccurate and very rarely thought-provoking. I would love to see more columns in the D&C from David Sirota or other liberals like Paul Krugman or Mark Kleiman (who doesn’t have a syndicated column but has a blog here and is very smart). Also, there are much smarter conservatives on offer than Cal Thomas and Bill O’Reilly - people like Tyler Cowen, Reihan Salam and Daniel Larison. Authors like these would force me to change from my routine of reading the editorial cartoon, skimming the oped pieces for 5 seconds, and then moving on to the local section.
Thanks for your time.
After I sent it in, I got a reply saying that Lawrence is out of the office until Sept 28. I guess his deputy made the decision to run Sirota. Good decision!
The rational actor would oppose ALL deficit spending, the only permanent result is economic damage.
The rational actor would not use rational actor theory,
Nations have run deficits in the past and succeeded,
The question is what kind of deficit for what reson
[...] suit them (like those under George Bush)? David Sirota publishes an column calling the condition Selective Deficit disorder. That the Democrat and Chronicle PUBLISHED the column was shocking. Want more Sirota in the [...]