Letters to the Editor

What You Say

Just wanted to write to tell you how much I enjoyed your piece in this week's City Paper [Naked City, "Ahead Lies the Reckoning," Jeffrey C. Billman, June 24]. I feel like the topic of your article is something that you try to learn in school but it just ends up being too confusing or uninteresting. Your piece tackled the debt in a straightforward, easy-to-follow way. And I felt engaged the whole time, so it's a start. I only regret reading it too late; I would've liked to attend the [AmericaSpeaks] forum [on June 26]. Anyway, thanks. Forget poli-sci classes, I just need CP!

Too bad Jeffrey Billman can't get serious about national debt himself. Setting aside that he doesn't know how discredited the theory of the reduction of deficit spending as causing the continuation of the depression, Billman continues spewing the same tired tripe of blaming Bush for everything and defense spending as the center of our problems. Even eliminating all defense spending would not solve our problems.

Instead, he downplays the largest source of spending, triple that of defense, namely, non-discretionary entitlements (excludes Social Security and medical). At $2 trillion, this budget area contains the largest source of potential savings to the government, yet nary a word about it by Billman. That speaks volumes as this piece is opinion disguised as analysis.

[Ed. note: Non-entitlement mandatory spending, meaning programs and expenditures that continue year to year without congressional reauthorization, comprised 18 percent of the 2010 budget, or about $882 billion, not $2 trillion. While that is indeed more than the year's defense budget, much of the recent increase in these costs — things like unemployment and food stamps — is linked to the recession: As people get laid off, they become eligible for federal assistance. As for the writer's contention that spending cuts didn't trigger a double-dip in the Great Depression, that's simply wrong: Between 1933 and 1937, the U.S. economy grew by 40 percent. After a wave of spending cuts, and the advent of the new Social Security tax, the economy shrank 3.4 percent and unemployment rose markedly in 1938.]