I saw this coming from a mile away (actually, 17 months away). I wish I had bet big money against this prediction made in June 2009:
Anyone want to bet that there will be a cover story somewhere next year calling Obama the deficit killer?
The prediction was by Stan Callender, who describes himself as follows:
Collender is an acknowledged expert on the federal budget and congressional budget process and the author of The Guide to the Federal Budget, which was published for 19 consective [sic] years from 1982 to 2000 and was one of the most-assigned text on the topic. He is one of a very limited number of people who has worked on the staffs of the House and Senate Budget Committees and founded and edited Federal Budget Report, a newsletter that was published for almost two decades. For 11 years he wrote a weekly column (“Budget Battles) for NationalJournal.com. For the past three years he has written “Fiscal Fitness” for Roll Call. He is currently a partner at Qorvis Communications, where he spends most of his time working with financial services clients. Stan is also a much sought-after speaker to business and other groups on federal taxes and spending, appears often on television and radio, and is frequently quoted in major print publications.
Collender’s anaylsis was the basis for Matthew Yglesias, who blogs at Think Progress, writing the post Barack Obama, Deficit Slayer (emphasis mine):
As the economy recovers, tax revenues will rise, social safety net outlays will fall, and stimulus measures will begin to tamp down. If we can assume further growth in 2011, the complete expiry of Recovery Act provisions, and the winding down of the Iraq War, that’ll be further deficit reduction. On the merits, people would still do well to be concerned about the deficit further out when, in the absence of structural reform of the health care sector, Medicare costs will bury us all. But in the short term, things are going to look worse than they really are in 2009 and then look better than they really are in 2010. And of course people vote in the even-numbered years.
To which I responded as follows:
… for crying out loud.
But what did I know, I’m not an economist or a highly trained political analyst. And I don’t even read so good:
But I do know humor when I recognize it, and this image which accompanied the Yglesias post still makes me laugh:
The Last Laugh. Indeed.
Unfortunately, we all are paying the price.
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