During the election of 1980, Ronald Reagan chastised Jimmy Carter for running up a deficit of about $40 billion. Basically, a government deficit consists of borrowing the amount of the deficit and then ‘kicking the can down the road’ for a future generation to clean up.
Within a couple years, Reagan started running up deficits of $400 billion. The cumulative amount of these annual deficits is the national debt which was about $1.0 Trillion in 1981. Conservatives were screaming that it was a horrible fiscal policy. But, they seemed to jump ship. Why? It was often times labeled ‘funny money’.
Why is it called funny money? Because everyone knew it wasn’t real money. We were printing money, or shall we say, borrowing from our kids. As the national debt tripled to about $3 Trillion by 1989, the stock market tripled! The alleged conservatives seemed to become very quiet. Why would any one bitch when the stock market triples.
That’s what we are facing today. Over the years, the national debt has increased to $20 Trillion. Twenty times the debt of 1981. The stock market has increased from about $1,000 to $22,000. Twenty two times.
Is there a correlation? Do you think?? Why wouldn’t the alleged Conservatives be as quiet as a ‘church mouse’?
We need to continue to shine a light on the “funny money” so that our kids have a fighting chances of digging themselves out of this massive hole. We need to fess up. The old-time conservatives were correct. The new conservatives are stealing from our kids!
