By Thomas P. M. Barnett

(My Comment: Over the past several months, you’ve heard me reference Tom Barnett before. I am again amazed by his ability to cut through the clutter and articulate, in simple terms, what he sees going on. That I generally agree with him is helpful to me, but whether he turns out to be right or wrong, this blog post of his from last Saturday, January 21 is a very good read.

He cites an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal near the start of his comments. Here are four “deficit myths” which he uses to start his comments. Click on the link at the end to get to the full blog post. )

1. Americans now demand deficit reduction like never before. Not true. Jobs matter far more now, as does healthcare and housing. Just understand, polls on this subject are no more definitive than they were 20-30 years ago. This is not our current obsession.

2. Our deficit is so bad right now that massive cuts are required immediately. Also not true. We have no trouble selling debt in this global economy. Yes, long-term deficit issue is acute, but key is setting in place conditions for long boom that takes care of that. See Europe for the austerity approach.

3. The ten-year reduction focus makes sense. Bad thinking. Little can and will be accomplished in any 10-year plan. The problem is far longer in scope – see demographics, and thus the solutions must be similarly gauged.

4. America has a generalized problem of runaway spending. Very untrue. The only part of the Fed budget that’s really exploding is Medicare and Medicaid, so it’s still mostly about healthcare.

In short, “we have a humungous healthcare problem.”

Referenced from: http://thomaspmbarnett.com/globlogization/2012/1/21/deficit-myths-its-still-all-about-healthcare-so-obama-was-ri.html#ixzz1kZdlI2uz