There’s Class Warfare, All Right,” Mr. Buffett said...

There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

This is the first post in what I plan to be a series of posts on the history, status and immediate future of the welfare of average American citizens and households. 
I will start with two extracts -- the first from a conversation with Warren Buffet reported in the NYT, the second from "Sudden Debt", one of my favorite bloggers:

In a conversation with Mr Buffett  (NYT 2006)

ProfessorBrad DeLong on Macroeconomics

 DeLong summarizes Jean Baptiste Say, JS Mill, Malthus and Niall Ferguson

Copied completely from Professor DeLongs site

 What Does Cutting-Edge Macroeconomics Tell Us About Economic Policy for the Recovery?

from Grasping Reality with Both Hands by Brad DeLong

 (Emhasis mine)

Let us start with one of the first economists, Jean-Baptiste Say.
Say wanted to be a technocrat, and was well on the way—special assistant to Girondist Party Finance Minister Etienne Claviere in the early days of the first French Republic. His patron was fired, purged, arrested, imprisoned, probably tortured, sentenced to the guillotine, which he cheated by committing suicide the day before his scheduled execution.

The Deficit-- It's Not Just Republicans....

It is not just cynical Republican and Corporate shills who are (supposedly) fighting increasing the current budget deficit and federal debt.  

Some generally anti Bush and highly respected economists have a problem with our government debt situation as well.  That is what makes the Republican bleating about deficits so dangerous.   "Serious people" are also concerned about deficits.

Two pieces -- Krugman and Hayes

Since this is a very low circulation non commercial blog, I am taking the liberty of sometimes posting complete articles, written by various authors, in their entirety with the appropriate attribution and link. 

Here is a Krugman piece from January 2009, 18 months ago, saying the stimulus should have been closer to $2trillion (The Obama Gap).  Below it is a piece by Christopher Hayes in July 2010 talking about Iraq and Deficits of Mass Destruction.

President Obama's Budget Deficit Problem

The US FY 2011 budget (published early 2010) was the first budget assembled by the Obama administration.  It was based on data available in the fall of 2009. 

TARP (approximately $700 billion, initially targeted at bank bailouts), had been passed by a Democratic Congress, and signed into law by President Bush in late 2008.  The incoming Obama administration agreed with TARP.  

What is “Deficit Spending”? -- TWODS Part 2

This post will make a lot more sense if you read at least some of the introductory comments in Part 1 here. 

Let’s begin by getting our terminology as close to every day language as we can.

The Federal Deficit

The federal government budget deficit/surplus is annual difference between the amount of money the federal government receives (receipts) from taxes and other sources, and the amount of money the federal government disburses (outlays).

The War on Deficit Spending “TWODS” – Part 1, Introduction

We are all being “spun” -- again.

The American PR machine is again in full throated roar.  This time the "War" is on “Deficit Spending”.  The war is being waged by forces which are probably unbeatable.

The techniques which worked so well in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq war are now being used again.  The con men and the financiers are the same.  The target as always, is the American voter.

Privatizing Social Security, and privatizing the delivery of medical care are TWODS goals.  The misdirection, the threatened dangers and the bogeymen are the imaginary perils of “Deficit Spending”.