The Politics Of The Deficit

Candidates across the political spectrum are once again starting to talk seriously about tackling the federal budget deficit.

Just one example: Former Rep. Tom Campbell, a GOP candidate vying to unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in California, has made the deficit one of his key areas of attack against Democratic rule in Washington.

“I think the size of our budget problem is intimately related to our unemployment problem,” Campbell told reporters earlier this month as he rolled out his own plan to cut the budget deficit in half. “The risk of inflation is quite real, and I think that is keeping people from hiring and investing.”

But for all the attention and momentum the deficit issue is getting today, the fact is the politics of the federal deficit are legendarily disappointing.

Consider the historical record: In 1990, George H.W. Bush famously broke his campaign promise — “Read my lips, no new taxes” — in a budget agreement designed to reduce the deficit.

Two years later, he was bounced out of office.

In the 1992 campaign, Texas billionaire Ross Perot’s insurgent third-party campaign made deficits a signature issue on the campaign trail.

He lost.

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