In my opinion, Democrats are falling into a deadly trap.

[kentuck]

It is the "debt" trap.

Republicans are using it to justify cuts at all levels of government. Scott Walker used it to justify cuts in pensions for teachers and public workers. "We can't afford it" rings loudly with the voting public. The issue of "debt" is a shackle and chain on the Democratic Party.

American Crossroads, a SuperPac, is out with a new commercial today, showing a clock with how much money Barack Obama is spending every day, running us into a debt disaster. The issue of debt justifies everything the Republican Party is doing at the present time. They are using the issue to dismantle our government.

We must ask, what would the deficit be today if the Bush taxcuts had been allowed to expire? With the terrible economy, would it have gone down at all? Would we better or worse off?

"Debt" seems to only be an issue when Democrats are in power. Dick Cheney said that Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. That is what Republican leaders truly believe. But they know it is a hot issue with their followers, primarily their Tea Party followers.

This was the argument Scott Walker used in Wisconsin. We cannot afford these huge pensions for public workers. We have to make cuts. We are doing what is right. And that was the argument that carried the day in Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, Democrats are caught in the trap. There is no easy escape. If they let the Bush/Obama taxcuts expire, the deficit and debt would decrease dramatically. It would be a positive issue for the Democrats and would disarm the Republican fabricators. However, everyone would have to tighten their belts. Instead of everyone under $250,000 not paying any more in taxes, it should be changed to everyone under $25,000 would not pay anymore in taxes. That is a tough political decision to make, but it would permit the Democrats to escape the trap that is meant to destroy them.

Democrats need to point out in simple language, so that a 3rd grader could understand, that we had a balanced budget in 2000. But it was the Republican with their taxcuts that destroyed the balanced budget.

However, it is not enough just to talk about bringing the deficit down. Democrats must do it. They have to ask for sacrifice. It is for the good of the country as well as the Party. If they don't do it, there is still one thing that can redeem the Party.

Give the White House and the Congress to the Republicans and let them run this country even further into the ground than they already have, until the people plead for mercy, then maybe, the Democratic Party will regain the trust of the American people? The choice is ours.

We need to recognize this political reality. The Republicans are using the issue of debt to dismantle our government and our schools and our unions. They have a very effective message that appeals to a lot of different voters. They are justifying their need to cut spending because the debt and deficit is too large in Washington. They have convinced the voters that it is a necessity.

[dtexdem]

1. The Dem Party long ago fell into the trap: it was accepting the GOP "debt" framing.

The GOP cares not a whit about debt. It ran the national debt up under Dubya and now blame Obama.
Scott Walker inherited a budget surplus which he immediately turned into a deficit through tax cuts for the rich, then he blamed public workers and moved on their pensions -- even though those pensions had nothing to do with WI state debt.
The political reality is that the GOP owns the airwaves and constantly lie about the "threat of debt" to scare Americans. If the Dems cannot reverse this, American civilization is doomed.

[madfloridian]

2. For years we let them define the terms, set the language.

Our leaders fell sway to the money from the corporations, saying it freed them from ideological stances.

And once the decision was made to go corporate, any leaders who spoke out loudly were squashed like little bugs.