Can the progressive elites in America maintain credibility with voters without lower the nations deficit?

The liberals have very little credibility as it is. They have failed the public.|||Progressive politicians presumably view the debt as a problem and work on it as much (or should I say as little) as politicians of any other political stripe. Conservatives, with their control of the White House for 20 of the last 30 years (Reagan 8, Bush 4, Bush 8) have done little to help the deficit and have notably contributed to it. I'm not blaming them - higher levels of spending and lower taxes are very popular. It is doubtful that anybody can really change that.





To answer your question about credibility, yeah, I think conservatives, progressives, liberals, libertarians, fascists, communists, or whoever else might be in charge can maintain credibility without lowering the deficit. The deficit is an abstract concept. People care about it now because it is getting a lot of play in the media, but I wouldn't expect it to last. I actually would imagine that whoever does solve the deficit problem not only will not get credibility, but will be very unpopular, because lowering the deficit will likely require raising taxes, cutting popular programs, and cutting military spending. Each is political suicide. Don't expect credibility to be given for it.|||Consider the facts:





VP Cheney, 2002: “Reagan proved deficits dont matter.” Treasury Sec Paul O’Neill was trying to warn Cheney the $500 billion budget deficit was already a threat to the economy and a second round of tax cuts would increase it, but Cheney told him deficits don’t matter. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/0…





Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate in Econ: Greenspan %26amp; Wm Kristol cheerleaded the GOP bait-%26amp;-switch campaign on taxcuts to deliberately build up huge govt debt, then alleging only by gutting SS %26amp; Medicare/caid can we reduce it. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/opinio…





http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinio… GOP’s real agenda, privatizing and dismantling Medicare %26amp; Social Security. Pledge to America.





The Great Deficit Scare, by the creators of The Great Recession; the deficit hawks’ road to ruin


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…|||The concern with deficits by the right is a bunch of crap. It was never a problem when Reagan or the Bushies were spending like drunken sailors. Even the current Tea Party / GOP conservatives have no intention of closing the deficit. If they did, the Bush tax cuts would be history.|||The deficit is the least of their concerns, since they never gave a thought to repaying it.|||No, they have already lost all credibility with H/C and global warming...|||progressive elites is an oxymoron.|||Progressive elites? Wow...|||It would obviously be tougher, since both sides need to agree on actions.|||%26gt;elites





And how are conservatives any less elitist than progressives?|||You believe any side? All politicians lie. Very simple and universal truth.