Deficit hysteria : a common sense look at America's rush to balance the budget / Arthur Benavie.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [141]-142) and index.

1. The Deficit: A Symbol of Evil in American Politics. 1. Jefferson and Jackson: Balancing the Budget to Keep Government Small. 2. The Dominant Republicans: Balancing the Budget to Expand the Government. 3. The Great Depression Generates Revolutionary Thoughts about the Deficit. 4. Reagan and Beyond: The Deficit Resumes Its Evil Image -- 2. Jobs, Inflation, and the Deficit. 1. Creating Jobs. 2. Jobs versus Inflation. 3. What's So Bad about Inflation? 4. How Does the Government Regulate Total Spending? 5. Monetary versus Fiscal Policy. 6. Structural versus Automatic Deficits. 7. Deficits in a Recession. 8. Deficits and Interest Rates at High Employment. 9. Deficit Aversion and Jobs. 10. Mismeasuring the Deficit -- 3. The Deficit and Our Future Standard of Living. 1. Productivity. 2. Deficit Hawks. 3. Public Investment Hawks. 4. Public Investment and the Deficit. 5. Public Investment: Pork or Progress? 6. The Impact of Deficit Phobia --

4. The Rich, the Poor, and the Deficit. 1. Our Growing Income Inequality. 2. Deficit Hawks and the Rich versus the Poor. 3. Deficit Reduction, Recessions, and Poverty. 4. Helping the Poor - and the Not So Poor -- 5. The Baby Boomers and the Future Deficit. 1. A Projected Nightmare. 2. Future Deficit and Tax Scenarios. 3. Remedies -- 6. Social Security, Medicare, and the Deficit. 1. Social Security and Medicare: Are They Going Bankrupt? 2. Trust Fund Bankruptcy Is an Illusion. 3. The Economic Impact of a Trust Fund Surplus. 4. Reforming Social Security -- 7. How Do European Countries Do It? 1. Zero Deficits Are Not the Goal. 2. Deficits and the Debt-GDP Ratio. 3. How Big Can the Public Debt Be? 4. A Danger of Deficit Targets -- 8. Goal '95: A Balanced Budget by 2002. 1. The Republicans Embrace a Balanced Budget. 2. President Clinton Succumbs. 3. Proposed Cuts to Balance the Budget. 4. Clinton's Economists on the Balanced Budget.

5. An Argument for a Balanced Budget. 6. Balance the Budget? Yes, the Operating Budget! -- 9. Deficit Myths: What's True, What's False? Myth 1. We Must Pay Off the Public Debt. Myth 2. Deficits Can Bankrupt Our Government. Myth 3. Deficits Cause Inflation. Myth 4. Deficits Increase Interest Rates. Myth 5. Interest on the Public Debt Will Impoverish Future Generations. Myth 6. Budget Deficits Create Trade Deficits. Myth 7. Deficits Cause Capital Flight. Myth 8. Deficits Increase the Tax Burden of Future Generations. Myth 9. The Public Debt Will Reduce Our Children's Standard of Living. Myth 10. Deficits Crowd Out Private Investment. Myth 11. Interest on the Public Debt Crowds Out Other Government Spending. Myth 12. The Solution Is a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution -- 10. Questions and Answers.

The political consensus in the United States today is that the nation should avoid deficit spending. But as virtuous and unassailable as that goal sounds, it has fallacies and dangers. Benavie shows that deficits can be either good or bad and explains how to tell the difference. Deficits, or government borrowing, can be beneficial or harmful depending on what the government does with the money.