Barney Frank: “I have been troubled by what seems to me a mistaken focus in the debate about reducing the deficit. I do agree that it…”

“I have been troubled by what seems to me a mistaken focus in the debate about reducing the deficit. I do agree that it is important to reduce the deficit. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I now believe that I am more focused on reducing the deficit than many of my colleagues, including on the other side of the aisle, who have with great alacrity put deficit reduction aside in favor of a fairly indiscriminate degree of tax reductions. A couple of weeks ago, we were told that reducing the deficit was the number one priority, but reducing the taxes, particularly on the wealthiest in America, rapidly overtook deficit reduction. I hope we will get back to it. What troubles me is the extent to which people, mainly on the Republican side, but elsewhere as well, have said that what we need to do most to get the deficit down, as we should, is to reduce entitlements. That's a polite way of saying they want to cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, even though Medicaid is not an entitlement. But those are the things that are on the agenda. In fact, that is neither socially or economically the sensible way to begin with the short-term--near-term deficit reduction we need. We shouldn't say short-term. We do, I believe, need some stimulus. I'm glad we are extending unemployment compensation. I wish we were doing more to help cities and States keep people on the payroll. The private sector has added jobs in these past few months.…”