Now is not the time for budget slashing

A budget deficit hysteria has gripped some parts of the policy world lately, and the results could be disastrous. Voices, too, would like to see balanced budgets, but family budgets are more important to us. And now is no time for cutting the services they depend on.

So while we applaud President Obama on efforts to increase education funding and bolster child nutrition efforts, now is no time for a “budget freeze.” Likewise, some tea-party groups should rethink dramatic budget-cut rhetoric that could damage vital social programs even as jobless remains around 10 percent.

In a column for the Huffington Post, Dave Johnson of the Campaign for America’s Future sums up the warped logic of budget cuts during tough times. As he notes, the bad times started when we cut taxes on the rich and abdicated our responsibilities to regulate and nurture the economy.