Mara Liasson

Newsbusters has the video, of Mara Liasson (of NPR, I know, right?) being perfectly sensible regarding deficits:

MARA LIASSON, NPR: Greece, whose debt is now I think 115 percent of GDP, ours is about 84 now, and they had to impose some tough austerity measures which means tax hikes and spending cuts, and the people of Greece as you can see didn't like it one bit and rioted. And, you know, this is something that could spread, the kind of debt contagious, contagion, could spread to Spain, Portugal, you know, Ireland. It's scary, and there's a couple of things about it. Number one, the U.S. is concerned that it could have a spillover effect to us. But also, I mean, this in a much more horrific way, much bigger way, is our problem. We have unsustainable deficits that are going to have to be cured with something similar. Maybe not as draconian, budget cuts, cuts in spending, and maybe some kind of tax hikes. And I'm not saying Americans are going to be going into the streets and throwing Molotov cocktails.

You may remember that NPR has put pressure on Mara to stop appearing on Fox News. So I expect the NPR muckymucks won't be amused with this latest appearance. Because her take on the danger of uncontrollable spending puts her, dare I say it, closer to the Tea Party camp than the NPR camp.

But here's the thing - why should economic common sense be affected by political leanings at all? I mean if your spending habits are such that you're going to run out of money before your next paycheck, how does being liberal or conservative change that? If you load up on credit card debt to the point that you can't make payments, will your political philosophy make a difference when the collection agencies are at your door?