Angry Voters Are Right: Growing Debt Can Slow the Economy

William Beach / June 10, 2010

Political candidates apparently can choose no better campaign issue this year than excessive government spending and the exploding debt it’s producing.  In one campaign after another, voters high and low on the economic ladder respond in the same way when challengers berate incumbents for reckless debt accumulation: raucous, fist-pumping applause and that same grimace that must have graced the faces of our revolutionary forebears.

This prime issue of the 2010 election season no doubt will be the subject of analysis by students of politics for years to come. Even now, however, we know something. Anyone who ponders the question of why voters are so hot about public sector debt will quickly discover that otherwise diverse voters are relatively united in their apprehension that ballooning sovereign debt threatens our economy.

Are voters right to be so worried about how rising debt threatens their economic future, or are some politicians and most pundits right that, once again, the voters’ emotions have won over their reason? (more…)