The Graph You Really Need When Watching the Republican (and
Democratic) Conventions  Wednesday, 29 August 2012 05:17  Ezra
Klein gives us a graph from the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities that shows the ratio of debt to GDP from 2001 to
2019. The graph attributes the rise in the debt to various
causes. The Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
are shown to be major culprits.  There actually is a much better
graph that people can use. This is the graph showing interest on
the debt as a share of GDP.   Source: Congressional Budget
Office.  Note that this one looks considerably less scary. We
don't get back to the same devastating interest burdens we faced
in the early 90s until 2019. Yes folks, that was snark. Unless
I've gone senile the interest burden we faced in the early 90s
did not prevent us from having a decade of solid growth and low
unemployment at the end of the period.   The point here is that
the fixation on the debt by both parties has paralyzed economic
policy so that tens of mi