While sympathetic generally to Maloney's POV, I have to put in some corrections to what he said. The main problem with Bush 2001-3 was the introduction of major *time-limited* tax policy that creates political uncertainty. In fact, about half of the US federal tax code is now loaded up with time-limited gimmicks -- there was a WSJ article about it earlier this year. This is a sort of "regime uncertainty" that the Austrian school likes to talk about.

As for the *size* of the deficits, Bush bears only very limited blame for this. Federal deficits under Bush peaked in 2003 and declined until 2008. It was the financial crisis, the Great Recession, and the massive expansion of spending in 2008-10 that created the mega-deficits we have now. Spending is up sharply in the last four years, while revenues have collapsed, because the economy is weak. And the federal government has not had a budget in four years.

Also, Maloney is great in explaining how markets and economies work, but he's confused about the basics of fiscal politics. The US is on a dangerous path *politically* because the connection between taxation, spending, and elections has been partially broken. Special interest groups now control much of government spending, and it is they who exercise the dominant influence over politicians. Public employee unions and muni debt underwriters (e.g., Goldman Sachs) have done especially serious damage to state and local governments, making voting at the state and local level often pointless. The politicians work for them, not the voters. The largest special interest groups at the federal level include AARP, public employees, and financial-real estate complex. With the federal government borrowing 40% of its annual spending, we have a government that voters can't control any longer. The spending has partially been freed from the constraints of taxation. This is non-representation with diminished taxation.

BTW , thanks for having Eric Hunsader of NANEX and Graham Summers on -- great interviews.

Could someone tell Ms Lyster to tone her voice down a bit.
It sounds like a dentist's drill.
(She could stop smirking too, and looking so smug)

They should call the Fiscal Cliff "Tomorrow"
it's the tomorrow that they thought would never come while they spent like drunken sailors.
the destination of all those cans they kicked down the road as they avoided problems they didn't want to address now..
in reality, it's not a cliff at all.
It's the great trash heap of cans, some antique, some more new waiting for someone to come around and start sorting though and making decisions on.