Some people who should know better just do not get it.

Barry Ritholtz writes a blog which is mainly about Wall Street and the economy. he has very interesting insights into the economy and the markets. Strangely, however, he sometimes seems almost delusional when he speaks about politics.

Today, Ritholtz goes on at length about how the current upset at deficit spending is nothing more than a good way to take a political shot at Obama and the Democrats. ritholtz does not believe that the deficit "chickenhawks" (as he calls them) really are concerned about the spending at all. He points to all the spending during the Bush years and also to Reagan's deficit spending to support his argument.

I have to say that Ritholtz should know better. There have been people worried about deficit spending for as long as I can remember, but it was not a dominant issue until now. The reason, of course, is that in the last 50 years, the size of the deficit was never anything like it is now. Bush took heat for running deficits of over $300 billion. Still, that was less than 3% of GDP. Obama has managed in one year to raise the deficit to about 1.5 trillion dollars or more than 10% of GDP. To make matters worse, Obama has pushed thorugh Obamacare and other spending measures which will increase the size of the deficit moving forward. On top of that, obama is pushing for new regulatory schemes like the Wall Street "Reform" and the oil drilling ban that will reduce growth, cut tax revenues and generally hurt the economy. As a result, it will not be possible to grow our way out of the deficits.

So, are there any people who are just opposing the deficit for political reasons? Sure! But is there a serious reason and a lot of reasoned opposition to the deficits? You bet there is!