The Story of Spending

Public choice economics has often been accused of being politically conservative, and one can understand that conclusion given that the conclusion of the theory tends to favor free-markets.  However, the one of the points of public choice theory is too highlight that if market failures exists government failure also exists.  This is not a right or a left issue.  The problem is not democrats or republicans the problem is government i.e. politicians period.  


James Buchanan in "The Ethics of Debt Default" wrote “The most elementary prediction from public choice theory is that in the absence of moral or constitutional constraints democracies will finance some share of current public consumption from debt issue rather than from taxation and that, in consequence, spending rates will be higher than would accrue under budget balance.”

I think the video above makes the point quite well that the issue of debt and deficits is not new and is not an ideological issue.