An Illusion of Prosperity.

I remember the first time I learned that debates between Vice Presidential candidates were pointless. It was in 1988 and Lloyd Bentsen was debating Dan Quayle. Anybody that watched that debate would probably have had to say that Bentsen wiped the floor with Quayle. Of course, Bush/Quayle went on to the White House for four years.

Two particular moments I remember from that debate, both zingers from Bentsen. The first was the famous "You're no Jack Kennedy" slam, which resulted in the equally-famous Quayle "deer in the headlights" look.

The second was when Bentsen was referring to the claims made by the Republicans that the economy was doing well. Bentsen exclaimed "If you let me write $200 Billion in hot checks, I'll give you the illusion of prosperity, too."

This was also the first time in my political awareness that I realized that, when the country is plummeting into an abyss of debt, pointing to quarterly or annual economic indicators as evidence of "strength" is excruciatingly misleading. It is the equivalent of pointing to your fine new car and diamond rings and thinking that means you're in great financial shape, when all your credit cards are maxed out and you're STILL spending more than you earn.

People understand the foolishness of this on the personal level. Folks know that if you spend more than you make and go deeper and deeper in debt, the trappings of success mean nothing: you're in serious trouble. Yet, when it comes to the country's economy, somehow similar wisdom is often lacking.

So now we have the Republicans - the folks who like to tout themselves as fiscally conservative - pointing to quarterly and annual economic indicators to suggest the economy is doing well under their mastery. And yet, they are approving record high annual deficit budgets while we're sitting on 8 TRILLION DOLLARS of debt.

And we have Republicans who point to the tax cuts as another example of their fiscal conservatism. Yet this completely neglects the truth, which is that tax cuts leading to greater deficits are actually tax deferrals. Those debts will have to be paid back, via taxes, by ourselves, our children and our grandchildren, perhaps for the next fifty years. And when they're paid back, they'll have to be paid with interest. It's outrageous to crow about a tax "cut" in such a circumstance.

And what's more, much of this debt is held by our major trade competitors, like China, which seriously undermines our country's national security in a number of ways.

Frankly, there really ought to be a law against this kind of gross fiscal irresponsibility, financial negligence and mismanagement of the public trust. At the very least, it's monstrously immoral.

So Lloyd Bentsen's words ring in my ears again: If you let the Republicans borrow hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars more than they can pay back, they'll give you the illusion of prosperity, too.

In an election year where the only thing the Republicans can really point to as a success is the illusion of prosperity, let's just say I'm not deceived.