Many liberals have been resisting efforts to address the debt because they support bigger government and their ideology tells them that cutting deficits will hinder growth at a time when the economy is already weak. Others cynically believe it will will benefit Democrats if they can keep attacking Republican proposals without offering an alternative that itself could become a target. Whatever the reason, liberals ignore the issue at their own peril.

One of the broad lessons we’ve learned from history is that the side that wins the ideological battle is often simply the one that has the ready made solution at the time a crisis hits. For decades, Keynesian economics dominated public policy, but when stagflation came along in the 1970s, it had no answers to give – but supply-side economics did. When the financial crisis hit in the fall of 2008, the bailout advocates got what they wanted even though most people hated what they were proposing. Ultimately, there was a massive panic and a bunch of people with all the right credentials said, if you do this, you could avert a Great Depression.