Columnists

The federal government is drowning itself in red ink, caused by its spending far more than the revenues it collects. Economists agree that the debt explosion raises Americans’ borrowing costs, inhibits economic growth and makes us all poorer.

Every October, bats flutter through haunted houses, horror movies and Halloween decorations as symbols of darkness, danger and things that go bump in the night. Thanks to Dracula and generations of spooky stories, they’ve earned an undeserved reputation as tiny flying monsters.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the global economy has weathered the challenges of the past few years extraordinarily well. Following the pandemic, shock followed shock — Russia’s war on Ukraine, Washington’s rejection of rule-based liberal trade, then most recently the war with Iran.

Many Democrats now advocate for an “abundance agenda,” which loosely holds that the party should be in the business of providing “vital goods” such as housing and infrastructure, rather than working to block or burden important projects on environmental or other grounds.