Unsolicited policy advice for the Democrats

On July 14, 2005 Mr Mandel wrote:

Unsolicited policy advice for the Democrats
Michael Mandel

Democratic pollster Ruy Teixeira considers how the Democrats could use new ideas
about the economy. He writes:

1. Those ideas should sum up clearly and
simply what the party stands for
and where it proposes to take the country.
2. Those ideas should be few in
number and easily reduced to a key principle
or two that can be transmitted
to voters--otherwise voters are unlikely to pay
much attention.
3.Those ideas should actually work in practice, so that
voters will see the
benefits of having the party in office and reward it with
additional
electoral success.

I fail to see how "cutting the budget
deficit" fits any of these criteria.

Do the Democrats really want to sell themselves as the party of fiscal rectitude and hairshirt economics?

Do the Democrats really want to sell themselves as the party of "we will raise your taxes and cut your benefits?"

And most important, the only real economic effect of a smaller budget deficit is to induce a bit more capital spending...maybe. Most economic models show that cutting the budget deficit actually depresses consumption for years. Do the Democrats really want to sell themselves as the party of "more business investment and a lower standard of living?"

Is there something here that I'm not getting?

I do not get it either, as historically, the US government has run on a deficit and the debt we owe to ourselves anyway.