There is a small but influential cadre of conservative economists and politicians who are doing this intentionally. They are perfectly happy sending the US into an extended recession if it gives them a chance to break the social support services. The underlying motivation varies, some believe that government social services are morally bad, other have some variation of libertarian type views that put social services outside the domain of the federal government. Either way, their sudden exaggerated concern for the deficit is a cover for a social and politically unacceptable position.

There are even more who are doing it unintentionally though. I know several fairly conservative and fairly reasonable people who fall into this group. They are willing to support any military expense to "support the troops". But when it isn't the military their basic frugality comes through and they want to balance the budget.

I think the deficits are a concern, but not yet the primary one. First we have to get the economy growing at a decent clip and get people employed. And then we can think about cutting the military budget and raising taxes for a while to get the deficit under control.

Jay