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akuma587 on 28 April 2009
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TheRealMafoo said:
akuma587 said:

Government increasing its share of GDP during a recession is normal, and during a recession such as this one necessary.

But yes, I totally agree with you, waging war on the national debt by raising taxes alone is not enough.  Nor is waging war on the national debt by cutting spending enough.  We have to do both.  That includes comprehensive reform of all our entitlement programs, all government spending, all government subsidies, and getting rid of sacred budget cows in both parties (like farm subsidies, which now go to corporations rather than farmers).

Obama's biggest weakness at this point is whether or not he will take this issue on.  Although I have to admit that the effect it will have on him politically is questionable.  Americans have an extremely short memory and don't ever seem to worry about the debt unless we are in a recession.  Hell, Reagan, Bush Sr., AND Bush W. got elected by Republicans running a deficit EVERY SINGLE YEAR they were in office.  All at the same time claiming they were fiscally conservative.

To the Republican Party, fiscally conservative means cutting taxes, not addressing the national debt.  I would like to see that change in BOTH parties as I think Democrats and Republicans have dropped the ball on this issue.

 

I have nothing against government spending in a recession. I do however think the way you spend matters. Giving large corporations billions is not the answer, employing people to do government project are however. (Improve roads, IT systems, Police stations, whatever).

But what Obama is doing is not trying to spend money during a Recession. He is trying to pass a spending bill that will obligate us beyond out tax collecting capabilities indefinitely. It’s not a short term expense. It’s a long term one.

So we agree on this text I quoted here. Being that we both thing taxing more and spending less is needed, are you for his 3.6 trillion dollar budget that will spend, long term, more than twice what we would spend without it?

It might be appropriate for this fiscal year as it will help solve unemployment, as unemployment always takes much longer to fix than any other part of the economy.  It can even be years behind sometimes.

But in the long term, no, I think in the following years he should narrow his budget back down to the 3.0 trillion area or possibly lower.  Or at the very least keep the budget from growing.  Even keeping the budget at the same mark means you are spending less money, as you have the offset from inflation and from the overall growth of the economy and increased revenue as a result.

So, no, I don't think Congress should go on a drunken spending binge.  And if they do, they at least need the revenue sources to back it up so that the deficits don't get out of control.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson