Cause they produce coal.
@ stickball:
That's totally fair, but there is no way to address the national debt unless the problem is addressed on both fronts. We have to substantially raise taxes and substantially cut spending. That is all I am saying. And I don't think there is really any argument that can be made for an alternative considering the size of our national debt.
And I agree with you that people in government are too willing to spend money they don't have (both Democrats and Republicans). But it is also true that some are willing to cut taxes even while we are running major deficits. Sometimes it is justified (like under Reagan, though even Reagan raised a lot taxes a few years later, but don't tell conservatives that), and sometimes it is not (Bush Jr. for instance).
For the most part, the spending situation should be addressed in this order
1) Entitlements (especially Medicare, the Social Security problem is actually much easier to fix)
2) Military Spending
3) Revamping the tax code
4) Pet projects (farm subsidies comes to mind)
5) Overhauling government departments on many levels
But in all reality this country is so big that it really isn't realistic to expect the federal government to spend much less than $2.5-3 trillion considering that the population grows yearly, and when you consider natural inflation. I mean $1 trillion in 1975 (which we were already spending) would be around $4 trillion in today's dollars.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
What cost $1000000000000 in 1975 would cost $3959022166696.21 in 2008.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2008 and 1975,
they would cost you $1000000000000 and $240317097222.62 respectively.
Do you want to do another calculation?
But you know what one of the biggest differences between then and now was? Tax rates.
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
