Ron Paul For President in 2008

[Final-Fan]

"Generally tax reductions are followed by increased tax revenue. It happened under both Reagan and Bush."

Numbers please. Even if the tax base increased, which may or may not have been significantly aided by the tax cuts, the tax revenue decreased for three years running. Those are three of the five years since 1962 that revenue has decreased in absolute numbers.

The claim that tax cuts in general increase tax revenue in the short term has virtually no support among economists, and I only add the word "virtually" to guard against nutsos who happen to have degrees in economics.

"My poorly worded point was to say that politicians often assume tax increases translate into greater revenues (hopefully I don’t need to explain why this is a dubious assumption)."

You do, at least in terms of tax increases from levels the U.S. is currently at to anything remotely likely. Tax hikes do translate to revenue decreases at some point, but we are not anywhere near within shouting distance of that point.

"I hate debt as much as you do, but what I hate even more is government involvement in society. I wonder if you have any real sense for how bad US debt levels are on a relative basis. Have you looked at Europe lately? And they have already happily taken your advice on increasing taxes!"

I don't in fact know how much our debt relative to Europe is; please do enlighten me. But in any case that's not the point; the point is that the debt we DO have (over $9 trillion -- more than 2/3 the GDP -- and rising) is a huge burden on our nation that will only get worse until our descendants are forced eventually to face up to the problem our fathers and you are creating.

The national debt must be dealt with, and by "deal with" I don't mean "cause to grow by well over 50% in two terms of office". In fact, since World War II the debt has never increased dramatically out of proportion to inflation except under Reagan and Bush(es?). Whatever you think fiscal responsibility is, it's not maxing out the nation's credit card.

CUTTING TAXES DOES NOT CAUSE POLITICIANS TO CUT SPENDING. IF YOU WANT TO CUT SPENDING, CUT THE FUCKING SPENDING. DO NOT VOTE FOR ANYONE WHO WILL CUT TAXES AND NOT CUT SPENDING, BECAUSE THAT IS A VOTE AGAINST THE FISCAL SOLVENCY OF OUR NATION. That is my point.

Oh, yeah, and pay down the debt. Call it an early Christmas present to your unborn grandchildren.