Won't government spending cuts also have an adverse impact on the economy?

[badgenome]

kitler53 said:

badgenome said:

Isn't this always the argument when a government finally has to come to grips with its deficits? "Oh, you can't stop spending and you can't fire government workers, you'll kill the economy!" There are lots of examples of governments doing just that in spite of all the usual doomsaying (think: Canada in the '90s), and the economy only took off from there. Can you name even one single instance of an economy tanking because the government stopped racking up absurd deficits?

 

the exact same fearmongering is being done when people say "oh, you can't raise taxes, you'll kill the economy!".  fact is taxes were higher under clinton before bush's tax cuts for the wealthy and the economy thrived.

...the economy is a complicated beast and if anyone tells you any one aspect of the economy with have a dire impact they are lying or over-exaggerating.  this entire debt-limit crisis is a ton of BS from both sides of the aisle...

Clinton did indeed preside over good economic times despite higher taxes, but don't underestimate the importance of things like the peace dividend from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the fact that the US seemed to be getting its fiscal house in order, and the dot com boom. It was a unique time, sort of a holiday from history when a guy like Francis Fukuyama could write a book called the End of History and not be laughed out of the room.

Closing loopholes while lowering the overall corporate tax rate would be good and should put an end to egregious practices like GE not paying a dime of taxes on billions in profits, but in the face of an incredibly weak economy and the fact that we could literally tax every millionaire and billionaire at the rate of 100% and still not close our deficits, it's spending that has to be cut.