On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 6:29 PM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > But that's exactly my point! Not to be outdone, Democrats are going to spend > double or even triple what Republicans, even at their most fiscally > reckless, ever did.
You are lumping all spending together in one bucket. We could eliminate a giant portion of the budget in one easy go if we get rid of the Department of Defense. Hell, add in the classified budgets of the spook agencies and Homeland Security and we can eliminate our deficit right away! Wouldn't that be neat! Except that it would also be suicidal. The question is not so much spending as it is about useful spending. Is the spending helping to keep us safe? Is it helping grow the economy and provide gainful employment? Increase salaries and provide basic services and welfare for our citizens? Does it help decrease deficits in the future by providing investment that results in increased returns? We tried tax cuts for the rich. Deficit spending helped grow the GDP but real-dollar wages were down for all but the very wealthiest. We tried one-time stimulus to taxpayers in an effort to boost consumer spending. It worked briefly but didn't have a sustained effect. We could cut spending a great deal right now and cut taxes across the board and drastically reduce the size of government. But people would suffer, it wouldn't help our economy and no serious economist that I've seen, right or left, is proposing that at this time. Things are going to be hairy for awhile. But if we focus on investment in infrastructure, efficency, wealth building for the broadest base that floats our consumer-driven economy, then we should recover. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:284177 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
