if the government is buying things that facilitate growth, and the interest of the loan is lower than the level of growth the investment facililtates, then obviously we should be borrowing like mad. remember, growth is the goal, not a "balanced" budget. of course i agree that most government spending is a waste. thats why we should not raise taxes to balance the budget. we shouldnt be giving money to the government if they are wasting it. let them get into debt and learn to control spending.
I agree. Red is asking for something that in the history of governments and people throughout time have never done and it isn't necessary anyway. Red, do you understand that technically there is no deficit? Yeah, in an accounting bookeeping GAO sense there is, but in a real dollars sense, there is no US deficit. Let an economist who is a close ally of the great Thomas Friedman teach. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2006/04/19/193985.html Getting back to deficits, my question to you is this: Is there truly a deficit? The short answer is yes, but only in an accounting sense -- not in any meaningful economic sense. Let's look at it. If Congress spends $2.4 trillion but only takes in $2 trillion in taxes, who makes up that $.4 trillion shortfall that we call the budget deficit? Neither the Tooth Fairy, Santa nor the Easter Bunny makes up the difference between what's spent in 2005 and what's taxed in 2005. Some might be tempted to answer that it's future generations who will pay. That's untrue. If the federal government consumes $2.4 trillion of what Americans produced in 2005, it must find ways to force us to spend $2.4 trillion less privately in 2005. In other words, the federal government can't spend today what's going to be produced in the future.
I just made the statement that Bush has done more than any other recent president to ensure families keep more of their money. This flies against the common conjecture that Bush's tax cuts are all about the rich. Besides, are you really going to argue with me that your needs are more than a young family of 4? See above.
Some of it does but revenues are never great enough to cover next years spending. This budget deficit talk is just another political buzzword.....like bringing the oil execs to Congress to be berated. It used as window dressing. The government has many ways expressed in the column on how to get us to spend less privately to make up the money. And without that, our country financially could not continue exist.....nor could homeowners as parso pointed out.
I think we are way past reasonable. There is a big difference between a national economy and an individual's mortgage. When you buy a mortgage you at least have the house as a balancing asset. The national debt is simply a liability. And the money we are talking about is staggering. If an individual borrows more cash than he can pay he will eventually become bankrupt. When you have a huge national debt that keeps growing with no plan to ever pay it off, it is simply irresponsible. We bore the immense costs of World War II by rationing, War Bonds, and taxes without going into this kind of unprecedented debt. This irresponsible spending by Congress without the income to back it up began in the Reagan Administration and had only a brief reversal under Clinton.
Right, which is why it keeps growing - because we just borrow more to support it. It never has to be completely paid off due to our (presumably) indefinite life, but eventually old deficits have to be paid off by current tax revenue. Agreed. And it works beautifully because most people don't have a clue about economics and even economists aren't sure about it.
Nonsense. Are you suggesting that we aren't paying 400 $Billion a year in interest payments on the national debt? That money isn't real, huh? Give me a break.
I agree that we are passed reasonable, but that doesn't mean there isn't a reasonable level that doesn't fall at having no debt at all. Just because it doesn't go on a financial statement doesn't mean there isn't an asset associated with it. If it is used to support growth in the economy or infrastructure or defense etc, that is an asset. No - people borrow more than they can currently pay back every day & never go bankrupt. All that matters is what you can eventually pay back. The beauty of indefinite life. There's no reason to ever have it completely paid off.
