Thanks for the heads up on the update.
Your take seems incomplete-- I get that you don't like things the way they are and the way they're going. Sometimes it seems like everyone has a big list of things they hate, and no ideas as to what they want. I like my spending the money I earn as I choose, so I say we should either cut taxes or at least not raise them. I hear you try to warn me that if I don't let you raise my taxes that the economy will collapse and our kids will starve. I doubt that, but even if it were true, we first need to agree on how much we want to reduce the deficit (please tell me what you want) so the debt is cut to (by how much).
Hey there was no tax cut. Taxes plus interest were deferred to the future. The only way to cut taxes is to cut government. Your use of "I" apparently does not include future generations what are stuck with the credit card bills that the "I's" of today don't want to pay.
Thanks for the heads up on the update.
Your take seems incomplete-- I get that you don't like things the way they are and the way they're going. Sometimes it seems like everyone has a big list of things they hate, and no ideas as to what they want. I like my spending the money I earn as I choose, so I say we should either cut taxes or at least not raise them. I hear you try to warn me that if I don't let you raise my taxes that the economy will collapse and our kids will starve. I doubt that, but even if it were true, we first need to agree on how much we want to reduce the deficit (please tell me what you want) so the debt is cut to (by how much).
I have NEVER said that the economy will collapse and our kids will starve. In fact, my very last response to you at this link concluded as follows:
In any case, I agree that the American economy can likely withstand whatever policies we currently implement. Put another way, our children can likely survive whatever mess we leave them. However, I'm sure that you would agree that that is NOT an argument for purposely leaving them a mess.
As far as reducing the deficit, I believe that we need to look at the present, near-term projections, and long-term projections. The long-term projections from the most recent budget can be seen at http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/pro2006.html. As can be seen, they estimate that the public debt will reach 249% of GDP by 2075. That is obviously an unacceptable burden to put on our children. Much of the long-term burden is due to a Social Security and Medicare system that will definitely require changes.
However, the deficits through 2015 shown in the graph in my prior post have nothing to do with Social Security or Medicare, at least not when taken together. In fact, Social Security is currently running a surplus of about $150 billion, making the deficit look smaller by that amount. In any case, the first goal I think we need to achieve is to bring the deficit to zero so that the gross federal debt will be increasing only by the amount of the Social Security surplus and the other trust funds (currently about $250 billion). The next goal, I think, should be to run a surplus the size of the Social Security surplus so that we can start saving that surplus for its stated purpose. Of course, we're a long, long way from the first goal, not to mention the second. In fact, we're so far from the first goal that nobody is even talking about a balanced budget in the foreseeable future.
I was not in favor of a tax hike when Bush took office. However, I think that the implementation of a large, permanent tax cut is proving itself to be a very grave mistake. As ex-snook said, their was no true tax cut. Taxes plus interest were simply deferred to the future. On that topic, following is a quote from Peter G. Peterson at this link:
I was educated at the U of Chicago where Milton Friedman taught us that a long-term tax cut is not a cut at all if we don't reduce long-term spending. It is really a deferred tax increase on our children and grandchildren. I'm not saying that the public is consciously slipping the check for their/our free lunch to our kids, I'm saying that they hear such soothing fiscal anesthesia that they are led to believe they can have it all. We can spend, we can cut taxes, we can have huge deficits and no one has to pay for it. Alas our actions do have consequences and unfortunately they will fall on our children and grandchildren. A German philosopher said that the ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. I think, therefore, that what we are not doing is at bottom immoral however unintentional.