- 02 Mar 2017 22:15
#14781564
We all know the problem is in spending money we don't have in hand, eh? That "money in hand" is "tax revenue". So we didn't have enough tax revenue. Why? Was the spending really so great that it was unreasonable? I don't think so. Sure there is waste. There will always be waste. Sure there was excess. There will always be excess. So how did we get here?
Well, the government has gone out of its way to funnel lots of money into the hands of the rich. Our U.S. healthcare is twice what the average cost is among developed nations, but the income of health insurance companies' CEOs is the highest in the nation. And the waste in the defense department is legendary. But if we are going to pay those prices and fund those expenses, it made no sense at all to cut income taxes in the 1980s or to cut estate taxes and corporate income taxes. The two go hand-in-hand when we are not force to pay for enormous costs as in WWII.
The GDP is $18 trillion/year. That is production. It doesn't account for savings, pensions, and offshore accounts that amount to trillions. And yet the national debt was as high or higher after WWII and how did we pay it down? -We worked and produced our way out of it. Taxes were raised to address it. With inflation, over time, the impossible became possible. The national debt shrank in real dollars as normal inflation advanced. It became manageable. It was paid down to comfortable levels.
Our current debt could be addressed similarly if the Congress only had the courage to do what it must.
Andropov wrote:It is mathematically impossible at this point, as this article suggests?: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... ional-debt
What happens if the country just keeps borrowing and borrowing and raising the debt ceiling higher and higher?
We all know the problem is in spending money we don't have in hand, eh? That "money in hand" is "tax revenue". So we didn't have enough tax revenue. Why? Was the spending really so great that it was unreasonable? I don't think so. Sure there is waste. There will always be waste. Sure there was excess. There will always be excess. So how did we get here?
Well, the government has gone out of its way to funnel lots of money into the hands of the rich. Our U.S. healthcare is twice what the average cost is among developed nations, but the income of health insurance companies' CEOs is the highest in the nation. And the waste in the defense department is legendary. But if we are going to pay those prices and fund those expenses, it made no sense at all to cut income taxes in the 1980s or to cut estate taxes and corporate income taxes. The two go hand-in-hand when we are not force to pay for enormous costs as in WWII.
The GDP is $18 trillion/year. That is production. It doesn't account for savings, pensions, and offshore accounts that amount to trillions. And yet the national debt was as high or higher after WWII and how did we pay it down? -We worked and produced our way out of it. Taxes were raised to address it. With inflation, over time, the impossible became possible. The national debt shrank in real dollars as normal inflation advanced. It became manageable. It was paid down to comfortable levels.
Our current debt could be addressed similarly if the Congress only had the courage to do what it must.
Government is properly for people, and money is not a form of speech.