They have gotten fat and lazy on our dime.
I havent seen much good from the tea party after elected. Have you?
They have been in office all of three months and are outnumbered by the main stream repubs .. and the mainstream dems .. - which are so close to being the same ...give them a chance.
Unless the old liners and the dems die in their seats soon, it's going to take several years for them to be a power house, but the foolish GOP will be given walking papers like McCain, Snow, etc.
It seems that many don't understand how the economy really works. What I would like is that you do a simple mental exercise. Image that the government cut the deficit to zero. What do you think would happen? I think within a few months we would be in a depression worst than the Great Depression due to the resulting job losses. But I would like your analysis. Please describe how and why we wouldn't lose the 30 million jobs and fall into a depression. One rule you are not allowed to use abstracts Republican talking points. You have tpo give specific timelines and details.
Image that the government cut the deficit to zero.
Interesting exercise. Wouldn't it matter how they cut it zero?
Yes, it does matter how. The only way to cut the deficit to zero without causing a depression is to raise the top tax rate on the rich to 95% and set the capital gains rate to same rate. If you just cut spending then its depression time.
So imagine the top tax rate on the rich is raised to 95% and the deficit is cut to zero. What would happen next depends on whether the tax rate is kept high (or at least high-ish) or massive tax breaks for the richie rich's are reimplemented. Then we're back to square one (defining square one as now). Horse and sparrow economics just doesn't work. And only cutting programs (spending) is going to cost more in the long and not so long term.
From the 1940s to the 1960s the top tax rate was in the 90% range and the American economy was the most robust in the world. Kennedy reduced it in the 60s and it was Ok for a while but had high inflation in the 70s and 80s. Reagan cut the tax rate in 80s and 90s an inflation went down but the national debt blew up. Bush Jr. cut it some more and you know what the results are. So, it seems that high tax rates are good for the economy based on real world data. So I think we should set it to 90% and keep it there.
We have now gotten to the point where if national defense, interstate highways, national parks, homeland security, and all other discretionary programs somehow became absolutely free, we 19d still have a budget deficit. The White House Office of Management and Budget projects that in the current fiscal year (2011), mandatory spending alone will exceed all federal receipts. So even if we didn 19t spend a single cent on discretionary programs, we still wouldn 19t be able to balance our budget this year 14 let alone pay off any of the $14 trillion in debt that we have already accumulated.
Something has to change - really change and not just an election slogan.
Approximately 1/2 the people in the country don't pay federal income taxes.
If you are really really rich . which BTW is an arbitrary value and can be debated who is really rich ... then you can hide your money and lower your tax rates.
U.S. millionaires say $7 million not enough to be rich - A million dollars ain't what it used to be
Yes lowering the budget will cost jobs - for sure reducing state and federal government jobs. Yes business jobs need to be added. That is part of the problem of this deficit - jobs were lost and govt incomes were reduced .. but the programs were not .. expenditures were not .. programs, pensions .. jobs ... were not reduced accordingly. In a competitive business environment - the business would have to get leaner and adjust or go bankrupt - in a govt model - it 'should' get leaner too - or be structured so that it can endure tough economic times The goes into exceeded the goess outta.
No matter what the question is .. a 'simple model' really goes a far way in defining and analyzing a problem .... What goes into your model can't exceed what comes out of your model .. if it does then you have an imbalance .. and oh brother - do we have an imbalance in our economy in the form of debt today. The mere fact that the value of a dollar keeps changing (for the worse) doesn't help either.
The 12 Countries With The Highest & Lowest Tax Rates
Belgium with a 54% tax rate.
Simple. Roll back the Bush tax cuts, raise the retirement age to 72, stop trying to occupy half the world.
That would be a good start .. however ... we still spend too much on mandatory entitlement programs.
Hence the retirement age adjustment. The two elephants are social security and Medicare. Mandatory health insurance will help as well, but retirement age is the biggie.
all the entitlement programs need to be ended and reduce the size of government to 1890 I'll call for a flat tax and get rid of 80% of the IRS, since they can find another jobs.
Good luck convincing your neighborhood oldsters to make due without their SS and Medicare.
And those of us that have been paying into in for 30 years but are still years or decades from "retirement age".
Big_T
there is not a whole of of difference between the main stream repubs and dems