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Musicmystery -> RE: Teabaggers Are Just 2% of American Population (5/7/2010 9:48:49 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: popeye1250
quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
They just have no idea about which government spending, how to go about it, or what the impacts would be.
But they're pretty sure tax cuts would magically fix this.
Music, they may have a point there, what does the average person shell out to the govt. every year as a percentage of their income counting gasoline, tobacco, alcohol taxes etc, 25 to 30%?
The *problem* in our federal govt. is *spending* too much money that we don't have, money that doesn't exist.
You or me could only get away with doing that for a year and then our credit ratings would plunge and creditors would be after us.
Everyone has to follow a budget, why should our govt be able to "borrow" money from the social security fund (which doesn't even exist now due to the congress) to spend on things that we can't afford? That money should have been set aside and people would be getting $3,000 a month now instead of $1,000 per month.
Each year the president comes up with a "budget" that is always way more than we're taking in!
Also, it's the "people's money" not the govt's, the "govt." doesn't have any money!
popeye,
I'm not arguing with any of that (except for the made-up SS figures). However, none of it speaks to my point, which is continuing or returning to a policy of the trickle-down fantasy fueled by tax cuts makes all of this worse, not better.
What happened to the average person you describe during these tax cuts? Spending got pushed off to the states and communities, which had to raise income, property and sales taxes to try to make up the difference, and they still came up short, which is why nearly all the states are in the shitter, some worse than others. And the average person? My taxes overall increased while federal taxes declined, and the increase far outweighed the decline. Let's not do that yet again.
The the trickle down, as usual, never happened. The gulf between rich and poor widened again, just as when Reagan tried it, and the economy slowed, jobs were shed, the market tanked, and a banking crisis ensued. How many times do we have to replay this in real time before people stop voting for it? Voting for a policy that costs them jobs and discretionary income?
As for the budget, with each tax cut, the debt problem gets worse, just as if you earned less but spent the same or more, you'd be in trouble. These unpaid-for tax cuts are then covered by borrowing, because the same politicians who cut those taxes aren't going to say "OK, now, here's the stuff we're cutting. Sorry."
And it's a question you haven't answered either. What gets cut?
I know you're for tougher immigration policing, for example. That will cost money, lots of it. Where does it come from? And that's just one example. "We're spending too much!" is an easy cry, until we start looking at what to cut and what will happen if we do. What's your plan? I know the Teabag don't have one.
Then there's the necessity of spending to save down the road. For example, if I order new fruit trees, looking toward the future, and then decide I can't afford to fence off the rabbits, I'm going to lose the trees. Some expenses have to be met. Health care is one of them--this cost will continue to climb out of control until we address it. We have a start. It's not stellar, but it's money we have to spend. Or Haiti. If we don't help there, these people will head for our shores, forcing us to deal with it that way, whether tying up immigration resources or occupying the Coast Guard with fishing them out of the water. Or the importance of financial regulation, so we don't just repeat past mistakes. Or mining/oil safety regulation. To name a few.
I'll step up and offer my own solutions, but the conservatives will never agree--we fantastically overspend on defense, multiples of all other countries. We also have a completely redundant bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security.
Then "crises" like SS and Medicare can be fixed with incremental changes. But signs and slogans and more reckless tax cuts aren't going to get us there. It's how we got here.
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