I have been reading a little bit of this other blog called Talking Taxes the last few weeks. There was an interesting post today about the New CBO Report on Long-term Deficits. The CBO director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin said this: “Imagine a world in which there was no Katrina, no Rita, no costs of the Gulf Coast cleanup or annual events of that type. Imagine a world in which there was no necessity to spend funds in Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere in the globe, fighting a war on terrorism. Imagine a world in which it was possible to meet all our nonsecurity needs, in highways and education and welfare, without earmarks and without pork barrel and which allowed us to keep such spending flat and not go up at all. Imagine that world also included tax increases as all the laws the Congress has passed in the last several years sunset. Imagine in that world there was no economic slack– the economy always performed at absolutely top notch perfect levels.In that world, our Congress would face deficits as far as the eye could see and have enormous fiscal challenges.”
Later, a CQ reporter asks Holtz-Eakin to respond to the supply-side argument that economic growth will help keep our deficits and debt in check:
CQ: For people who think current tax cuts or future tax cuts can create more economic growth ,what level of economic growth would we need annually to grow ourselves out of this problem?Holtz-Eakin: It’s not possible. Don’t even think about it. [long pause] You can’t grow your way out of this problem, it’s just too big.
We have been talking about big government, large deficits, public debt, etc; so I thought you guys might be interested in this. I think it illustrates how big the problem is. Why don’t we hear more about this on the news media? Maybe they are talking about this, I wouldn’t know since I don’t watch. I just wonder how many Americans actually realize how deep we are in, and how much deeper we sink in every day. I really worry about it, because the politicians aren’t going to be frank about it, so the problem is never going to go away. I think they figure the less the American people actually know about government, the better, because it gives them carte blanche with no accountability. With an ignorant public, they can do whatever with no pressure. How can we get the word out? How can we educate our fellow citizens?
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Fiscal Insanity
Posted by davieboy at 12:04 PM
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2 comments:
The problem is our political system. People get elected with advertising and MONEY. Therefore, our current political system does not allow us to hold government accountable for deficits. We only have 2 choices… 1. A Democrat... who will make outlandish promises to get campaign money and then irresponsibly spend the government’s money to get more support and more money for his re-election. 2. A Republican... who will make outlandish promises to get campaign money and then irresponsibly spend the government’s money to get more support and more money for his re-election. Do you see our dilemma? These men are prisoners to their campaign supporters. They are prisoners to money. That is why we have problems in Washington. No one will call their bluff, because they will lose their influence that their money can buy them through campaign contributions.
Three or four years ago, John McCain and his cronies developed a “campaign finance reform bill.” Get the Cliff Notes version of this bill and prepare to laugh out loud. This is basically what they said. We need to get the money out of politics. Therefore, we are going to stop the American people from buying air time to attack us 30 days before an election. We will then NOT allow private citizens to give “soft money” contributions. Basically, they can’t give any money not regulated by the government. Now, let’s summarize this basic concept. I, John McCain, want to get the money out of politics and stop Washington from buying votes, so I will stop YOU from USING money against me. I will stop YOU from buying air time and telling the American people why they should or shouldn’t vote for me. Does that make any sense to you? Basically, they blamed campaign finance corruption on YOU and I, not on them.
They only way to get rid of the deficits and stop political corruption is to stop pork barrel spending. (This is attaching spending provisions that have nothing to do with a bill to that bill.) This is how politicians buy their votes. They use their pork projects to give their contributors the favors they promised them through government spending and regulations. The Congress has too much power over our money and they use if for themselves… not for us. The current two party system will NEVER come to this conclusion and stop it. EVER. Their power and influence are based on this system. There will have to be a third party rise up with this as their main mantra. This is the only way it will ever change. This is the only way we will get out of debt.
In response to CitizenSaint here is a great read from the late Stephen Ambrose about the need for a new political party.
http://www.americanreform.org/Lamm/new_political_party.html
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