[Rhodes22-list] Politics: Tax or Borrow?

[Bill Effros]

Brad,

I missed the part about WHY you have to look at average debt as a 
percentage of GNP, and just exactly what the answer means.

FDR not only faced a rather large war, but also a rather large 
depression, and an unemployment rate around 25%.

When you throw war spending into depression earning you obviously create 
an abnormally high ratio.  When you then throw this huge anomaly into an 
average you deliberately skew the average. 

If you look at budgets after FDR's term, you get a much different 
picture, one of Democrats taxing to reduce deficits, and Republicans 
borrowing to finance social aims.

So that's where we are now.  Reducing programs won't work.  Nobody is 
going to dismantle Social Security, or reduce Medicare benefits.  We're 
going to have to replace all the equipment that got blown up and used up 
in Iraq--it's going to cost a lot of money, and there is no way around 
it--ending the war won't produce the money to pay off the debt.

What's left?  Borrowing or Taxing.

Which will you pick?

Bill Effros

PS -- Just taxing the rich won't work, either.  Everyone is going to 
have to pay for the fiscal fiasco of the past 6 years.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> Rummy,
>
> Saying the national debt is at record levels based on raw numbers ignores
> inflation.  You have to look at the debt as a percentage of GNP. Could 
> you,
> or anyone, please show me the numbers on how bad the economy is doing?
> Saying the economy is bad defies reality.  If you find the numbers, 
> I'll go
> out and kill my own crow for a pie.  Is Haliburton still a buzzword?
> They're damn good at what they do in the oilfield.  Some of their other
> units haven't performed so well.
>
> Brad
>
>
> On 11/10/06, R22RumRunner at aol.com <R22RumRunner at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> Philip,
>> Economically he failed by increasing the national debt to record levels.
>> Normally a war time economy is considered good, but there were so that
>> profited
>> (Haliburton comes to mind) that it didn't create jobs or fuel the 
>> economy.
>>
>> Rummy
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