[Rhodes22-list] The "Unifier" finally delivers

[petelargo]

PS: Pay no attention to the 4 billion dollars a month Iraq war effort when
your mom needs her meds. Re-framing and justifying the "debt" is not the
conservatism I believe in. The 'detractors' now include 81% of all women and
men, republican and democrat, that no longer believe the country is headed
in the right direction. Mr. W finally unified the country. The choice
couldn't be clearer.  If you think we are on the right path, you certainly
know who to vote for. 



Brad Haslett-2 wrote:
> 
> Rob,
> 
> Let's run through this again, and I'll type s-l-o-w-l-y this time.
> Comparing national debt numbers without using inflation adjusted dollars
> is
> meaningless.  Using debt as a percentage of GDP is more rational.  Example
> -
> I probably owe ten times more debt than my father did at my age.  Should
> this be of concern?  No, 2008 dollars are not the same as 1972 dollars,
> and
> besides, my income is more than ten times my father's in 1972.  The
> federal
> budget is a joint responsibility between the Congress and the President.
> Trying to pin any one group of numbers on one branch without looking at
> the
> other branches actions is foolish.  The largest component of the federal
> budget is entitlement spending with Social Security and Medicare being the
> largest  by a wide margin.  Defense spending follows.  Bush 43 did nothing
> to reign-in entitlement spending, in fact, he expanded it.  Expanding the
> military and homeland defense after 9/11 also added immensely to spending.
> The detractors of the current administration would like to spin the
> narrative that higher taxes and less defense spending would substantially
> reduce the national debt.  Maybe, maybe not.  There is a "sweet spot" for
> taxation rates where higher marginal rates slows down the economy and has
> a
> negative effect on GDP.  Where is that "sweet spot"?  I don't know and
> neither did JFK but he understood that 90% was too high and Ronald Reagan
> thought 70% was too high.  Both were proven correct.  The "elephant in the
> room" is entitlement spending, and if or until we recognize that issue and
> deal with it, this is an exercise in mental masturbation.
> 
> BTW, I really like Bill and have a great deal of respect for he and Diane.
> That doesn't mean he's beyond playing games with numbers  just for fun.
> 
> Brad
> 
> On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 12:44 PM, Rob Lowe <rlowe at vt.edu> wrote:
> 
>> Since Bill Effros dropped off the list, we've been without our periodic
>> Quote without Comments.  For anyone new, see:
>>
>> http://www.quotewithoutcomment.com/
>>
>> this is paraphrased from Sunday's Doonesbury.  I have not checked the
>> accuracy.
>>
>>
>> Since 1776, the US has accumulated a national debt of over $9 trillion,
>> over 1/2 or which was incurred when a Bush was on watch.
>> If you included Ronald Regan, fully 70% of the debt was created under
>> just
>> these three Republican presidents.
>>
>> - rob
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> 
> 

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