California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has suggested that remaining ARRA funds (aka "stimulus") should be used to pay down the national debt.
Capitol Alert: Fiorina: Rest of stimulus should go to pay down national debt
Now, there are some problems with this. Because stimulus funds come from the national budget, and it is the amount of that budget that exceeds revenue (aka the deficit, $1.5 trillion this year) that adds to the national debt, using those funds to pay off debt does nothing: you're using borrowed money to pay off debt. It's a bit like using your Mastercard to pay off your Visa, and your Visa to pay off your Mastercard.
But one-third of the stimulus package, $288 billion of it (the single largest category of ARRA), were not expenditures. They were tax cuts.
So what she is really saying is that she supports higher taxes!
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