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.................so the answer is to ingore any debt/deficits and just keep spending?
When you cut the budget, your deficit gets bigger. Happened to California in the past, happening in Greece right now and possibly Spain and Ireland. You cut the budget, and it has a double whammy effect. You lay off public sector workers, part of the local economies dry up. When that source of revenue dries up, private sector businesses cut back on spending due to lower demand, layoffs in the private sector happen. They don't tell you this on Fox News, Fox Business, or Limbaugh/Hannity/Savage/Beck
I don't think austerity is a bad idea but I don't think the time to do it is during a recession. If we want to increase taxes and decrease spending we should do it in a boom period. Paying down debt is extremely important but utilizing it in a period of economic turndown creates an entirely unnecessary problem. The deficit and our debt are problems right now but ultimately saying that we need to stifle our economy to pay down a debt "crisis" that we can't with definite certainty predict when will happen (or if it will happen) doesn't make tons of sense.
Exactly. We were in good shape when Bush took over, but he and Greenspan sold the Congress on the idea that we shouldn't pay off the debt and that we should cut taxes because the government had plenty of money coming in.
The above is the liberal view of hard working, well to do citizens who have benefitted from their work, sacrifice, and education.
If someone is wealty, in the mind of a liberal, you had to have-
inherited
cheated
stolen
or stumbled your way into wealth. Given this "fact" the liberal is led to believe that they are not rich as they are-
honest
hard working
virtuous
and unlucky. When you rationalize failure in this fashion, it is easier to accept being a failure/loser, as it exhonerates you of any personal responsibility. Like in "Repo Man", society is to blame!
Oh yes, I forgot. Those poor rich. They don't manipulate US legislation with their millions, they don't pilfer by refusing to offer livable wages, they don't lobby for lower taxes and tax breaks for themselves, they don't redistribute the income of the U.S. That's right. Sheesh, I was soooo confused! I personally feel very sorry for the rich, they're such hard-working geniuses. They never have a head start, never inherit a penny, they are all self-made, and wow, they're just frikkin' amazingly honest.
The point of austerity is to cut government spending to get out of control state finances under control, not to jump start the economy. Why do liberals use economic growth as the standard when assessing the success of austerity measures? Everyone knows deep cuts to spending doesn't produce short term economic growth: that's not the point of austerity, though.
Raise taxes, cut defense, cut aid to foreign countries, cut congress' salary {they do nothing anyway} cut pork from politician's districts, cut subsidies to oil, farmers, etc..
Canada is an austerity success story. Believe it or not.
if what you are saying is true, then it's due to the fact that they cut the budget while their economy is going good. Canada has a lot of petro dollars to work with, so no the situation isn't the same as us.
The point of austerity is to cut government spending to get out of control state finances under control, not to jump start the economy. Why do liberals use economic growth as the standard when assessing the success of austerity measures? Everyone knows deep cuts to spending doesn't produce short term economic growth: that's not the point of austerity, though.
I'm not sure what the actual question is.
Why do liberals think that austerity doesn't work? Which I don't think is true in every circumstance.
Why do liberals use economic growth as the standard when assessing the success of austerity measures? Again, doesn't that depend on what is the goal that is trying to be achieved, restarting a stalled economy or reducing public debt.
"Austerity" is a tool, just as stimulus spending and tax cuts are tools that need to properly applied based purely on the job they are been used to accomplish. I think the problem is deciding which job is more important to accomplish first.
I don't think austerity is a bad idea but I don't think the time to do it is during a recession. If we want to increase taxes and decrease spending we should do it in a boom period. Paying down debt is extremely important but utilizing it in a period of economic turndown creates an entirely unnecessary problem. The deficit and our debt are problems right now but ultimately saying that we need to stifle our economy to pay down a debt "crisis" that we can't with definite certainty predict when will happen (or if it will happen) doesn't make tons of sense.
The point of austerity is to cut government spending to get out of control state finances under control, not to jump start the economy. Why do liberals use economic growth as the standard when assessing the success of austerity measures? Everyone knows deep cuts to spending doesn't produce short term economic growth: that's not the point of austerity, though.
Austerity does work. It is just there is a time and place for it. When the economy is weak austerity shrinks the already anemic economic activity further weakening the economy because the government is contracting its role as an economic participant and thus reducing the total economic activity.
On the other hand if the economy is strong austerity is great because it prevents economic overheating and curbs speculative bubbles.
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