Obama on Iran, Israel and Nukes

[Neil]

Is bankruptcy a short-term problem for the US?  I rather think not.

[Neil]

Wait, we are the world's most powerful country, with the world's largest economy.  That doesn't sound like a failed system.

It could be, if the success isn't sustainable.

If you want to balance the budget, pay your goddamn taxes.  You need to ditch the magical idea that paying less in taxes increases revenue.

I think he said 'simplify taxes', not 'cut taxes'.  Nobody sane believes that cutting taxes any further would help the US as a whole, although some wannabe robber barons and people who have fallen victim to detaxer scam artists like to hold out for that sort of thing.  Actually, Canada just sent a detaxer to jail, because they were too crazy to be allowed to run free.

But if you want states like North Carolina  to stop leaching from states like New York, be my guest.  As a federal employee maybe you could take a pay cut as well.

Or maybe they could just euthanize you, seeing as you're a worthless drain on the system.  Thinly-veiled personal attacks are fun, and allow you to blame other people for everything that is wrong with society.  Your comment is stricken as non-responsive.

[Hansmeister]

Is bankruptcy a short-term problem for the US?  I rather think not.

According to the CBO on the current path they don't see us capable of financing our deficits past 2023.

[Neil]

Tax increases will solve that.

[Hansmeister]

Tax increases will solve that.

Nope, because our entitlement spending is spiraling out of control, and American are incredible resistant to paying more in taxes, like the greeks.  If you look back over the past 60 years tax revenue as a share of GDP was remarkable stable, despite huge swings in tax rates.  Higher tax rates have generally simply resulted in either slower growth or increased tax avoidance, or both.

[Neil]

Alright, then America will go bankrupt, and there's nothing that can be done.

[Razgovory]

Americans payed more taxes in the past, and they can do so again.  "I don't want to pay more taxes" is not a good excuse.  You need to stop enabling these tax protesters and the like.

But then, you and and the rest of the GOP don't care about debt or deficit, do you?  It's only a useful club to beat Obama with.  You had years when you could have done something.  Instead Bush and the GOP congress racked up enormous debt.  Why should we trust any Republican not to do it again?

[Hansmeister]

Americans payed more taxes in the past, and they can do so again.  "I don't want to pay more taxes" is not a good excuse.  You need to stop enabling these tax protesters and the like.

But then, you and and the rest of the GOP don't care about debt or deficit, do you?  It's only a useful club to beat Obama with.  You had years when you could have done something.  Instead Bush and the GOP congress racked up enormous debt.  Why should we trust any Republican not to do it again?

But Americans didn't pay more taxes, that's the point.  They might have had higher tax rates, but that didn't translate into higher taxes.  Taxes paid have averaged around 18.6 percent, with deviations mainly cause by the economic cycles, not changes in tax rate.  The big change over time has been that the deviations have increased as the US tax system has become more and more progressive.

Debt under Bush decreased as a share of GDP, since it grew at a rate less than economic growth.  The only growth in entitlement spending was the prescription drug benefit, which unusual for DC came in far below expectation (due to its market based approach).  As originally conceived it would have actually reduced long-term Medicare costs since the prescription benefits were only available to those seniors who enrolled in less expensive managed care plans, not to those in the pricey fee-for-services plan.  Alas, in order to get enough Democrats on board in the Senate that limitation was lifted at the last moment before passage, driving up the overall cost.  Outside of war spending discretionary spending rose relatively moderately over the entire tenure of the Bush administration.  I wish they had been more conservative, but Bush was hardly reckless in their approach, the same ca not be said for the completely insane approach the Democrats have been using for the last few years: No budgeting, and massive expansion of both entitlement spending and discretionary spending.  Due to the baby boomer bubble the US already faced some challenges in future entitlement obligation, the Democrats went completely insane and cause a massive expansion of an already unsustainable entitlement system.

Indeed, the reason the Democrats have refused to pass a budget for three years is because the law requires the use of CBO numbers in their projections and theire was no way to sex up the numbers under CBO to not make it look like a complete train wreck.  Since the WH is under no such limitation they can and do simply assume ridiculous future growth and spending revisions to make their budget look even partially plausible.

[Tamas]

Hans and Raz are remarkably the same kind of guy when it coms to politics: choose a side, study the memo on what that means, and follow it like gospel in "debates". They just happened to choose different sides, probably because of the source of their income.

[The Brain]

They just happened to choose different sides, probably because of the source of their income.

[Tamas]

They just happened to choose different sides, probably because of the source of their income.

Hans being a military guy, more prone to the fascist-leaning enviroment.
I assume Raz is receiving some kind of disability, or similar thingie after his condition, would fit well his leftist leanings.

[The Brain]

They just happened to choose different sides, probably because of the source of their income.

Hans being a military guy, more prone to the fascist-leaning enviroment.
I assume Raz is receiving some kind of disability, or similar thingie after his condition, would fit well his leftist leanings.

They both get their money from working people in the private sector.

[Tamas]

They just happened to choose different sides, probably because of the source of their income.

Hans being a military guy, more prone to the fascist-leaning enviroment.
I assume Raz is receiving some kind of disability, or similar thingie after his condition, would fit well his leftist leanings.

They both get their money from working people in the private sector.

Yeah but their kind is seldom aware of this on a sufficiently conscious level, so it cannot play a sufficiently important part in developing their political views.

[grumbler]

Hans and Raz are remarkably the same kind of guy when it coms to politics: choose a side, study the memo on what that means, and follow it like gospel in "debates". They just happened to choose different sides, probably because of the source of their income

It is one of the more amusing 'tard fights we see here.  Two men going into a battle of wits completely unarmed.

Not that they lack good points; they just don't know how to tell the difference between their good points and their asses.

[PDH]

Bet that makes sitting down hard.