Same Amount of Revenue =Adding to Deficit?

[deacon blues]

How does anybody say with a straight face that to CONTINUE the current tax rates, which means that the tax revenue currently coming in remains the same, will add to the deficit?

How does anyone with a functioning brain continue to support this nonesense?

Continuing the current tax rates insures that today's revenue will remain unchanged! In fact, the gov't will be getting MORE tax income because they are increasing the death tax from 0% this year to 35% next year!

I am so tired of these games! People are playing with our country's future and security with foolish, failed and fraudulant economic theories! If you still believe that the answer is more taxes on the wealthy, more government spending and more government expansion, I just don't know whàt to say to you except that you are incredibly stupid!

[Socialite]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

How does anybody say with a straight face that to CONTINUE the current tax rates, which means that the tax revenue currently coming in remains the same, will add to the deficit?

How does anyone with a functioning brain continue to support this nonesense?

Continuing the current tax rates insures that today's revenue will remain unchanged! In fact, the gov't will be getting MORE tax income because they are increasing the death tax from 0% this year to 35% next year!

I am so tired of these games! People are playing with our country's future and security with foolish, failed and fraudulant economic theories! If you still believe that the answer is more taxes on the wealthy, more government spending and more government expansion, I just don't know whàt to say to you except that you are incredibly stupid!

You always sound so angry...

or maybe your avatar just makes me feel like your posts are...

Everything will be alright, bud.

[missourimary]

DB, the problem is you think logically. Government doesn't.

If I have $200,000 in debt, pay interest of more than $20,000/year, spend $50-60,000/year (above that interest), but continue to make $40,000/year, I would have more debt at the end of the year than I did at the beginning. I assume that continuing the current tax rate-which constitutes income for our government-could incur a higher deficit... IF government spending isn't cut correctly and significantly.

What we have is a government equivalent to a very heavily indebted person. This person has borrowed money at will for years, with no concern for the final outcome as long as they looked good at the time. Sliding further and further in debt, they could still manage their spending with a little sleight of hand until something unexpected happened... then they cried that they needed more money to get out of their unexpected difficulty. They got their loans, but it didn't help. Now creditors are starting to call, but they don't know how to reign in spending and get out of the debt they're buried under, and they're scared to let anyone know just how big their problem really is. People in this situation generally try to make more money, hide their debts, and complain that there's no way anyone could live on less. So do governments, from the looks of things.

[deacon blues]

I'm angry, for sure. We have a great country and a great way of life and people have been experimenting and toying with it for to long. We've reached a breaking point. I care about the future for my children. I'm amazed at how completely nonesensical so many so-called intelligent, educated people are. They believe defying basic laws of math and economics can somehow be ignored and life will continue to sail along just fine. I am not going to bury my head in the sand and declare "its going to be okay". If fundamental change does not occur, its not going to go well for us. The clock is ticking.

As far as my faith, I'm totally at peace God will take care of us. But if I can help it, I will try to speak the truth about these failed policies. I can't idly stand by and watch our country being dismantled.

[deacon blues]

Well said Mary. What is incredible to me, and I certainly was not happy about the Bush era spending, is how any Democrat can act as if it was the Bush presidency alone that "got us in this mess". Sure they started the huge deficit spending, but Obama's first two years have dwarfed Bush's eight years! When Democrats act so sanctimoniously about fiscal policy its hard to take. George Bush is a single A minor league ball player when it comes to government expansion and out of control spending. Obama is Barry Bonds all juiced up on steroids when it comes to growing the deficit and national debt.

[missourimary]

America has had a deficit since the 20s. The blame for that can't be laid solely at the feet of the Democrats or Republicans.

Clinton is the last president since 1940 who managed to have a surplus in the budget. I don't have faith to think that a "surplus" means a whole lot, but I'll give someone credit for making it look good on paper, at least.

Also, there's a lot more to the federal deficit than any one presidency. I'm no economist, but some potential influences include: interest on deficits already in place, wars, national crises, the impact one presidency has on the next, and the impact Congress has on the budget. Eisenhower, Truman and Kennedy left the least additional (adjusted) debt, but all DID leave additional debt.

[aegsm76]

The US is headed for third-world status as a country if something is not done.
Any upward tweak in interest rates will but the debt ratio to GDP close to 90% in the next 10-20 years.

[missourimary]

Originally Posted by aegsm76

The US is headed for third-world status as a country if something is not done.
Any upward tweak in interest rates will but the debt ratio to GDP close to 90% in the next 10-20 years.

America better become a praying nation... I'm not sure anyone but God can stop what's looming. Corruption runs high not only in Congress and the Presidency, but in local politics. We're involved in too many overseas conflicts, which spikes the deficit. People have been encouraged by the government to incur significant debts, themselves... and many can't continue to maintain the plastic lifestyle. Those who relied on social security payments and company retirement funds now hope for more social security, and they are living longer on retirement and relying more on outside resources instead of family than anyone even 40 years ago would have guessed. Their votes count, so they're promised more so that politicians can keep their positions, even if they know it will hurt the country. At the same time, the younger generations want now what their parents took years to acquire. And again, their votes count. People get laid off and refuse lower paying jobs knowing they can rely on unemployment. Some people refuse to start work; it's easier to live on food stamps. Blame can be laid at many doorsteps, from the President to the poorest. But who or what will wake 300,000,000 people?

[scotty]

"there is the controversy over the cause of the federal budget deficit. In the eighties, when the budget deficit ballooned to over $200 billion, a prolonged debate ensued over whether the rise in the deficit was caused by spending growth or tax cuts. One way to cut through the haze of numbers and get at the simple truth is to look at total federal receipts and outlays as shares of GDP. Federal tax receipts as a share of GDP did dip from a high of 21 percent in 1981 to 19 percent in the mideighties, but they have since climbed back to about 20 percent. With current tax receipts now high as a share of GDP, it is clear that major tax "cuts" have not occurred and that higher government spending is largely responsible for the budget deficit."

Lincoln Anderson, "Gross Domestic Product." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 1993. Library of Economics and Liberty. 10 December 2010. <http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/GrossDomesticProduct.html>.

[deacon blues]

Its amazing Scotty. We act as if government operates by a different set of economic laws. But it doesn't. Economics work the same for you and me, it works the same for government.

If you spend too much, you're going to get into trouble. PERIOD.

Class dismissed.