Reply #6: Yes. The Republicans get the 92.7% debt by adding state [View All]

[JDPriestly]

and federal debt (which is only about 58.9% of GDP).

In California our debt is high primarily because we adopted the No New Taxes Law by proposition and have to have a super-majority to even adjust our tax code to new realities.

And think of it, that is what the Republicans are now proposing at the federal level.

It is the stupidest idea ever.

I have been wondering why it is that every single Western country is adopting "austerity" measures.

Is everyone afraid to tell China that they have to revalue their currency so that trade is fair and not just all imports from China.

I know that the trade imbalance is a separate number, but it seems to me that there is a direct relationship between industrial capacity which China now has and debt levels which is great for us.

Remember, Germany owed us huge amounts of money after WWI. We insisted that it be repaid in such a way that the German economy was destroyed. I think Germany's debt was due to the fact that we were the industrial power and the major exporters of the time but also due to war reparations we claimed from Germany. If someone knows more about this, please let me know. I know a fair amount, especially about the great inflation in Germany and of course the growth of the NAZI movement in the 1930s.

Austerity is a really horrible idea.

We should abandon or insist on changes to our trade agreements instead. That would also impose a certain kind of "austerity" on us -- a lot of cheap imports would become more expensive, but it would put encourage our industry and create jobs.

Instead, Obama is trying to sell Americans on more trade agreements. We can't pay our debts with the ones we have. We don't have the income because we are not selling enough to other countries. The whole idea of austerity focuses on the wrong thing.