Can We Stop Using The Deficit As A Cudgel ? It's A Right Wing Trap

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Yeah, it's a crappy idea to give rich folks a tax cut. A 39.6% top marginal rate won't kill em...However the argument that this is going to increase the deficit and jeopardize the safety net rings hollow when our leaders can find over a trillion dollars to invade sovereign nations. And this not only leads to a deficit of money but a deficit of lives as people get killed in these invasions; us and our enemies.

[stray cat]

1. The tax cuts are about equal to the cuts proposed by the commission

So they lay the framework for significant across the board cuts and major additional job losses

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. If You Add Up Afghanistan And Iraq The Bill Is Well Over One Trillion Dollars

~

[RandomThoughts]

2. I agree completly.

Not only should there be a tax, but how that tax is spent should be corrected.


I do not disagree that government is spending wrong on many things, but the answer is not to remove government, but to get it spending better, by not doing invasions of other countries, or military ideas for profit of a few.


So the tax should be there because it can be argued.

And government should work to help the people, because it can be argued.

So if anything the rich should be advocating for higher tax, then fighting the ways that money is spent that helps them or only people like them.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. If I recall correctly not one repuke mentioned the word deficit while Dimson was

blowing the surplus that was left to him by President Clilnton. For 8 long years they aided and abetted pres shit-for-brains in raiding the treasury. Can anyone truly believe that Obama is responsible for the entire deficit????

The repukes lie..the problem is they do it more effectively than the Dems/Liberals/Progressives tell the truth.

George Lakoff:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9712824

[blondeatlast]

6. Funny how the deficit disappeared for 8 years then popped up out of nowhere

on 1/20/2009.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Interesting Isn't it? One would have thought that some Dems might have been shouting about that

from the rooftops.

When it comes to messaging and framing the debate...Dems are so outclassed by the repukes that it is pathetic.
The repukes lie more convincingly and more effectively than the Dems tell the truth...

[blondeatlast]

8. It's probably the single most frustrating thing about the Democrats.

It's not a recent phenom--the ReBPs have been honing this very effective strategy since the mid-60s. We've got Lakiff, why the HELL don't we pay attention to him?

[KharmaTrain]

5. The Defecit Is Very Real...

The wingnuts are absolute hypocrites on the issue as they're the ones who have driven it up in the 80s and then to astronomic heights during the boooosh regime. It's creating a hole that not only is going to be impossible to dig out of but could put this country in a perilous economic situation should those who hold our debt decide to dump their bonds and call in loans. Adding another $150 or so billion a year with this "compromise" along with the other borrowing to pay for the extention of UE benefits will mean we dig in deeper...the money has to come from somewhere.

Just like any empire, we've overextended our reach and the expenses will erode the social and physical infrastructure as more money is spent on waging war than fixing bridges or developing alternative energies that will mean less reliance on foreign oil. But this is long term thinking...the financial world only deals in short term and how much they can make in the shortest period of time. Debts mean little as their "ethos" is spend today and worry about it later. How it affects others is of no consequence...it's all short term and very selfish...the "American Way".

Don't discount the defecit...it's part of the ticking time bomb that is freezing credit and is the driving force why companies continue to downsize and out source. This results in less jobs and less tax revenues that lead to more borrowing...it's an endless cycle and the doom to empire.

Cheers...

[DenverDad]

9. Agreed

It's the hypocrisy of the "fiscally responsible" Republicans "concern" over the deficit when it comes to helping struggling Americans, but not when it comes to cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Welcome To DU

Even more hypicritical is how so much money is spent on Social Security, Medicare and other programs that are keeping millions afloat during these tough times yet look the other way about the billions squandered on two wars that are the real cause of this massive deficit.

[bullwinkle428]

10. The Repukes have honed Jude Wanniski's "Two Santa Claus" theory to perfection!

"Democrats, he said, had been able to be "Santa Clauses" by giving people things from the largesse of the federal government. Republicans could do that, too – spending could actually increase. Plus, Republicans could be double Santa Clauses by cutting people's taxes! For working people it would only be a small token – a few hundred dollars a year on average – but would be heavily marketed. And for the rich it would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts. The rich, in turn, would use that money to import or build more stuff to market, thus increasing supply and stimulating the economy. And that growth in the economy would mean that the people still paying taxes would pay more because they were earning more.

There was no way, Wanniski said, that the Democrats could ever win again. They'd have to be anti-Santas by raising taxes, or anti-Santas by cutting spending. Either one would lose them elections."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

[MichaelS2012]

12. K&R nt