Well, it’s good to see at least a grudging acknowledgment of Obama’s role. I realize the subject is off topic, but repeated accusations of weak leadership from Obama can’t expect to go unchallenged.
I’ll say one more thing about it and then let it go. History says the the president of the time who made the decision was responsible for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima, not the air force or the bombardier of the Enola Gay. The same will be true of bin Laden’s killing.
And what stops the United States from defaulting on loans when debt limits exceed our ability to pay?
When do you think that’s going to happen? As I said, we can balance the budget in five years if we change no laws.
The constitutional power to raise taxes.
Yeah, I hope so, but let’s add a wealth tax amendment to that just to be safe.
So you think Congress is going to go on a 5 year vacation.
No. I was trying to explain to you that it is well within our power to get the deficit on order without draconian action.
Now that you know that, when do you think we’re going to default? The whole point was that you have a chicken-little mania that we’re going to default on our debts. Aside from Republicans willingly and needlessly throwing another tantrum on the debt ceiling, what makes you think that this is likely?
Isn’t the answer that we aren’t all in the same boat? That the default of Greece has nothing to do with us? That you are claiming we are going to default because it bolsters your ideological desire to cut areas of government that you disagree with?
It depends, when do you think we’ll stop spending more than is taken in?
We are not on a fixed income.
no, but we appear to be on a spending program that consists of income +10%.
Why do you consider our income to be fixed? Why do you think we can never ask the wealthiest to start paying their fair share again?
I never made any statements regarding fixed revenue streams. Your desire to spend other people’s money not withstanding, I referred to Congress’s ability to spend more than is taken in regardless of how much is taken in.
All this stems from you making a claim that we’re helpless and without hope of not defaulting. I showed you that we can balance the budget by literally taking no action.
You’re weaving around here. How about admitting you were wrong?
As an aside, if you want us to live within our means, be sure to vote Democrat. Republicans, as of late, are unable to do basic math.
If your spending program is income + 10%, then you have a choice; raise income or cut expenses.
Yet the Republicans seem to be content to continue to cut income as the only route, not seeming to realize that income (ie tax rates) were higher in the past, with no damage to the economy.
The bill of goods that the Republicans continue to sell is that raising taxes will lead to al manner of horrible things. When they cut taxes for the wealthy years ago, this was supposed to lead to lots of jobs, and a “trickle down” of benefits for the non-wealthy. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.
Now they want to continue with tax policies that DO NOT WORK.
Of course it’s possible to balance a budget but congress has shown no signs of doing it. When was the last time they did that?
Thank you so much for making me laugh. You’ve done your good deed for the day.
Please. It’s inherent in everything you have posted here. You have discussed only the “need” to cut spending (but almost nothing about where to cut, of course, but that’s par for the course). You have said nothing at all about restoring the revenue stream we had the last time we had a booming economy and a balanced budget (which you could look up, since you don’t remember it). So don’t pretend.
ETA:
Gawdamighty, you really don’t know, do you?
That doesn’t change the formula. Raise or lower income… cut expenses… doesn’t matter as long as more money is spent by Congress than taken in.
When Clinton was president. Look it up.
I can only expose factual information. I can’t force you to take it seriously.
President’s don’t make the budget, Congress does. That was the Congress of Gingrich.
Factually it was a Republican Congress that produced the last balanced budget. I knew this when I asked the question.
Yes, I talked about increasing revenue streams, just not raising taxes during a recession. They are not the same thing.