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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimbaBear who wrote (118490)	12/21/2000 3:11:21 AM
From: Bernard Levy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Given that the current Federal take of GDP is about 24% (the highest since WW2), a debt equal to 50% of GDP is very reasonable. You are obviously naive if you think that surpluses will not be spent. Our money is what politicians use to buy votes. The less they have to play with the better off we are. In the words of Milton Friedman ``I would rather have a 1 trillion $ federal budget with a $200B deficit that a 2 trillion budget with a $200B surplus.'' Also, our economy does not have any of the structural problems of Japan at its peak. The 130% percent of GDP debt in Japan is due to the propensity of Japanese politicians to refuse structural reforms while spending inordinate amounts of money on pork barrel projects aimed at propping up construction companies. If you care about your grand children, the goal should not be to get fixated on debt, but to promote policies and an economic environment which ensures the highest rate of growth and thus income per capita. A rich and dynamic country with some debt is better than a stagnant one with no debt.