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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (113953)	9/4/2003 8:15:31 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

We can't afford 400-500B$ deficits indefinitely. No, we shouldn't.. But the US economy is $10 Trillion. Thus, a $500 Billion deficit represents a 5% of GDP. I believe the Reagan administration briefly ran a 6% deficit during the '80s recession, WITHOUT having to recover from a 9/11 type event or fight a major conflict. US public debt amounts to about $4 Trillion, or 40% of annual GDP. That's debt owed to the public markets. The rest the government owes to itself (un(der)funded liabilities such as future Social Security payments): publicdebt.treas.gov Compared to nations like Japan, which has a national debt equal to 140% of their GDP, evidently the US could feasibly manage a higher deficit, if necessary. Btw, every year the Social Security Trust Fund runs a surplus increases the National Debt. Now look at what happened to the US deficit when the US entered WWII: publicdebt.treas.gov Can you still tell me that we can't run those deficits indefinitely? We did it then and the world didn't end. But Bush is fighting this war somewhat on the cheap, foregoing full mobilization for a more subtle and surgical war. However, I fear it's apparent that the Clinton DOD cuts went several divisions too far. I think we need at least 3-4 more divisions, primarily light infantry with more boots on the ground. We have plenty of "tail".. We need more "teeth". Japan is changing their Constitution, to make it easier to resume their former habit of Wars of Aggression. Now that's rather racist, don't you think? Not that it matters that N. Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile over their nation and has recently threatened to nuke Astralia for intercepting one of their drug-laden cargo vessels... crosswalk.com The U.S. may have caused the death of NATO Are you kidding? NATO is in charge in Afghanistan, RIGHT NOW. If anything, NATO was revitalized and given a reason to exist after 9/11.