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

To: michael97123 who wrote (146978)	10/4/2004 8:58:21 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 281500

No, we don't pay them back, we just borrow more and add it to the amount owed, and it has been that way since Reagan. As time goes on, your taxes no longer go towards paying for services, they go towards paying interest on the debt. At some point you simply get nothing and yet still pay high taxes. There is no free lunch. Same with Medicare and Social Security -- no free lunch. The fact is that US citizens DO NOT pay enough in taxes to pay for services and DO NOT save enough privately to lend the US government to allow us to operate government on a deficit basis. This is a disaster in the long term. It is foolish to pay for current operating expenses by taking on long-term liabilities to foreigners -- the dollar will simply not be able to weather the storm when the party comes to an end -- and end it will. Th argument in favor of the way we have handled things is that the party will never end -- wrong. Large, chronic structural deficits can only lead to one thing in the long run -- a collapse in the value of the dollar. If you think that the answer to our problems is high inflatioon and/or a significantly lower standard of living for all Americans, then it will not matter to you much. For most of us, neither of these is alternatives are attractive. There is no free lunch. Our government finances are a mess and getting much, much worse by the day. Don't talk to me about tax cuts -- talk to me about financial responsibility and sound fiscal and monetary policy.