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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (126848)	7/22/2005 12:12:53 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793706

The effect of tax reduction on economic activity is incredibly difficult to gauge. The proponents of the Laffer Curve, however, have taken it as an article of faith despite the lack of concrete proof that it works. I'm basically a Keynesian. If the economy needs stimulation, reduce the tax burden. However, if other considerations, such as out of control budget deficits which threaten much more than our temporary well-being require that we swallow tax increases, let's take the poison. Clinton, not my favorite president, left us with a surplus which has gone down the gurgler. And I don't necessarily blame W, whose tax cuts were implemented before 9/11 and Iraq required us to increase military spending. But there is no political reason to not increase taxes to pay for our obligations. And there was no reason, except pure politics, to implement the Medicare Rx benefit which is soon going to add lots of $s to the deficit. Putting what may be a trillion dollars worth of deficit-created T-Bills in the hands of the Chinese by '07 to fund our government's expenditures and our consumption is insane. Doing so undermines our national security and our predominance as the world's leader at a time when terrorism is going to complicate our life in ways we cannot yet imagine. Yes, Bill, the deficits are a national security issue at the end of the day. Perhaps not as important as terrorism, but up there in the hierarchy because our funding of them gives others a lot of potential control over our actions. I'd rather pay a few bucks more in taxes than see the Chinese and other Asians play games with us through their ownership of our T-Bills.