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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (23730)	10/27/2007 11:31:30 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Re: [Personally though, I am not so willing to discount the inherent wisdom and basic sense of 'right and wrong' of the American people.] "If they thought increasing taxes, and increasing the size of government was so wrong, why did they let it happen?" That is circular reasoning, Tim. The problem (too big a government, taking too large a slice of the economic potential of the nation, and eroding too many personal liberties of the people...) exists now. If you want to believe that it exists because the American people have been ignorant, or too gullible, or that they have had the wool pulled over their eyes by a continuous series of Big Government politicians... or that the people actually desire a big government Statist solution, you are certainly free to... but none of that especially matters to me. I define it as a problem, and look for solutions... I don't reject the search for solutions simply because a problem was allowed to develop.... "I didn't say deficits don't matter, or that anything is different about this time. I said you overestimate the harm they (deficits that are moderate to small compared to the GDP...." And, I suggest that --- given the near continuous production of federal deficits, regardless of political parties which might be holding the reins of power, and the coincident steady increase in both the SIZE, and the POWER and INTRUSIVENESS of government --- that the 'flaw' in the system is a STRUCTURAL BIAS toward the production of ever-larger and ever more intrusive and ever more Authoritarian government... and that it is a RESULTANT of the government being allowed to print all the deficits they want to, create endless deficits financed by monetary inflation to steadily eat away at the core strengths of our nation. As the 'Reagan Revolution' folks argued: the only way to tame the growth of the beast is to restrict it's financial inflows. Basically, the government will EAT all that it is allowed to.... And, I pointed out that, saying things like the impact of continuous deficits is 'moderate' evidences an under-appreciation of the damage that is being done... and is exactly the sort of words I have come to expect to hear from any Big Government enabler or 'New Speak' apologist for government. Tim, like I observed to Peter: I, too, believe that --- although our problems with respect to mis-management of government and chronic over-spending are LARGE and ENDURING... they are, never-the-less solvable. But that doesn't mean the solutions will be 'easy' to see accomplished --- they will not. They will be resisted and fought tooth-and-nail by hordes of vested interests, bureaucrats, and assorted scum-suckers who benefit from Big Government. Since the continual over-growth of government (and it's associated over-spending) has proven so CHRONIC, so enduring, so bi-partisan in it's nature... I have come to believe that the problem can best be approached as a STRUCTURAL FLAW in our system of government --- so, only to be solved with a STRUCTURAL REFORM. (Basically, there is no incentive for elected politicians to be responsible with our money in the long-term... because the political system only responds to SHORT-TERM considerations... the 'next election cycle', etc. It discounts the interests of the NEXT generation, and the one after that, etc. Long-term over spending problems are always 'someone else's problem'... the system actually rewards over-spending.) Although it certainly won't be easy (we'll need to ignore the endless diversions and red herrings that will be thrown in our paths, and the yelps of outrage from the dedicated Big Government partisans in both Parties... which constitute a majority now) --- the sooner we get about the business of making structural changes the sooner the course of the ship of state can be righted... and our future of strength and prosperity assured. And, earlier, in a post to you: Re: "I'm interested in restraining the growth of government as well, but what are your proposing to do that?" My #1 suggestion would be the Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. My #2 suggestion would be to scrap the current loophole-ridden mess of a gargantuan tax code and replace it with a fairer, much simpler, flat rate system (like so much of emerging Europe has found great success with).