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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (92681)	10/31/2008 12:35:28 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541582

The interest we will need to pay has rocketed up True but its less than a tenth of federal government spending. Its not an argument for the idea that its impossible to restrain spending or that we shouldn't do so. Restricting the growth of programs just as we enter a recession will make the recession worse Depends on what you restrict, and what you do with the money saved. To the extent you get actual reductions I'd cut taxes. In the short run the deficit situation would be even worse, but if you can really restrict the growth for the long run it would far more than make up for it. Also the restrictions in the large programs are more long run things. They might take years to make any noticeable difference. The point is to start them now, not to fully implement them now. For example if you want to restrict the future growth of SS, you might want to, and would probably have to, exempt any current or very near future retirees, but effect later people by raising the retirement age or reducing the automatic increases in payments over time. Defense restrictions might take effect earlier. Counting all military spending, well we should be pulling out of Iraq (or at least largely pulling out, perhaps leaving trainers, liaison officers, embassy security etc.) some time in the not to distant future. That will be a savings (even if some of the forces are just moved to Afghanistan). Also while it isn't entirely unproblematic we should look for a major weapons program or two to cancel (not unproblematic because we've already spent a lot of the money on most of them for R&D and now don't get the pay out because we don't fund the actual purchases, also most major programs fits some need, they aren't just pure pork).