Bush is getting desperate in his campaign.

[Arrian]

I used to favor the Republicans because I thought they were for fiscal sanity.

I have since learnt that isn't true. Both parties are totally irresponsible with the proverbial purse strings.

Therefore, that becomes a near non-issue when I choose between candidates. Which leaves social issues (abortion/gay marriage/etc) and foreign policy.

-Arrian

[Ned]

Originally posted by Arrian
I used to favor the Republicans because I thought they were for fiscal sanity.

I have since learnt that isn't true. Both parties are totally irresponsible with the proverbial purse strings.

Therefore, that becomes a near non-issue when I choose between candidates. Which leaves social issues (abortion/gay marriage/etc) and foreign policy.

-Arrian

Arrian, I guess repeating that unbalanced budgets during a recession are necessary will continuously be ingored. Right?

[Arrian]

Yes, for this reason:

I do *not* mind some deficit spending during a recession. That's fine. SO LONG AS IT THEN GETS PAID BACK LATER, when the recession ends.

That, to my knowledge, has never happened.

Furthermore, this is HUGE deficit spending. Too much.

-Arrian

[Ned]

Originally posted by Arrian
Yes, for this reason:

I do *not* mind some deficit spending during a recession. That's fine. SO LONG AS IT THEN GETS PAID BACK LATER, when the recession ends.

That, to my knowledge, has never happened.

Furthermore, this is HUGE deficit spending. Too much.

-Arrian

The only question that should be answered on THAT score is whether it was necessary to get the economy out of a recession. Once out, the increased economic activity will reduce the deficity automatically.

[Arrian]

Yes, well the other issue is exactly how one goes about deficit spending in a recession. Tax cuts, spending programs, both? What type of tax cuts? What type of spending programs? And so on and so forth.

I favor tax cuts, actually, but not the ones Bush did. I got $200 back. Wooptie ****in' do. Others made out like bandits. Hmm, who would that be? I wonder... oh yeah, really really rich people.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think the Republican Party's move to provide basic medical coverage for all Americans is a step in the right direction.

And then you critique Kerry's plan for expanding medical coverage for all Americans? Ned, have you no shame?

Steel tarriffs. I agree. But the Dems wanted more and did not want them removed when they were declared illegal. The tarriffs helped steelworkers, after all.

Not Clinton. Or else they wouldn't have been so low when Bush got in.

The large deficit was necessary to pull the economy out of a near depression.

The recession was the smallest possible recession you can have! Simply 2 periods of negative growth. Aside from that? Positive growth! Near depression!

[Kontiki]

Doesn't the whole theory of deficit spending your way out of a recession rest upon the notion of it being temporary? Last time I checked reducing the deficit isn't the same thing as eliminating it.

[Arrian]

Doesn't the whole theory of deficit spending your way out of a recession rest upon the notion of it being temporary?

YES! And that is what has apparently been conveniently forgotten by the dolts who run this country.

-Arrian

[Ned]

Kontiki, I hate to go through this once again, but there does seem to be a strong correlation between budgets moving from deficit to surplus and the onset of recession. (Deficits add to demand. Surplusses subtract from it.) All this suggests is that budgets have a strong effect on the so-called business cycle, and that one should plan on a modest deficit and never plan on a surplus -- at least in the absence of significant inflation.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Arrian
I used to favor the Republicans because I thought they were for fiscal sanity.

I have since learnt that isn't true. Both parties are totally irresponsible with the proverbial purse strings.

Therefore, that becomes a near non-issue when I choose between candidates. Which leaves social issues (abortion/gay marriage/etc) and foreign policy.

-Arrian

There are individuals that can be trusted so be prepared to vote across party lines to get fiscal conservatives elected. Also if you want less spending then one way to get it is to force the two parties to share power. If one controls the executive and the other the legislative then there is a moderating influence since both of them most work together or nothing gets done.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ned
Arrian, I guess repeating that unbalanced budgets during a recession are necessary will continuously be ingored. Right?

Bush keeps saying the recession ended two years ago but his budget keeps growing and growing and growing. Most of it isn't even related to military spending too; instead it goes to farm subsidies, the medicare drug benifet, and other descretionary spending.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Bush keeps saying the recession ended two years ago but his budget keeps growing and growing and growing. Most of it isn't even related to military spending too; instead it goes to farm subsidies, the medicare drug benifet, and other descretionary spending.

We began to come out of the recession last Spring, IIRC, just about the same time as the Bush tax cuts were enacted and were going into effect.

[Dinner]

April 2002 was when the recession officially ended. Yet two and a half years later we are in an even bigger deficit then during the recession. Only a small portion of the increase is going to the military so it's not the war.

The Republicans control all branches of government so there is no one else to blame.

[Dinner]

Here's a nice article on the recession which lasted from March 2001 through April 2002 includes lots of economists using econo-techno-babel.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/jan-june02/economy_4-26.html

[Ned]

Oerdin, I think the stock market is a better indicator of what really was going on in the economy. Both the DOW and the NASDQ bottomed out in late 2002, and really began to rise in the spring of 2003.