Republican proposes Balanced Budget Amendment

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That won't accomplish anything positive for the vast majority of the country.

Well, I don't assume they're morons but the proof is the pudding, so to speak.

You should read "The Road To Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek. It's pretty easy to understand and at pretty much every book store. Should at the least give both sides a fair shake.

As for the cuts, they're possible but the problem is finding the political will to do so. Their jobs are more important to the political class than the actual well being of the country so I have my doubts anything will change before the whole thing collapses.

And agreed about the GOP but I have some hope things will get better with the some of the new class coming in. I think the momentum is on our side, maybe I'm in for a wake up call in 2012. Always have to remember that power corrupts as well so I'm keeping my eye out for the frauds.

"Malinvesments"? That is jargon that comes from those quacks that call themselves Austrians.

It will limit the manufacture of bogus scrip money.

ruveyn

It's not the money that's the matter but how it's spent/where it goes. When you're feeding programs that feed the top, you're going to create inflation, job losses, and an increase in crime. When you feed that money into programs from the bottom-up like education, infrastructure maintenance, healthcare, and starter business loans, you can feed upward mobility much more effectively than with the current top-down model.

You still have to recognize the Austrians are a fringe movement in modern economics. I do not think it is a good idea to pass a Constitutional amendment banning the recommendation of the vast majority of the people who are educated in the subject. If you want to debate the relative merits of Austrian, Keynesian, and neoclassical economics, that is one thing, but it would be irresponsible to take the main option off the table.

There are notices in the news today that Goldman Sachs is offering investments only to non-Americans on a new offering and GE is transferring its latest technology in aircraft to China. The corporations are moving out and taking their wealth with them. The USA is sliding into a political farce with the idiots in the new Congress and Obama more or less helpless and not really willing to put up the necessary fight to save the country. The USA is deeply mired in a totally dumb set of military actions and it's wealth is being sucked into a huge useless military budget fighting imaginary demons. The country is plainly going insane.

Our country really isn't Keynesian either to be fair. From what I understand, they believe in saving during "good times" and spending during the bad while our government just spends and spends and spends regardless. Keynesianism is merely intellectual cover for these politicians to pay off the special interests and to grow the state.

Last edited by Jacoby on 18 Jan 2011, 12:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Right, we have not managed to keep a consistent prolonged implementation of Keynesianism. Clinton was saving during good times in his administration, but Bush, not believing in Keynesianism, decided not to bother with it anymore.

The real issue is some manner of discipline in our government to keep a consistent policy going for several decades, as is really needed in these kind of economic matters. If you are Keynesian while the Democrats are in charge and supply-sider while the Republicans are in charge, you just get chaos.

This, friends, is why democracy is a steaming pile of crap.

Oh sure, sending money to organizations like ACORN will really help people. You may as well send it to the mafia for all the good that would do.

In all seriousness, Obamacare is likely to end up either being repealed or more likely ruled Unconstitutional. Second, if I owned a business there is now way I would accept one cent from the Federal Government. The education system especially in big cities is garbage courtesy of the Federal Government. Infrastructure money would probably go to some union boss instead of actually fixing up infrastructure.

At this point the Government needs to have its credit cards taken away, the Republicans particularly the Tea Partiers are right on this one.

lol a lot of left wing policies actually hurt small businesses more than big businesses. Progressive taxation means inflation in the big businesses since they'll have to compensate for the taxes, leaving things more expensive for small businesses who have to buy stock from wholesales. High minimum wages means a higher expectation of credentials and experience for hiring, less employees for each business, lowers the budget for operating costs and investments, is fixed and doesn't account for cost of living from location to location, and leaves less of a variety of positions, All these things lead to inflation within the small business to add insult to the injury of inflation trickling down from the big businesses.

How do I know this? Not only have I read on these things, but my parents have always ran a small business in various locations so they've got tons of experience. Looks like top-down is a better idea. Businesses don't have an unlimited amount of cash, and even Wal-Mart has to make wise investments and make operating costs efficient. Big government imposing big fixed deductions (taxes, minimum wages, etc.) on a dynamic economy makes no goddamn sense at all.

btw, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say infrastructure. Pipelines? Roads? Electricity? Means of communication?

btw previous proposals for a balanced budget agreement did have exceptions as I noted earlier for war, natural disasters, etc. I know at least one had an exception for congress to bypass it with 3/5ths super majority(60 votes) and others have had similar exceptions(the numbers differ) so it's not like it would be completely rigid.

I highly doubt the balanced budget amendment will result in genuinely balanced budgets.

Many Republicans who support it will be appalled to have to increase taxes to reconcile the red and black lines.

Exactly. And don't forget bridges.

ruveyn

Uh-huh, sure. You right-wingers love corporate welfare.


The public education system is administered by state and local governments, so it is profoundly irrational to blame the federal government for its shortcomings. Bush massively increased federal involvement in public education through the No Child Left Behind Act, which was universally regarded as garbage even among the die-hard Republicans in my hometown.


So, have you ever used the Interstate Highway System?

Tax payer subsidized corporations are the biggest "welfare queens" of the system.

ruveyn