Cut Deficit, But Not on Backs of Needy by Bernie Sanders

[midnight]

President George W. Bush and the so-called deficit hawks chose to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq and put the funding for those wars on our nation’s credit card. By the time the last wounded veteran is cared for, those wars will end up adding more than $3 trillion to our national debt.

During this same period, Bush and the “deficit hawks” provided huge tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans who were already doing phenomenally well. These tax breaks for the very rich will increase our national debt by about $1 trillion over a 10-year period.

In addition, Bush and the “deficit hawks” established a Medicare prescription drug program written by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. This program, which is far more expensive than it should be because it prohibits the federal government from using its purchasing power to negotiate cheaper drug prices, was not paid for. As a result, about $400 billion will be added to our national debt over a 10-year period.

Further, as a result of the deregulation of Wall Street, and the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of the major financial institutions, this country was driven into the worst recession since the 1930s, which resulted in a massive reduction in revenue coming into the federal government.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/02-2

[Lefty Thinker]

1. Stop playing politics with the deficit

We need to look at the immutable facts of accounting: if net government spending (the deficit) doesn't make up for the saving behavior of the private sector plus the net outflow to the external sector we end up with deflationary pressure and a shrinking economy. Thus, the deficit is dictated outside the realm of direct government control and cutting it directly is counterproductive (see the UK). What we need are policies to insure and increase the real (goods and services) productivity of our economy in the future. Wise choices in that direction will prevent inflation.

[midnight]

2. Welcome Lefty Thinker... I like your suggestion... This Austerity nonsense is not helping..

Don't you think that a way to increase the goods and services is via creating more jobs. That would put some money into the economy... We can start by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and put our out of work union people back to work... Many of our teachers in Wisconsin wanted to teach, but were told to retire early and let the young people have the jobs... Those fifty plus teachers still wanted and needed to work.