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Republicans have a short-term memory problem

eeyore1954 said:
Originally Posted by eeyore1954




Lets say my family spending was incurring a deficit every year but at the time I have a good amount of liquid assets. I am not at a debt crisis yet but the fact that I am spending more than I bring in does matter and can lead to a debt crisis.
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The conservative hero, Dick Cheyney said that deficits don't matter. This seems to have been forgotten by conservatives today.
 
It's not the GOP that has the short term memory problems, it's the voters. That's why the GOP can get away with this kind of lie.
 
thaiboxerken said:
The conservative hero, Dick Cheyney said that deficits don't matter. This seems to have been forgotten by conservatives today.
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If a conservative said something once does that mean all others should agree?

Just out of curiosity do you (or anyone here) have a link to the actual quote and what context it was made in?

There are many things I disagree with Cheney but I do think he was involved in a lot of balanced budget pushes.
 
ANTPogo said:
Or organizing Tea Party protests during Reagan's two terms because of his deficits.
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I guess only the democrats were against high deficits then.

Harry Reid in 2005
The Bush plan would take our already record high $4.3 trillion national debt and put us another $2 trillion in the red. That's an immoral burden to place on the backs of the next generation.
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eeyore1954 said:
I guess only the democrats were against high deficits then.

Harry Reid in 2005
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Let's look at his remarks in context, shall we?

And that's why we so strongly disagree with the president's plan to privatize Social Security. Let me share with you why I believe the president's plan is so dangerous. There's a lot we can do to improve American's retirement security, but it's wrong to replace the guaranteed benefit that Americans have earned with a guaranteed benefit cut of 40 percent or more. Make no mistake, that's exactly what President Bush is proposing.

The Bush plan would take our already record high $4.3 trillion national debt and put us another $2 trillion in the red. That's an immoral burden to place on the backs of the next generation.

But maybe most of all, the Bush plan isn't really Social Security reform. It's more like Social Security roulette. Democrats are all for giving Americans more of a say and more choices when it comes to their retirement savings. But that doesn't mean taking Social Security's guarantee and gambling with it. And that's coming from a senator who represents Las Vegas.
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ANTPogo said:
Let's look at his remarks in context, shall we?
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That is fine with me I am always interested in the context of the statements.
Although I took it directly from his response to the State of the Union address and believe I understood the context.

What does the fact that he also disagreed with Bush's plan for SS have to do with the fact that he said adding another 2 trillion to 5.8 trillion was an immoral burden to place on the backs of the next generation.

Was Bush's plan for SS responsible for the increase? If so then maybe I see the point.
 
We don't have an imminent debt crisis, we do however have an inevitable one if we don't do something about it soon. As we can currently borrow for nothing (in real terms) or almost, Obama, Boehner and Ryan are quite correct that there's no imminent debt crisis, the first stage of that would be not being able to borrow at these historically low rates, and we wouldn't have the luxury of contemplating balancing the budget in ten years. Ryan's budget includes a section on the possibility and effects of a debt crisis on pages 13-16. Just look at some of the pictures and then perhaps this will make more sense. Look at the debt outlook of the US compared to some other countries, ours (from S&P, Moody and Fitch) are all negative. Now take a look at Uruguay, two of theirs are positive. That doesn't mean that Uruguay has a better economy than the United States, nor a better debt history (that's reflected more in the rating) but that their government budget outlook is better than ours, meaning their future debt outlook is brighter.

I dunno what the big deal is about the twitter, but given what he said I don't think whoever posted that twit was talking about the same thing. It looks to me that just meant whoever posted it thought the 16.4 T in total debt amounted to 'an immediate crisis in terms of debt.' Well, if we didn't have that much debt we wouldn't have any debt problems, and the fact that figure is so high certainly impacts our future debt prospects, and the fact we need to finance so much of it in volume is yet another factor, but the amount of debt we have isn't the only contributor to what most consider the definition of a 'debt crisis.' Lemme illustrate it this way: we could have 16T in total debt but if the budget was in balance, (or we were even running a surplus) the economy growing at a robust 4% and our future entitlement liability disaster was resolved then the amount of debt we had would not matter all that much and few would be talking about it, especially as we've been able to finance it for little cost.

However since none of the above apply we do have a problem, one we need to resolve and the sooner we do it the less painful it will be all around, but the fact that doing so will be painful too makes it unpalatable. When you've been running deficits just balancing the budget means less money will be available, (fiscally) running surpluses is actually a drag on the economy, but both can be overcome by other factors, such as real growth like that of the latter nineties where capitalizing on the productivity boom mainly due to computers becoming available in just about every workplace drowned completely the undertow of paying down the deficit and ultimately the debt.
 
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