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Fiscal Policy: The last 25 years and the next 25 years.

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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 10:31 AM
Original message
Fiscal Policy: The last 25 years and the next 25 years.
Edited on Tue Jan-18-05 10:32 AM by tasteblind
I originally posted this in response to the "Tom DeLay's Challenge" thread. The quote is below:

"The Democrat Party <sic> was once an idealistic, forward-looking policy colossus. The New Deal, the Marshall Plan, the Great Society, the space program, civil rights. And yet, today, one is hard-pressed to find a single positive, substantive idea on the left."

- Rep. Tom Delay, R-TX. Jan. 6, 2005


I think Tom DeLay is effectively rubbing our noses in it.

A major incentive for Republican deficit spending is that it prevents the Democratic Party from introducing costly new reforms...as long as we are in the red, Democrats don't see how we can afford universal blah blah blah.

DeLay knows this, and is pretty much saying, "Nyah nyah nyah, we gave away all the money you guys would have spent on health insurance, and then borrowed so much money, you'll never make another government program again!"

Clinton almost singlehandedly made up for Reagan, and Gore would have fixed it, but Bush has continued the fiscal insanity with renewed vigor.

We need to fix the budget in the short term, but in the long term, the important question to address should be:

How to make paying for government seem responsible and worthwhile again?

Because as long as it is a choice between the party of taxes and the party of tax cuts, we have a huge near-insurmountable disadvantage.

We need to be the party of responsibility again. The Republicans like to think of themselves as the Party of personal responsibility, but they don't think anyone should pay their taxes in an ideal world.

We need to make sure that people know that personal responsibility means paying for government.

We concurrently need to make sure that the government is worth paying for.


That's a big part of the Democratic Party's folly over the last twenty-five years...they have effectively tied our hands, making us incapable of providing the kinds of social programs and worker-friendly policies that make us Democrats.

To summarize, fix the deficit, propose new programs, push responsible, useful government.

Those should be our goals for the next twenty-five years.



edited for clarity
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cliss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 10:58 AM
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1. These are all good points, T.
I've written many, many posts on what I perceive to be the #1 issue: money. Or the lack of it. Or the bad choices that have been made using it.

Let's face it: we're on our way out. I just read a prediction by Gerald Celente that within just a few years, the US is going to be on par with Poland or Czechoslovakia.

The 2 powers looming on the horizon are China and India. They're watching us in the background, like the lunatic Big Spender at the Casino. We're buying drinks for all the girls; throwing shovelfuls of money at the Craps table.

After a while, we're in tears because all the money's been spent. Next, a tear-filled phone call to the Loan Shark cause we need more. We're pitiful fools, and the Democrats are almost as much to blame for this mess.
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 11:09 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Yeah, you are totally right.
Sadly, most people seem to believe the CNBC garbage they are fed about how "deficit spending isn't so bad as a percentage of GDP" and "a weak dollar is good for US companies."

Both of these are true in some senses, but they don't address the facts that a weak dollar is bad for US citizens who can no longer persue the consumerist American dream and our deficit spending has been bad for 20 of the past 25 years, and is continuing at a faster rate than ever.

We are headed for an economic collapse of Soviet proportions, and the sad thing is that the crazy Bush people who are inciting it stand to profit almost as much as India, China, and Europe.

They will just use it to start more wars and loot the treasury further through institutional investors and defense contractors.
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many a good man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 12:19 PM
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3. We can start with SS
SS is a great example of an effectively run government program. Overhead costs are close to zero; it runs better than anything in the private sector. The American people overwhemlmingly support it.

I thought we should have explicitly tagged the opposition as trying to "starve the beast." Throw out some juicy quotes from Norquist and Rove. People need to learn that the GOP is intentionally trying to bankrupt the government.
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 12:49 PM
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4. While I agree, I think people already identify SS with us.
Maybe proposing a great deal of cool programs (see the other thread) and then saying, "but you can't have those because the Republicans are spending and borrowing us into the ground," would work.

Social Security is great, but campaigning on it only seems to work with an older crowd.

People under 40 tend to think SS won't exist when they retire anyway, and shut it out the second it's mentioned.
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many a good man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 08:33 PM
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5. People are skeptical of government programs
Everyone is conditioned to believe that ALL government programs are wasteful. A close look at SS will show government working at its best.

With Dumbya bringing so much attention to SS (and lying out his a**), we can use the spotlight to change people's perceptions of govt programs in general -- not just SS. The People need to "buy in" on the idea that govt programs will help them, not just rip them off (or help everybody EXCEPT them).

The reality is we COULD give the people free health care AND college or technical education. Show 'em the cost/benefits. Its time for the rich and the big corporations to start paying their share.

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DaedelusNemo Donating Member (336 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 09:08 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. People under forty
That's where the dems need to be concentrating on SS public diplomacy. These people have been told persistently for over a decade that SS will not be there for them. They believe they're paying into a forced boondoggle. They are consequently unsympathetic, uninterested, and uninvested regarding it. Countering this misapprehension should be a priority.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 03:50 PM
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 04:12 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. I think the military is the single biggest waste of taxpayer money.
Edited on Wed Jan-19-05 04:21 PM by tasteblind
I'm not saying you don't spend money on it, but NMD and some of the more ridiculous weapons systems like the Crusader (the retarded thing pictured below) are utterly useless and exist only to pad Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld's private sector buddies pockets.



FYI, the Crusader was manufactured by United Defense, a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group. Shocking.

Edit: Not to knock the GI Bill, because that is great, although with the way Pell grants are being cut, that is starting to turn into another backdoor draft. There isn't a government program that the Bush people can't find a way to screw up.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 04:14 PM
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