Aug. 3, 2006 - Federal Deficits |
No matter your politicial persuasion, you ought to be concerned about the spending habits of our federal government. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike share the blame for the miserable state of our country's fiscal affairs.
And it's worse than anything you've been told.
I'm not cut from "the sky is falling" cloth nor do I advocate heading for the hills. However, you need to understand the truth of what really happens with your tax dollars in Washington so that you can vote intelligently. This article from USA Today does a pretty good job of explaining the situation in simple terms.
Collectively we have been on a spending binge for the better part of 70 years and have robbed future generations to foot the bill.
It has to stop somewhere or it will end with an irreparable crash.
The next time someone tells you "the government ought to pay for _____" just remember that the money comes from your pockets. It is also coming from the pockets of generations yet to be born.
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Aug. 3, 2006 - Deficits and Debts |
| Posted by Anonymous |
Deficits are a result of a liberal mindset that likes spending other peoples money, assumes if you have money you gained it illicitly, and believes the government can, should and must solve all problems (including those that result from human irresponsibility). As long as this mindset reigns, it is very difficult to get control of the deficit monster.
About a decade ago, the problem in Canada got so bad that the Liberal Party (of all people!) finally acknowledged something needed to be done (i.e. that it was important to chop spending to match income). They made major cuts to government spending. Over the years, they managed to increase spending again, but only as fast as tax revenues grew. The net result is that over 10 years we have paid off $50 billion of a $600 billion debt. Only $550 billion to go. However, since we are going in the right direction, it isn't as bad as it seems. Tax revenues continue to grow, and inflation continues to reduce the impact of the principal (like compound interest in reverse). Provided we can keep on this path (and resist the urge to start solving everyones problems by spending more money), we should eliminate the debt towards the end of my life.
Regards,
Shawn
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Aug. 8, 2006 - Reply to Shawn |
| Posted by |
I've always said that the definition of a liberal is "someone who wants to fund his/her conscience through other people's wallets." Looks like we see the world the same.
At least Canada appears to be moving in the right direction. Of course, they could really solve the problem by just continuing to find ways to raise your taxes. That's no solution either.
Here in the States it seems every time tax revenues increase (as they recently have AFTER enacting major tax cuts), the government finds a way to spend it all -- and more -- on goofy programs. This happens at the state and federal level so we sink deeper in the hole.
Steve
Edited by stevebraun on Aug. 8, 2006 at 6:08 PM |
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Aug. 8, 2006 - Goofy Programs |
| Posted by Anonymous |
We have our share of goofy programs, and more than our share of people with wonderful ideas that they want the government to fund (because the people won't fund them. Note the different between the government and the people!).
However it has become a bit of a religion in Canada... we won't run a deficit again. Typically the previous government planned a $3 billion buffer in spending, and whatever didn't get spent at the end of the fiscal year went down on the debt. Yes, they opened the coffers at the end of each year, but the net result has been the paying down of $50 billion in debt over a 10 year period. There was also a major set of income tax breaks about 5 years ago, and the present Conservative government just reduced the Federal sales tax (the GST) from 7% to 6%. This 1% cut reduced government revenues by about $3 billion, and liberals were outraged that the government was reducing its revenues when there were all sorts of wonderful things that money should have been spent on.
Shawn
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