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2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 9:16 pm
by _Kevin Graham
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 9:51 pm
by _Doctor CamNC4Me
How much debt do you feel is acceptable, or are you a proponent of austerity?
- Doc
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 9:58 pm
by _EAllusion
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:How much debt do you feel is acceptable, or are you a proponent of austerity?
- Doc
Kevin traditionally has been very dovish about deficits, so I interpret these posts either to a change of heart now that Trump is president or, more likely, a frustration with the hypocrisy of pretending to care about deficits only when Democrats have power and different spending priorities.
I'm much more of a deficit hawk, but even if I wasn't, I'd still be quite upset about Republicans playing a game where they spend like drunken sailors when they have power, then using concerns about the deficit to thwart Democratic policy when they are out of power. I'd also be annoyed at the extent to which Republican deficit spending has ballooned way over what you'd expect from traditional economic boom/bust cycles in order to finance tax cuts aimed almost entirely aimed at wealthy - especially given how much dishonest claims about those cuts paying for themselves was used to sell them.
But I am a hawk, and this is maddening to me. We don't have a limitless capacity to monetize our debt and this bill will come due.
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:12 pm
by _Kevin Graham
EAllusion wrote:Kevin traditionally has been very dovish about deficits, so I interpret these posts either to a change of heart now that Trump is president or, more likely, a frustration with the hypocrisy of pretending to care about deficits only when Democrats have power and different spending priorities.
Yep, the second part hit the nail on the head. I've never been a deficit hawk.
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:28 pm
by _cinepro
EAllusion wrote:
But I am a hawk, and this is maddening to me. We don't have a limitless capacity to monetize our debt and this bill will come due.
Yeah, it's pretty frustrating to me too.
On The Deficit, GOP Has Been Playing Us All For Suckers
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:49 pm
by _Kevin Graham
I'm stunned that people actually believed them to begin with. The leftists predicted this would happen many years ago. That's all they talk about really whenever the deficit issue arises. Primarily, Republicans purposefully increase the deficit to create a crisis big enough to justify their true intentions, which is to cut spending for government programs that benefit the poor people. Mitch McConnell is already beating that drum in a recent interview saying Social Security is our largest expenditure. He doesn't have the intellectual honesty to point out that it isn't discretionary, but rather mandatory spending because it is self funded.
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:15 pm
by _schreech
The fact that Trumpologists consider Trump conservative is laughable.
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:24 pm
by _DarkHelmet
I don't pretend to be an expert on fiscal policy, but it seems to me that when unemployment is at it's lowest level in over 40 years, and the economy is the strongest it has ever been in history, the budget deficit should NOT be $1.38 trillion. Is it crazy for me to think that?
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:34 pm
by _Res Ipsa
DarkHelmet wrote:I don't pretend to be an expert on fiscal policy, but it seems to me that when unemployment is at it's lowest level in over 40 years, and the economy is the strongest it has ever been in history, the budget deficit should NOT be $1.38 trillion. Is it crazy for me to think that?
Nope. Responsible fiscal policy would have been to raise taxes or cut spending at the time that the Republicans passed their tax cut. Cutting taxes when unemployment is relatively low is like throwing gasoline on the nice, comfortable fire in your fireplace. It was predictable that the Fed would respond by raising interest rates to avoid inflation. Add to that the effect of tariffs and threatened tariffs, uncertainty as to trade agreements and trading partners, and a the soaring deficit, and the markets get a little pessimistic.
Re: 2018 Fed Deficit to be $1.38 trillion
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:50 pm
by _Doctor CamNC4Me
Not that my opinion matters all that much, but I wish our debt was <$10T right now. I get the reason why economists are pro-debt, or at the very least happy to debt-finance a war or get us out of a recession, but I feel like we're in 'madness territory' and as EA suggests, the bill will come due. Either the dollar devalues much, much quicker than it should thus damned up our purchasing power, or goods along with services will start to increase in cost quickly, thus damned up our purchasing power.
I hope I'm wrong. But history has shown us over and over again too much debt too quickly crushes currency.
- Doc