Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to starve the beast?

re: starve the beast?
Tom Brosz — (archived)

An interesting analysis, but it has two problems:

First of all, the CBO long-range projections have turned out to be largely full of crap for as far back as I remember. Heck, just a few years ago they were predicting surpluses as far as the eye could see.

The projections are going to change radically over the next year or two, but they don't redo them very often. I think the last projection was back in August. The current projections are based on average annual long-term growth rates of about 2.9 percent. Anything changed since then?

Second, maybe cutting taxes to "starve the beast" doesn't work that well, but increasing them to balance the budget won't either. First of all, it destroys productivity, and second, even if revenues went up by a hundred times (for one year), the government would find a way to spend every nickel, and then some.

The solution is some real discipline in spending, and personally, after seeing a new entitlement hit Bush's desk, I ain't holding my breath. And that isn't even taking the Democrats, who have the Free Lunch as the foundation of their party, into account.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (32 posts)