The past few days have shown many pictures and clips of President Obama and Governor Christy working together to take care of the Superstorm Sandy destruction.
In the aftermath of 9-11, both parties came together to work together to rebuild NYC and to direct our military efforts in retaliation to the enemies of the USA and those that harbor them.
It is clear that we work well when the citizens of our country are facing a crisis, whether by natural disaster or by attack of an enemy. I'm just wondering how long it will be before our elected representatives will realize that we are facing an economic disaster when it comes to the ever increasing National Debt. It is a crisis that is worthy of non-partisan solutions.
I want to point out that I have purposely used the term "non-partisan" instead of "bi-partisan." I want to see us solve our debt crisis as Americans rather than as Republicans and Democrats. I also want to clarify two terms that are often used interchangeably when that are not interchangeable.
The deficit is the difference between what we spend each year and what we take in. It is the amount we borrow to meet our extravagant spending habits. It what increases our total debt. Even though the deficit has decreased in recent years, the simple fact that we continue to spend more than we take in means that the debt continues to increase. To pay down the debt, we have to eliminate the deficit.
To eliminate the deficit, one of three things has to happen.
We can spend less.
We can earn more.
We can use some combination of the two.
I really hope that our Congress will work together after the elections to work for all Americans. A part of me believes that if President Obama is re-elected, we stand a better chance of getting things done for the simple reason that there will no longer be a reason for the partisan crap that would keep him from re-election. I'm afraid that if Gov. Romney is elected, the Democrats in Congress will pull the same obstructionist garbage that the GOP has been doing for the last four years and we would continue in our debt spiral.
Sometimes you just want to slap those people and tell them to grow up! They act like junior high kids fighting over who is the most popular kid in the school. It's too bad that our representative are more interested in representing their parties than they are about representing their people.
Maybe Gov. Christy could help President Obama bring the parties together and work the budget as if it was a natural disaster. It may be entirely man-made, but it is a disaster just the same.
John <><
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In the near term reducing the deficit would have a negative impact on the economy--raising (most) taxes and cutting spending is contractionary (raising taxes on the rich is by far the least contractionary, because raising taxes on the rich does not reduce their spending).
Our economy cannot bear contractionary policy at this time. The unemployment rate is around 8 percent, growth is sluggish. Deficit reduction will increase unemployment, and depending on the depth of deficit reduction, move us into recession again.
What we need, actually, is MORE spending in the economy. Private spending (consumers) or public spending (government). It is basic economics--economics 101 [C+I+G+X for anyone who took the intro course].
Spain is a great example of the result of government austerity amid a weak economy. We actually don't want that right now. We need jobs in our economy--not deficit reduction.
Steve
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