tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026234375530929463.post2124448988769843736..comments2023-04-07T09:54:05.949-04:00Comments on José Arsenio Torres Opina: El Vertedero Fortuño se ha DesbordadoJose Arsenio Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05084061761959789812noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026234375530929463.post-26056222225707718512012-12-26T08:36:14.577-04:002012-12-26T08:36:14.577-04:00The federal budget deficit is not $1.3 trillion. ...The federal budget deficit is not $1.3 trillion. It is about $900 billion. Half of that deficit is forgone revenues due to the depression. The other half is eliminated<br />once the Bush tax cuts expire. You do not need to throw people to the wolves to solve the federal fiscal deficit. <br /><br /><br /><br />In the nineties the economy was booming. That is why revenues were going up and that is why cuts could be made. People<br />were working, there were jobs and therefore you could cut if you had to. But right now it is the opposite. You do not cut government spending in a depression.<br />It makes things worse off. What you need is to increase employment so that revenues go up. If you cut, it defeats the purpose.<br />The economy goes down, the debt burden increases and everyone is worse off. This is exactly what Herbert Hoover did in 1929<br />and what Roosevelt did in 1936 thus extending the Great Depression for ten years.<br /><br />In 1936 Roosevelt thought that the U.S. was out of the woods and so he agreed to balance the budget. Result? Four more years of depression. What ended the Great Depression? Deficits of 122 % of GDP generated by the war build up. We are not there yet.<br />The U.S. deficit is only 70% of GDP. This is no time to balance the budget. But if the Tea Party insists in balancing the budget, then<br />let the Bush tax cuts expire. Not throw people to the wolves.<br /><br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Publicly_Held_Federal_Debt_1790-2009.png<br /><br /><br /><br />There is something wrong about an argument that says that deficits are the end of the world, but when you suggest letting the temporary tax cuts expire, the Tea Party says no.<br /><br />This follows the same logic of Fortuño asking for statehood but when you ask him about paying federal taxes, as I did at a conference he gave at Georgetown University, he says no.<br /><br />This is not serious. This is all fraud.<br /><br /><br />The US should not join the Germans in pursuing mindless austerity and pushing the world into a Depression and probably destroying<br />the European Union. I do not think a depressed Western World and a divided and bankrupt Europe is in the best interests of Peace, Democracy, and World Prosperity.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17855803050326528177noreply@blogger.com