Tag: deficit

Fake News: Democrats care about the deficit

In 2006 the deficit was about $248 billion.  Democrats called it unpatriotic.  They said tax cuts had killed the economy and skyrocketed the deficit.  They said America was going to go bankrupt.  Conservatives stayed home, Democrats ran a group of so-called “blue dog” candidates who said they cared about the deficit.

Those blue dogs are gone now.  In 2007 when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid came into power and Democrats took over the House and Senate, the deficit had dropped to $160 billion.  Then came the regulation and the spending.  By 2008 when Obama was elected the deficit was up to half a trillion and in Obama’s first year as President the deficit was $1.4 trillion.  Democrats lost Congress in 2010 and as Republicans gained more control the deficit slowly dropped.  In 2013, it was below $1 trillion again.

Democrats don’t care about the deficit.  If they did, they would talk about cutting spending.  Tax hikes have a negative effect on the economy, and a poorly producing economy means less tax revenue.  But Democrats want tax hikes because it allows them to spend more and accomplish their goal of redistributing wealth from GDP producers to their voters.  So if they can use a high deficit to say we need to raise taxes, they will.

How do we know they don’t actually care about the deficit?  Because Democrats view every dollar cut from anything but the military as draconian austerity measures that throw Grandma off a cliff.  They even include that in their advertising.  Democrats, in addition to opposing any non-military spending cuts, have proposed spending that would double our entire US budget.  They want to spend $3.2 trillion a year on universal healthcare and another trillion a year on guaranteed tuition and jobs.  Even if they cut the entire $600 billion military budget and took every penny of the $2 trillion held by America’s billionaires, they would still need to tax every day Americans an additional $2 trillion a year.  Compare that to Trump’s tax cuts that cost $200 billion a year.

The Democrat budget wish list would cost Americans 20 times Trump’s tax cuts.  And there simply aren’t enough dollars in existence in America to pay for it.  Don’t tell me the Democrats care about deficits.

Leftists admit Socialism is unaffordable

“The democratic socialists may do well in November.  Yet upon arriving in Washington, they will discover that even their revolution cannot repeal the laws of math.”  That is how an article with Vox by Brian Riedl ends.  Riedl uses leftist and Democrat sources to compile the costs of the Democratic Socialist agenda and finds that even the most generous sources leave them with $3.4 trillion per year to make up in tax revenues.

Democrats have gained traction in the coming election by claiming that deficits are bad and we need to tax the rich to fix it.  But don’t mistake their feigned concern for actual fiscal sanity.  Even the extensive list of new taxes laid out by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wouldn’t cover 10% of the cost of their agenda.

According to Reidl, Democratic Socialists could pay for all the free stuff they are promising with a 100% tax on all corporations and 100% tax on all family income over $150,000 for married taxpayers and $90,000 for singles.  This would be on top of the current tax structure and assumes the willingness of business owners and capital providers to devote their hard work to charity rather than profit.  Another idea to add on to our current taxes would an 87% value added tax.  Basically, in every step of the manufacturing process, the government gets 87 cents of every dollar made.  The inflation would kill the middle class.  Lastly, we could do it if we added a 37% flat payroll tax on top of the current tax structure.  For the middle class this would mean an all in tax rate of 77%.

So let’s talk about this blue wave?  Are voters really ready to kill the economic growth by ending the Trump tax cuts?  Are they really ready to hand over their healthcare decisions in exchange for giving 77 cents of every dollar they make to the government?  Is this what people really want?  It’s not like the Left is running on anything else, except for extreme Trump hate.  Well, now you have an idea of how much that hatred will cost you just in taxes.

Need to Know 7/30/18

How much will Democratic Socialism cost?  How about triple what our government costs now.  Over the weekend I mentioned how Ocasio-Cortez wants to raise taxes by $4 trillion to have an eco-friendly liberal economy.  Government guaranteed jobs comes in at another $543 billion.  A new study is saying universal healthcare through Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan would cost another $3.2 trillion per year.  That’s makes for an annual budget of $12 trillion per year to cover the Democratic Socialist agenda.  The current budget is $4 trillion and we have annual deficits of about a half a trillion.  Extrapolating that out, we’d not just have to increase taxes 3x.  We’d also have to cover another 1.5 trillion dollar deficit.

How would you like to pay three times the taxes you are paying now and still have our government crushed with debt?

Study: Medicare for all completely unaffordable

President Trump is calling for a government shut down if Democrats continue to obstruct immigration reform.  But you need to remember how this works.  If a Republican Congress puts together a spending bill that Democrats obstruct, then it’s a Republican shutdown.  If a Republican President refuses to sign a bill that doesn’t take care of problems like immigration, then it’s a Republican shut down.  If Democrats can’t get enough votes to pass their agenda because Republicans are obstructing, then it’s a Republican shut down.  If Democrats control both houses and the Presidency, but can’t get their agenda passed, it’s a Republican shut down.  Basically, it’s always the fault of the Republicans.

Trump says fix it or shut it down

Trump’s tariffs have created odd bedfellows.  Democrats, who up until Trump did it supported protective tariffs, are now 100% anti-tariff.  Not really, but whatever it takes to win elections.  Meanwhile, the hated Koch brothers have signaled they will work with Democrats who oppose tariffs and support them.  So you have a Republican President who supports tariffs, Democrats who suddenly oppose them, and Libertarians who are going to put up money to elect Democrats who are anti-libertarian on everything but tariffs.  What a weird world we live in.  I wonder who Democrats hate more, Trump or the Kochs?

Koch brothers to back Democrats over tariff spat

7/21/18 Comics

head on backwards

Maybe you’ve run into this argument.  Generally, I think Democrats don’t want a border wall and don’t want illegal aliens charged with a crime because they support open borders.  But if you challenge them on it, they get offended.  Ever try pointing out that Hillary Clinton supported a border “fence”? Like when she voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006?  Oh look, here’s video of her bragging about voting for it:

 

So let’s talk about the cost.  $21.6 billion.  That’s no small amount.  That’s almost twice as much as it costs to build an aircraft carrier.  So some, perhaps Libertarians and Conservatives, have a reason to think a border wall, fence, barrier, or whatever you want to call it, would cost too much.  But not Democrats.

In 2016, Obamacare cost taxpayers $110 billion.

But let’s ignore Obama’s previous spending. Let’s ignore his average deficits of $900 billion a year.  Let’s talk about the future.  Democrats, such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and nearly every other potential future Democrat Presidential candidate supports guaranteed jobs or universal basic income.  The only one who doesn’t is Joe Biden, who at his age might be struggling reading internal party polls.

A government guaranteed jobs program would ONLY cost $543 billion.

So Democrats really have no credibility when it comes to the argument that a wall costs too much.  Here’s an idea for Democrats to think about.  Guaranteed employment means people need something to work on.  Why not have them build a wall?