Tuesday, April 19, 2005

BUDGET DEFICITS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

Why? "Jane Galt" hits the nail on the head:
But given the choice between closing the deficit and getting spending they want--on national health care, for example--most liberals would be full of reasons that the budget deficit isn't nearly as bad as we all have been thinking. Similarly, if they were in the opposition, watching all that new spending get passed, most conservatives would be happy to wax lyrical on the terrible downfall that awaits countries that spend more than they earn.

That, in short, is why we run a budget deficit; whoever is in power has bigger priorities. Perhaps that's a feature of Americans, or the American political system, but it seems to me that the only way we'll see our budget balanced is if we have the same combination of things that hit us in the nineties: a huge capital gains surge that surprises the hell out of our politicians, and a political system too gridlocked to spend the booty.
This is one reason why I am increasingly taking "pox on both their houses" attitude toward contemporary politics.

Comments:
You mean besides the spend like drunken sailors on their first liberty, forget about the southern border, and turn their back on the Constitution?

Yeah... it's why I go through a period of soul-searching before each election... because both parties claim to support Christian values and act like the devil...
 
For the longest time, I've held a very cynical "a-pox-on-both-their-houses" position towards political parties, but recently I've softened my stance. Not because I'm any less disillusioned or angry with either of the majors, but because I decided (or realized, take your pick) that attitude was getting in the way of my ever seeing anybody elected who even moderately represented my viewpoints. Plus, cynicism gets very wearying after a while, even if you *are* right.

The basic rationale is this: the only person who perfectly represents my viewpoints is me, and I harbor no aspirations to public office. So the very act of voting itself is a compromise. Given that I've already decided to compromise, then, it's a lot easier to decide for whom to vote come election time-- just figure out who would ask me to compromise more.

In the last election, it led me to vote for some Democratic politicians, on the grounds that if I was going to have a big government anyway, it might as well be a solvent one.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?