Bush tax cuts are the reason we are in this mess. For sheer economic impact, the deregulation of the mortgage markets has been the killer. Creating artificial booms gets politicians re-elected and don't bust until a new administration takes over. Trillions in lost equity is what has made Americans appear broke (though it might have been trillions they would have never had with a real estate boom)
The artificial boom was created by easy lending standards encouraged/imposed by Fannie/Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act, combined with artificially low interest rates from the Fed. Those are state actions, not deregulation.
Again---for emphasis. The only argument you might have that holds some water is the Greenspan credit bubble---but one must hasten to remember that in that case, Greenspan was largely reacting preemptively to counter large fallacies in the private market---including massive irrational momentum trading after 9/11, and numerous accounting scandals. Greenspan was motivated above all by belief in the private markets. He was wrong. He admitted as such.
Well the bottom line is it will probably not have to be dealt with. We just need to look at the history of viruses. Smallpox killed 500 million people in the 20th century alone. Its eradicated now, but for some reason we've decided to keep it alive in officially 2 places in the world. Everyone has heard of the black plague and the Spanish Flu pandemic during World War I. What the hell happened to SARS and H1N1 recently? They didn't just go away. Yes I'm a pessimist. But viruses are crucial for population control and its hard to argue the planet is already overpopulated with humans.
Reagan started it. His presidency brought upon the rise of the large American corporations. He set the f'in Greed Train in motion that allows the bubbles to form in the first place.
Especially if every time they approach that level, a Republican president lowers taxes to irresponsible levels as your chart shows that both Bush and Reagan did. Well, we could also support policies that would raise GDP (infrastructure spending, pro-American job growth policies, etc.), which would also affect that equation. As with Reagan, tax revenues went up because GDP went up. GDP went up because it always does, historically, and neither Bush nor Reagan's tax cuts resulted in GDP growth over and above the historical average. You really need to stop getting your information from people who are lying to you. Your opinion on justified spending does not mean that we shouldn't balance the budget. I believe it was wrong for Reagan and Bush to manufacture the deficit and debt crises that we face today in their attempt to "starve the beast." If certain government expenditures are unjustified, make the case by opposing them, not by manufacturing a crisis. There is also zero indication that taking less (through tax cuts) will lead to lower spending, but that is the hypothesis that Republicans have put to the test (and failed) over the last 30 years.
Oh please. Not this tired excuse yet again. Obama has had time. You cannot keep parroting these tired excuses.
Oh please. Stop with this nonsense. Republicans refuse to restore taxes to sane levels to address the deficit and we are in the worst economy since the Great Depression. It's still bad. It took decade + to recover the last time we were this bad off, the fact that we have positive growth is amazing. Obama put spending cuts and entitlement reform on the table. He offered a 3:1 ration in spending cuts to tax revenue increases, and your beloved party refused. So please don't point the finger just at the other guy. Man up and accept that your party has a HUGE part of the blame to accept here as well.
I got so sick and tired of responding to the silly revenue argument I just bookmarked one of the better explanations.
