Do Republicans really care about the national debt?

Of course not.

That's why they are loathed.

 

I hate to say it, but only Cruz and Paul actually care about the debt from the GOP side.

 

They dont care either. Their tax plans will make the Bush tax cuts look fiscally responsible.

It's easy to talk about the deficit when you dont actually care to govern. It gets a little harder when you're forced to do something.

 

I think they do. But when they govern everything changes

 

Gotta get that national debt up to a nice round $20 trillion that they can try to blame on the Democrats next year during the election cycle. It is funny how the debate about the deficit and the economy overall has completely disappeared. The Republicans know that their only chance in 2016 is to scare as many voters as possible with their round-the-clock fear-mongering about ISIS and radical Islam.

 

The debt can grow. It just needs to be at a controlled pace.

Having a fixed money supply is not going to work. I hate these guys trying to get us back to the gold standard.

 

Totally agree. I think the agreed upon number is 3 percent of GDP which corresponds with average growth of the economy.

 

Only when DEM is in control.

 

Good point.

 

Some odd reason . .. I always get the feeling that they believe the debt is irrelevant
because if some country come calling for their money .. . . they think we can just slaughter them in a War.

Rocket River

 

That's reasonable for an average, but deficits spike during recessions, so you want it to be lower during the good times.

 

There is one trend that never changes no matter which party is in power and that is spending. Both sides spend.... a lot.

 

Of course! No number should be written in stone.

 

The key difference is that one party tends to be more fiscally responsible and actually pays for it. Tax & Spend vs Borrow & Spend.

 

From the article, it doesn't really sound like that $700B is really real. These are tax loopholes that Congress would renew one year at a time anyway. But, I'm not a big fan anyway. I actually agree with Republicans about simplifying the tax code and doing away with special interests. I'm kind of surprised to see Republicans go the other way on this now.

I do appreciate the business uncertainty argument. I've been reading a lot about how the end of the tax credit is impacting the rooftop solar business. This deal will extend that tax credit to 2020. That will help a lot of companies that thought they'd have to scramble to get jobs installed and inspected before the end of 2016, and then suffer a big slowdown in sales in the back-half of 2016 -- all to only then discover around Christmas 2016 that Congress will extend after all. But I saw an estimate that you can add $9/share to SolarCity stock for each year of the extension. And while I think developing distributed solar is important, it feels dirty to shovel a bunch of cash to SolarCity shareholders.

 

Just print money and pay it down.



DD

 

You are stupid if you think that.

Over 40% of Americans say that National Security and Terrorism are the two biggest issues right now. Of course because of the recent problems. The Republicans are addressing that while BERNIE is tweeting during the GOP debate why no one talking about BLM or whatever?

Things will shift back to economy if nothing else happens for a bit. Just wait this new spending bill will be a big issue going forward don't doubt Cruz will be out leading this charge against reckless spending. Especially a spending bill that has all kinds of goodies hidden inside, like the latest internet control device the govt keeps trying to push.

 

Some do, some don't. That's why there is such a split in that party. Establishment Republicans are basically the same as Democrats, the only difference being that they have different pet projects so they want to steal from some programs and throw tons of money into others.

When Ron Paul ran for president it really exposed this in that during the debates, he was the only guy up there that mentioned cutting spending to balance the budget. Every other Republican up there only talked about tax cuts.

It got a little bit better in 2012 because there were a few more Republicans sort of mentioning cutting spending in an effort to eventually pay down the debt....but at the same time most of them were still talking about raising spending elsewhere so it was just a token mention of cuts.

Now, pretty much every Republican is talking about cutting spending, although still very few really intend to make substantive cuts that would actually do good and most are also talking about raising spending elsewhere.

In short, there's a wing of the Republican party that cares about the debt, Rand Paul actually goes so far as to say (rightfully so IMO) that the ever expanding, out of control debt is the single greatest threat to national security that the US faces.

 

Over 40% of Americans are stupid twits, so your figure is hardly surprising. If you think that a problem that has killed all of 14 people on American soil this year is the biggest issue facing this country right now then you have already bought the snake oil being sold to you. ISIS is absolutely a problem that needs to be dealt with, but the Republicans have doubled down on their fear-based rhetoric because they know it's the one issue that can win them elections next year.