politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
The US isn't the only country on the planet. The real question is what are other country's debt ratios, and how have those impacted their economies? And the answer is there are lots of countries with a similar debt ratio, and many with a higher ratio, and most of those are doing fine.
Of course, if (say, over a period of four years) the US replaced its healthcare system with universal single-payer, cut back on defense spending, and raised taxes on the rich, it might actually get back to a surplus.
But then some Republican would come along and squawk about the "people's money" and give it all away in tax cuts and just plunge us back into a deficit again.
I see you're familiar with the Two Santas strategy. Link for those not familiar, and you really need to be familiar.
What's amazing about this strategy is that it wasn't secret. They published it in the Wall Street Journal in 1974. It still worked. Similar to the "flood the zone" strategy; Steve Bannon straight up talked about it to the press in 2018. That also still works.
There's just one problem: you can't keep burning down the house around you and then blaming the people trying to stop it.
Right from one of those articles ("It's Time to Cut Taxes" by Jude Wanniski):
Which is interesting, because the ultimate solution to stagflation--which was a problem that reared its ugly head in the few years before the article was published--was to do the "simply absurd". Paul Volcker as Fed Chair would eventually say fuck it, we're sending interest rates to the moon. That caused a spike in unemployment, but it brought inflation under control. Then you bring interest rates back down and unemployment sorts itself out.
It's harsh medicine, but it works. Kept capitalism going for several decades more. Of all the possible solutions to stagflation, this remains the only one that's been tested to work.
These people have been wrong for decades and fought against strategies that save their own economic system.