ProudLefty
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2011
- Messages
- 585
"By Joseph N. DiStefano
Is the United States really "broke," as Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) keeps telling us?
"Wrong," reports David J. Lynch of Bloomberg L.P.:
* Investors are still buying two-year U.S. Treasury notes, which yield less than 1 percent interest, a sign that traders, investors, and bankers believe the United States is more likely than any other nation to pay its bills.
* Americans pay lower taxes to the national government, as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), than they have since 1950: just $1 of every $7.
Yes, the deficit is huge, and the national debt is soaring. But the tax bite in the United States is lower than in the rich nations of Europe and Asia, and more like Mexico or Chile. Our soaring debt load is still lower than the debt of most of our rivals.
So what's the problem? The United States has cut tax rates faster than it has cut spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on health-care subsidies for retirees and poor people.
The nation could (and should, and will in time have to) pay its bills faster, Lynch concludes. It just prefers to borrow, at today's cheap rates, instead of forcing deep budget cuts - or boosting anyone's taxes. That would be deeply unpopular with Boehner's Congress. ..."
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/joseph-distefano/20110308_PhillyDeals__Is_the_U_S__broke__Not_so__he_says.html
This idea that America is broke is just more fear-mongering from a party that knows that to win, it has to terrify voters. They've terrified voters with fears of Sharia Law in the US, gay marriage, gays in the military, terrorists at every bus stop, and invasions of illegal aliens.
Its all about terrifying those who can't be bothered with thinking.
Is the United States really "broke," as Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) keeps telling us?
"Wrong," reports David J. Lynch of Bloomberg L.P.:
* Investors are still buying two-year U.S. Treasury notes, which yield less than 1 percent interest, a sign that traders, investors, and bankers believe the United States is more likely than any other nation to pay its bills.
* Americans pay lower taxes to the national government, as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), than they have since 1950: just $1 of every $7.
Yes, the deficit is huge, and the national debt is soaring. But the tax bite in the United States is lower than in the rich nations of Europe and Asia, and more like Mexico or Chile. Our soaring debt load is still lower than the debt of most of our rivals.
So what's the problem? The United States has cut tax rates faster than it has cut spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on health-care subsidies for retirees and poor people.
The nation could (and should, and will in time have to) pay its bills faster, Lynch concludes. It just prefers to borrow, at today's cheap rates, instead of forcing deep budget cuts - or boosting anyone's taxes. That would be deeply unpopular with Boehner's Congress. ..."
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/joseph-distefano/20110308_PhillyDeals__Is_the_U_S__broke__Not_so__he_says.html
This idea that America is broke is just more fear-mongering from a party that knows that to win, it has to terrify voters. They've terrified voters with fears of Sharia Law in the US, gay marriage, gays in the military, terrorists at every bus stop, and invasions of illegal aliens.
Its all about terrifying those who can't be bothered with thinking.