Fair enough. So, vote for Obama and hold him to account. At least he is promising change. McCain, with Bush's economic and foreign policy, isn't. True, Obama is unlikely to make government any smaller, but at least he has a legitimate plan to pay for his intended vision and will do much more of the spending domestically. You have already had almost 8 years of the alternative.
its amazing that you all still think SMALLER government is whats needed right now. Usually I would agree, but not now.
How can you say that? Government produces NOTHING... it's major function is to shuffle paper and money from one place to another. By your logic, we'd be better off if EVERYBODY worked in government. Oh, but that wouldn't work... there'd be nobody producing anything so Gummint wouldn't have anything to shuffle.
Not likely. You will likely have a combination of runaway military spending coupled with "supply side" tax cuts, the end result of which will "trickle down" to your progeny for repayment. Reagan and the Bushmen have already laid the groundwork, and McCain is unlikely to change course.
its major function isn't to shuffle paper. Do you really think that? By your logic we could do fine without any sort of government, I doubt that would work very well. Im all for small government. I like them staying out of my life and I do think the markets shold be left alone. However when huge mortgage companies and hedge funds who obviously have a major impact on the economy are left alone (small government) eventually they end up finding every possible loophole. Ths creating this mess that were in right now (or part of it). The gov then has to step back in an rein in these companies and impose new regulations. Its like a cycle. You can expect to be conservative or liberal all the time in a country thats constantly changing. When the facts change, my mind changes. Right now I think government is going to have to do its job by regulating and making some big moves to place everyone back on an even playing field. I also think that there are more parts to our country than need to over hauled. High education is a joke. Everyone on ET likes to hat on the Fed, but thats just because its easy to do. Kind of like armchair quarterbacks. The fed chose the stock market over inflation and I for one am glad. While of course inflation is bad, can you imagine what the market would have done had the fed NOT dropped rates at all? Think about it. The federal gov has its place, and usually its on the sidelines, but when things get out of control and the country is spinning down the toilet the gov has to step in to right the ship. That time is now.
Admit it, you will use any argument to support McCain, won't you? Backdoor or otherwise. "Yeah, that's the ticket."
Why can't these "legitimate social programs" be provided by the private sector. I'd like to hear your examples of programs that are better handled by the g-ment. As to your trickle-down economics comment, there are many objective observers who would strongly disagree with you. I've wondered about the concept many times, but objective and accurate statistical analysis always points me in the direction of supporting it. I've seen many misconstrued explanations of why Reagan's TDE policy failed, but careful and accurate analysis of the facts, has thwarted these explanations every time. Fact remains that a max tax bracket of about 25% consistently shows the greatest tax revenue for the g-ment, as well as the largest proportion of tax being paid by the wealthiest individuals. Facts also show that when the top tax bracket is lowered to around 25%, a much larger portion of poor/lower-middle class families realize an upward advancement to upper-middle/wealthy classes.
Anyone who thinks that small government and free-markets got us into this mess is seriously confused. Government intervention has caused all of these problems with artificially low interest rates, requiring lenders to lend to high risk individuals etc. Nice South Park reference with the Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich. That was a great episode.