The policy and politics of Trumpism

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uafanataum

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Oct 18, 2014
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We really need to dispel the idea that the economy is doing well when it is depending on huge deficit spending to give the 'appearance' that it is doing well.
How well would it be doing today with a balanced budget?:
The question would be easier to ask if we had ever had a balanced budget in recent memory. I think the last time the budget was balanced was Clinton. That's 3 presidents ago and alot of voters were too young at that time to have been even paying attention.
 

IMALOYAL1

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Oct 28, 2000
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The question would be easier to ask if we had ever had a balanced budget in recent memory. I think the last time the budget was balanced was Clinton. That's 3 presidents ago and alot of voters were too young at that time to have been even paying attention.

Clinton was lucky his vice pres invented the internet and added huge growth in the tech industry. Back then a quality tech could find a high paying job in the back of a comic book.
 

Bamaro

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Oct 19, 2001
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Rebuilding our infrastructure should be a priority but where will the money come from? Especially now that the tax bill has just screwed us over for another 1.5T.
 

rgw

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Sep 15, 2003
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I wonder where the billionaire ruling class will go next when they have successfully ran up a ledger of debt in this country but leave all the repayment burden on the under class?
 

selmaborntidefan

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Mar 31, 2000
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Just know that those of you who suddenly discovered the national debt now that Trump is President - but you supported both Obama AND the health car law - your posts are good for an amusing lesson in how to do an online about face but not to be taken seriously.

You don’t suddenly get to pretend you gare be a damn now. You don’t, you just don’t like Trump.


Now Earle’s comment about the default is truly funny, has me laughing. But sorry, you don’t get to undergo a conversion now like a death row inmate finding Jesus in the hope of getting a reprieve.


Besides, I’ve watched liberals like Paul Krugman spend years explaining why the debt is no big deal. Now, of course, we get all the boo hoo stories.

To my knowledge, we’ve had maybe four years in my lifetime where we ran a surplus. Even then the overall debt increased.

But those of you who actually believe that our children are going to pay back this debt, well, that’s as likely to actually happen as that wall Trump will never build.
 

CharminTide

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Oct 23, 2005
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You seem to be misrepresenting what Krugman and others were saying, which is that deficit spending in a recession is essential, but deficit spending in an economic boom is damaging. That is the critical context your summary is missing, so the economic strategy from 8 years ago would not apply to today.

Here's a good link where Krugman explains this in more detail:

Deficits Matter Again

Eight years ago, with the economy in free fall, I wrote that we had entered an era of “depression economics,” in which the usual rules of economic policy no longer applied, in which virtue was vice and prudence was folly. In particular, deficit spending was essential to support the economy, and attempts to balance the budget would be destructive.

This diagnosis — shared by most professional economists — didn’t come out of thin air; it was based on well-established macroeconomic principles. Furthermore, the predictions that came out of those principles held up very well. In the depressed economy that prevailed for years after the financial crisis, government borrowing didn’t drive up interest rates, money creation by the Fed didn’t cause inflation, and nations that tried to slash budget deficits experienced severe recessions.

But these predictions were always conditional, applying only to an economy far from full employment. That was the kind of economy President Obama inherited; but the Trump administration will, instead, come into power at a time when full employment has been more or less restored.

What changes once we’re close to full employment? Basically, government borrowing once again competes with the private sector for a limited amount of money. This means that deficit spending no longer provides much if any economic boost, because it drives up interest rates and “crowds out” private investment.

The crucial point is not that Republicans were hypocritical. It is, instead, that their hypocrisy made us poorer. They screamed about the evils of debt at a time when bigger deficits would have done a lot of good, and are about to blow up deficits at a time when they will do harm.
 

92tide

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May 9, 2000
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You seem to be misrepresenting what Krugman and others were saying, which is that deficit spending in a recession is essential, but deficit spending in an economic boom is damaging. That is the critical context your summary is missing, so the economic strategy from 8 years ago would not apply to today.

Here's a good link where Krugman explains this in more detail:

Deficits Matter Again
 

Bazza

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Oct 1, 2011
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Just know that those of you who suddenly discovered the national debt now that Trump is President - but you supported both Obama AND the health car law - your posts are good for an amusing lesson in how to do an online about face but not to be taken seriously.

You don’t suddenly get to pretend you give a damn now. You don’t, you just don’t like Trump.-snip-
 

Displaced Bama Fan

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Jun 5, 2000
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Just know that those of you who suddenly discovered the national debt now that Trump is President - but you supported both Obama AND the health car law - your posts are good for an amusing lesson in how to do an online about face but not to be taken seriously.

You don’t suddenly get to pretend you gare be a damn now. You don’t, you just don’t like Trump.


Now Earle’s comment about the default is truly funny, has me laughing. But sorry, you don’t get to undergo a conversion now like a death row inmate finding Jesus in the hope of getting a reprieve.


Besides, I’ve watched liberals like Paul Krugman spend years explaining why the debt is no big deal. Now, of course, we get all the boo hoo stories.

To my knowledge, we’ve had maybe four years in my lifetime where we ran a surplus. Even then the overall debt increased.

But those of you who actually believe that our children are going to pay back this debt, well, that’s as likely to actually happen as that wall Trump will never build.
Simma down now. You know you can't change the liberal mindset until something catastrophic happens to them.
 
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