[OT] Another heated discussion about the Iraq siutation, war and politics.

[deccan]

Originally posted by rextorres:
If the deficit is not an issue then why do we have to cut anything? Why not have a trillion dollar deficit? Who buys these bonds. What happens like in Argentina or Mexico when the interest on the debt (it's already our third biggest expenditure on par with entitlements) is larger than the revenue from taxes.

Actually, I think that East Asians buy A LOT of American bonds.

[Fyron]

Gah. I hate these threads. You discuss one thing, but then people mutate it into a totally different subject you had no desire to get into. I need to stop posting in them...

[rextorres]

I'll bring around to Iraq. It's a big waste of money and we can't afford this war especially with the Bush Tax Cuts in place.

[Fyron]

I didn't want to talk about Iraq either.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Tell you what, I won't even require you to change your political views.

I'll try to get this put together with the stuff you sent me, and make it official.

Hows that for taking OT OT.

Good man.

[Alpha Kodiak]

Tesco, here is some basic information on the changes to the child tax credit.

IRS Newsroom

The big thing for me is the $400 per child increase in the credit (to $1000 per child total). In my case, that is $1600 direct tax relief all by itself. Even if you have no tax burden, you can get some or all of that credit (hence my higher than 100% reduction in my income taxes.)

[ September 17, 2003, 00:35: Message edited by: Alpha Kodiak ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
The defecit is not actually an issue. Most of it is in the form of bonds that can and will be repaid in time. What is more of an issue is yearly spending compared to yearly revenues. The old debts get paid off and replaced by new debts. It is how the economy works.

Some "services" that need to be cut are obsolete programs that are no longer necessary. There are numerous programs dating from the Great Depression that only serve to waste money now, but are still in operation, such as the program that was made to try to help farmers hit by the "dust bowl"...

You are confusing terms. The Debt is how much is owed total, and the defecit is the annual excess spending over income.

[ September 17, 2003, 02:30: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[rextorres]

I don't think there is a confusion.

We (the govt) pay interest on the debt which adds to the deficit. As the debt grows so do our interest payments which add to the annual deficit.

Eventually - if the debt keeps rising at $350B/year (Bush's own best case scenario - probably will be way higher) that interest payment will overwhelm the rest of govenment expenditure. The interest payment this year alone was the third biggest expenditure behind defense spending and entitlements.

People like Alpha Kodiak would rather mortgage their children's future and collect an extra measly $400 per child now and let those same children pay multiple times over this amount in interest payments alone when they pay taxes.

People like Fyron just want to bankrupt the government so that it has to cut everything.

[ September 17, 2003, 02:24: Message edited by: rextorres ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Ok, just Fyron swapped the terms then.

In any case, when running a country, like running a Space Empire, you can't spend more than you make for very long before your storage runs out.
Selling mineral planets for cash to keep your production up just makes things worse.

Some debt is OK, for investment purposes where you know (or are pretty sure) you'll make the money back.
For the rest, make sure you're making more than you spend.
Keep building a pool of extra money, which you can spend on bonus services, one-shot projects and stuff.
Live well within your means, and then you'll have the money for the stuff you want.

IMO

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I didn't want to talk about Iraq either.

Huh?? This topic is about Iraq? Good god I have been horribly misinformed!