Prime Junta
RPGCodex' Little BRO
- Joined
- October 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540
The American presidential candidates appear to be financial geniuses. They all seem to have figured out how to produce something from nothing. Free beer for everyone!
Romney wants to cut taxes across the board, with no mention of spending cuts. Not to mention the $20bn he already promised to snow down on Michigan. (Deficit? What deficit?)
[ http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjdmZmM2MzFiYzEzYmNjN2MxZDUwYjcxYjY5ZmUxYjA ]
McCain wants to, surprise surprise, cut taxes. A quite a lot, in fact. He proposes to fund this by eliminating pork barrel spending, and, naturally, cutting out "waste" and "inefficiency" from government. (Damn, why didn't anyone think of that before?)
To put this into perspective, pork barrel spending amounts to about $20bn a year, give or take a few billion. The federal budget is about $2.9 trillion, so eliminating pork would cut about 1% off the budget. The budget deficit is currently around $500 billion.
[ http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/0B8E4DB8-5B0C-459F-97EA-D7B542A78235.htm ]
Huckabee wants to spend $150bn on building highways. Oh, and eliminate the income tax. He says that his proposed alternative is (a) revenue-neutral, i.e., doesn't reduce government income, but (b) reduces the tax burden. (I guess he figures God will provide the difference, not to mention that $150bn.)
[ http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=5 ]
Hillary Clinton wants to create a $50bn alternative-energy fund, provide free health care, make college affordable for everybody, and lower taxes on the middle class. Oh, and balance the budget. (I'll give her credit for mentioning balancing the budget, but if she has ideas on how to actually go about it, she isn't letting on.)
[ http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=3618 ]
And Barack Obama? He combines the best of both worlds -- he wants to cut taxes and increase government spending. Yay for Barack Obama!
[ http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/ ]
Seriously, folks -- isn't anyone going to ask these folks how they intend to get the numbers to line up? It's pretty simple, really -- all they have to do is tally up what their free beer will cost, and the explain where the money comes from:
(a) borrowed from the Chinese
(b) collected from Americans as taxes
(c) by auctioning off rents from natural and other resources (e.g. the airwaves)
(d) off the printing press -- the Fed will provide!
(e) something else (what?)
Doesn't anyone care?
Romney wants to cut taxes across the board, with no mention of spending cuts. Not to mention the $20bn he already promised to snow down on Michigan. (Deficit? What deficit?)
[ http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjdmZmM2MzFiYzEzYmNjN2MxZDUwYjcxYjY5ZmUxYjA ]
McCain wants to, surprise surprise, cut taxes. A quite a lot, in fact. He proposes to fund this by eliminating pork barrel spending, and, naturally, cutting out "waste" and "inefficiency" from government. (Damn, why didn't anyone think of that before?)
To put this into perspective, pork barrel spending amounts to about $20bn a year, give or take a few billion. The federal budget is about $2.9 trillion, so eliminating pork would cut about 1% off the budget. The budget deficit is currently around $500 billion.
[ http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/0B8E4DB8-5B0C-459F-97EA-D7B542A78235.htm ]
Huckabee wants to spend $150bn on building highways. Oh, and eliminate the income tax. He says that his proposed alternative is (a) revenue-neutral, i.e., doesn't reduce government income, but (b) reduces the tax burden. (I guess he figures God will provide the difference, not to mention that $150bn.)
[ http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=5 ]
Hillary Clinton wants to create a $50bn alternative-energy fund, provide free health care, make college affordable for everybody, and lower taxes on the middle class. Oh, and balance the budget. (I'll give her credit for mentioning balancing the budget, but if she has ideas on how to actually go about it, she isn't letting on.)
[ http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=3618 ]
And Barack Obama? He combines the best of both worlds -- he wants to cut taxes and increase government spending. Yay for Barack Obama!
[ http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/ ]
Seriously, folks -- isn't anyone going to ask these folks how they intend to get the numbers to line up? It's pretty simple, really -- all they have to do is tally up what their free beer will cost, and the explain where the money comes from:
(a) borrowed from the Chinese
(b) collected from Americans as taxes
(c) by auctioning off rents from natural and other resources (e.g. the airwaves)
(d) off the printing press -- the Fed will provide!
(e) something else (what?)
Doesn't anyone care?
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540