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Old 02-12-2018, 01:13 PM
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whell whell is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Metro Detroit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by finnbow View Post
Reading comprehension has never been your strong suit. The whole point of the article is that Republicans cut taxes while raising spending somehow believing that the tax cuts will somehow pay for the increased spending (which, of course, it never has), just as they're doing now. From the article:

As president, he signed it into law with the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act, which pushed through a 25 percent reduction in the marginal tax rate for individuals over three years. At the same time, Reagan spearheaded a massive military buildup that skyrocketed defense spending...

President George W. Bush showed that his father’s breed of Republicanism was out: Aided by a Republican Congress, he undid this balanced budget, passing two huge tax cuts despite starting two expensive wars. On top of it all, he also added a costly new prescription drug benefit to Medicare. He did so with fairly little conservative opposition: With a Republican back in the White House, deficits took a back seat to tax cutting and defense spending.
As usual, being a smarmy little runt IS your strong suit, while continuing to quote an article that omits essential facts. Let me help you.

1) When it suits you, you like to forget that a budget is balanced when revenue and income are (since we're talking government here, we'll just use the term) roughly equal. What that means is that spending, the increase or reduction of which, can be just as much a variable as revenue. Revenue was rising during Reagan's tenure, so you can't suggest that a tax cut produced a revenue reduction in the face of spending growth. In fact, while the Budgets submitted by the White House at that time DID call for increased spending in some areas but also called for reductions in others. Its the latter part that typically failed to materialize, as pointed out above, but as you likely failed to understand.

2) Bush started two wars? LOL This rather conveniently omits the fact that the United States was attacked on 9/11/2001. In also omits the fact that there was a significant reduction in military spending that started at the end of Bush 1 and continued by Clinton. So, yeah, there was a need to jump military spending. That same 9/11 attack also set off a number of unforseen events that softened the US economy that was still reeling a bit from the burst of the "dot.com bubble" at the end of 2000. There was also bi-partisan support for the Bush tax cuts, from EGTRA to the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 which Nancy Pelosi authored and Bush 2 signed.
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