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PSA: Being a volunteer is no excuse to make a shite job of it.
On MMO-C we learn that Anti-Fascism is locking arms with corporations, the State Department and agreeing with the CIA, But opposing the CIA and corporate America, and thinking Jews have a right to buy land and can expect tenants to pay rent THAT is ultra-Fash Nazism. Bellingcat is an MI6/CIA cut out. Clyburn Truther.
Every budget surplus the US generates, including the 1990s/2000 on, is artificial. A contemporary surplus, like the 1990s one, would come at the cost of cutting non-entitlement spending down significantly, which, although it would get the books in the black, would deeply damage important defense and non-defense programs. Similarly, a Bush-era budget surplus, paired with tax cuts would come on the back of significant unpopular cuts to entitlements.
Obama would have got his budget surplus alright... on the back of a Pentagon that was $100-$150 billion below it's annual budget needs to meet 100% of its requirements. To briefly reference and slightly modify a point I've been making a lot recently, it's easy to have a budget surplus, when you have a 490,000 man Army doing the job of a 700,000 man.
Basically, because the United States fundamentally does not tax enough to spend for the things it defines as "important", making any sort of surplus comes only out of screwing one important thing or another.
The United States needs to either tax more and pay for everything in full, or define less things as important not declare it a problem when they erode due to under-investment. I'm not just talking about military, but all spending. America loves having it's cake and eating it too. It's irresponsible.
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No, that's not how it worked. The GOP has always been pretty fiscally right wing. They used to be more socially liberal though. The Dems were fiscally left wing but had two factions. One was socially conservative, the other more liberal. Currently the GOP is conservative in both, the Dems are socially liberal and somewhat fiscally conservative.
Our debt is pretty much what greases the worldwide credit markets. Drastically altering this equation seems relatively stupid to me.
Likewise, the "social" decline that a lot of people are complaining about these days isn't really a thing. Certain demographics seem really unwilling to adapt while others are more interested in biting their thumb at other Americans, but, as has always happened, innovation and forward thinking are carrying different regions in differing directions. Sucks to live and work in one that seems both obsessed with decline and perfectly willing to continue to rush headlong into it, but that's life.
Let's have full disclosure here. Look up the "Community Reinvestment Act". Frank and Dodd(2 democrats) tinkered with that and forced lending institutions to make a quota of bad loans. Also and primarily, Frank and Dodd pushed to reduce mortgage buying standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This was the main reason of failure for Bear Sterns in 2008. So I blame both parties for allowing banks to lend money for mortgages which could NEVER be paid back.
On MMO-C we learn that Anti-Fascism is locking arms with corporations, the State Department and agreeing with the CIA, But opposing the CIA and corporate America, and thinking Jews have a right to buy land and can expect tenants to pay rent THAT is ultra-Fash Nazism. Bellingcat is an MI6/CIA cut out. Clyburn Truther.