I guess we all need to decide what's more important here right now...creating jobs or reducing the deficit. To create jobs, you have to give businesses some incentive to do so. And I don't think that incentive will be raising taxes. To reduce the deficit, you either have to raise taxes or cut spending. So, as a result, the only option to do both appears to be to cut taxes or at the very least not let the tax cuts expire in order to create an investment for businesses to create jobs, while cutting spending to work at reducing the deficit.
Well, we could also cut spending AND raise taxes!
I think this is a very fair assessment of the dilemma with regards to taxes, job growth and the deficit. Well said.
In general, I feel the government's job is to manage the budget and perform its functions within that. Its the private sector's role to create jobs. However, as I mentioned in another post, market fluctuations can create situations that even the most uncompromising Free Marketer might agree requires government intervention. I also feel there are some areas where the market is not well-equipped to provide services because the profit motive undermines the need to provide a service that supports the health, safety and welfare of the public (could we privatize traffic lights, for example? What would be the incentive for business to provide that service? Probably best to leave that one up to the government...)
Overall, my personal opinion is that people want to make money. And the rich especially want to make money as the devaluation of just keeping it under the mattress (where it enjoys no interest) is very unattractive. So, tapping into that creative, entrepreneurial spirit, I would imagine that even with paying more in taxes, the rich will continue to spend and invest in business growth to both enjoy the perks of wealth and generate more of it in the future.
It makes me think about my kids when they ask for something like candy and I won't let them. They scream and cry and pitch a fit, but after a while, they find a way to move on and, amazingly, have a fun productive time without it.
The main thing that costs so much money is entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, and thanks to the aging population, so the amount of money that needs to be paid out is only going to continue to increase year after year unless something is done to reform these systems. I think it's unfair to punish the younger generations to pay for the mistakes of the older generations that created this flawed system in the 60s.
And what is especially galling is that Social Security SHOULD be the money that generation already paid in that just comes back to them later as if it were sitting in a piggy bank. But the reality, it would seem (though nobody seems to be able to give a straight answer on the logic of all of this) is that they already spent this money. So now, the younger generations beginning to pay into it may have to foot a good deal of the bill with no guarantee that it will be there for them either.
Its like the parents telling little Johnny that they raided his piggy bank, never refilled it, and now they're out of money. But that's ok, Jimmy can just get his kids to put money in their piggy banks and he can raid them to cover the shortfall. And on and on it goes...
One thing that's interesting to point out is that Bush took 8 years to increase the U.S. annual budget by a trillion dollars (and that included a recession, 9/11, two wars, Katrina, a market collapse, etc.), while Obama is on track to increase it another trillion in only 3 years. That's unacceptable, and we need to hold the line of federal government growth unless they have a way to pay for it.
Well, I have been trying to move myself away from the blame game on topics like this. In my opinion, we are comparing apples and oranges. The situation today requires a different set of actions and government response than the realities that Bush faced. Plus, given the pace at which economic response rolls out in reaction to policies and changing circumstances would suggest that much of the foundation for the current mess was laid prior to Obama's taking office. Some would say prior to Bush as well. But again, playing the blame game is not very constructive in addressing our current woes.
The current situation is dire and has/will require some dramatic actions. I'm not entirely comfortable with it either, but I fear the alternative.
