Ask Brekky

our taxes are already big enough and then that stupid governor o'malley wants to tax us even more! and people are complaining about how the gap between middle and upper class is getting bigger. well if people didnt have to keep paying the government more money maybe the gap would close.

Well... the whole small government republican thing sounds great... in fact I would like it a lot. But in reality, the republicans spend even more than the democrats.
http://www.lafn.org/politics/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart_2006.gif

Umm..sure.

luke, you need to find out who was in charge of congress also because congress is the body of goverment in charge of spending. also our national debt can go up even when our spending is less than our revenue year to year.

well you haven't replied w/ some witty comeback yet so i guess i win for now...

I'm not even gonna touch on this subject.

that's because you know i'm right... you can't just make a claim that clinton is great just because our debt went down i mean he dismantled our military which meant less spending in that area (he set us up for 9-11), and he wanted to spend more but for most of his time in office he had to deal w/ a REPUBLICAN congress that wouldn't let him raise taxes because the congress really controls our money and spending. also the economy in this country was doing great all the way back from the reagan years. because reagan refused to raise taxes our economy was really doing well. george h. w. bush had the same idea in fact his famous quote is "read my lips, no new taxes" but he broke that promise in the last few years (i think it's years) of his presidency which is why he didn't get re-elected. so all bill clinton had to do was ride the economy. but you notice right after his presidency, we were officially in recession, and at the end of bills presidency when he didn't have a republican congress then he started to look at raising taxes and spending. then when george w. bush came in he lowered taxes and our economy was doing ok. but then guess what happened 9-11! he had to fund a war people! how do you forget that?!?!?!

now another reason why our debt might have gone up during the reagan presidency is because he was building up our military during the Cold War. you know just because he spent money on the military doesn't mean that he's a bad president. it's the presidents job to protect us and our rights. not give us national health care...

and jimmy carter was a terrible president. interest rates were at 15% my dad couldn't find a job. carter did absolutely nothing for this nation. but then hey guess what when reagan came in he lowered taxes which meant people could now hire more people for their businesses and our economy boomed! EXAMPLE: my dad managed to find a job at Benfield Electric during the carter presidency. now when he joined they had only 40 employees. now during the reagan presidency through george h. w. bush's presidency it rose dramatically to 300! wow how can that be?! maybe because the lowered taxes and unnessecary spending... hmmmm gee maw and everyone says that republicans are horrible spender?!?!?!

you see luke you can't just tell me that because debt rose that we spent a ton of money. EXAMPLE we could bring in 100 billion dollars of revenue and only spend 50 billion on other things besides debt now lets say our debt rose because of interest to 75 billion. now did our debt rise or not? we don't have to be big spenders for our debt to go up.

o and hey what do you know we have a democratic congress in charge of our money and hey what they're doing?! SPENDING! but hey i'm not saying republicans don't spend but they do not spend nearly as much. that's because the democrats want to help everyone w/ health care (hello raised taxes!!!). that's not the governments job! it's the people's job to help each other...

but hey why is it that during the election year it is good to give back taxes back to the people to stimulate economy but it isn't good all the time for democrats?

looks like i've presented the facts pretty well... show me all the facts luke not just our debt show me: whose in charge of congress (congress controls actual spending), show me our revenue, and spending, and deficit.

BreakfastClub wrote:

I'm not even gonna touch on this subject.

why don't you want to say anything matt? i mean you should know all the facts about our arguement right? luke has only showed you the facts that will help w/ his arguement now i'm giving you a reason why stuff like that happend. and hey you have to admit that i have put a very forceful arguement in front of luke. and there's more where that came from.

Your argument seems to be that spending is okay if it is on having a gigantic military (as if waging a trillion dollar war against the Iraqi people will somehow help protect us from the dozen or so mostly Saudi terrorists that attacked on 9/11), and screwing the economy in the long term (our economy when we grow up) by creating tons of debt is okay if it gives us a little boost now.

The democrats and the republicans both spend too much. But at least the democrats are honest enough to admit it, instead of lowering taxes while the upping the budget and putting us into endlessly more debt. During the first four years the the current presidency the repubicans were in control of both the executive and congress. Perfect time to get on some of that small government Bush campaigned for. Yet somehow, big surprise, new records in spending. And before you start going off about how we need that money for the war (as if we had been attacked by an actual country and not a group of evil men who could live anywhere), let me tell you something. During the decade of republican control of congress there has been an unprecedented number of sweetheart deals going through the house and senate, even more when bush was there to sign them. Lo and behold, after the democrats got back in control those have dropped dramatically.


It doesn't sound fun, but what really need to do before it is too late is cut spending by a lot and keep the current taxes for some years, to get rid of our enormous debt. Then we can think about cutting taxes or doing universal health care or taking over every country that isn't in europe or north america.

Here is a more complete graph of where the deficit came from. You can search for spreadsheets with a lot more detail but this is really all you need to know:


As you can see clinton raised taxes some (mostly it was the old taxes being worth more because of the bigger economy not new taxes) and almost halted growth so we could get rid of the debt but it didn't last after he got out of office. Keep in mind that both of these graphs are from the heritage foundation, which is very very conservative.

hmmm... well luke if i recall the ENTIRE country was for this war to protect us. o and if my mind still serves me correctly i don't think that we've been attacked since then.

luke give me some examples of democrats in politics that admits that they spend too much cause i'm dying to know who they are. and do you believe every graph you see cause i could get some graphs which would contradict yours. if you believe that democrats are responsible for less pork barrel spending then you're sadly mistaken.

but if you agree that we need to cut spending then we have no arguement, but those are conservative ideals not liberal.

why do you bother to put this much effort into what ever your talking about? i mean come on is it that serious?

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hmmm... well luke if i recall the ENTIRE country was for this war to protect us. o and if my mind still serves me correctly i don't think that we've been attacked since then.

Of course most people were for the war, they were believing the info that iraq had WMD, which we now know to be false. And give me one logical reason why the war in Iraq could have prevented terrorism here (which again in the past has been mostly Saudi, whose home country is our ally). If any plots have been prevented, it is from a bigger focus on terrorism in investigations by the FBI, CIA etc.

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luke give me some examples of democrats in politics that admits that they spend too much cause i'm dying to know who they are.

Of course no politician says they spend too much, no one says anything negative about themselves. However, they tell the truth about spending more instead of being like the republicans who talk about small government while they are writing and signing the bills to grow it.

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but if you agree that we need to cut spending then we have no arguement, but those are conservative ideals not liberal.

Cutting spending is a conservative ideal, but unfortunately the people in our conservative party simply don't stick to the ideals. And as I said, those last two graphs are from the heritage foundation, which is very conservative and reputable.

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why do you bother to put this much effort into what ever your talking about? i mean come on is it that serious?

Yes, I think whether I'll be able to get a job and afford a house when I am an adult is important.

Crazy T-Shirt wrote:

BreakfastClub wrote:

I'm not even gonna touch on this subject.

why don't you want to say anything matt? i mean you should know all the facts about our arguement right? luke has only showed you the facts that will help w/ his arguement now i'm giving you a reason why stuff like that happend. and hey you have to admit that i have put a very forceful arguement in front of luke. and there's more where that came from.

Because I really couldn't care less about your argument. You're sure as hell not going to change my mind on the matter and I'm sure as hell not going to change yours. And I'm sure there'll be more where that came from, most likely from your dad and not from yourself.... That's probably where your whole argument came from. Either way I'm sick of talking about politics with you.

alright luke you believe what you want. but don't go around taking every graph to be gospel. and matt you should care about the arguement and you shouldn't just think that everything that someone presents as fact is nessecarily true. and as far as i can recall most of your political arguements came from luke...

and i agree w/ luke it's really serious to pay attention now while you're young. and even if we present our facts and we don't change each others mind. it'll still have an effect on other people.

holy cow this is a big page?!?!

I'm sorry but those last two graphs are from the Heritage Foundation which is a totally legit think tank and lobbying group with a real world presence for over three decades (and some $50 million in donations a year). Again it also also very conservative but honest about current republicans lack of adherence to conservative policies. The first graph uses data lifted directly from the national treasury.

alright. i do agree that our republican candidates are not campletely conservative in there views. i don't like the way that george w. bush is allowing so many bills he hasn't vetoed many bill if any in a while.

Crazy T-Shirt wrote:

alright. i do agree that our republican candidates are not campletely conservative in there views. i don't like the way that george w. bush is allowing so many bills he hasn't vetoed many bill if any in a while.

Lol I remember his first veto of any bill was years into his presidency, and it was for moral (stem cell research) not financial reasons.

yeah he hasn't done anything in that area...

so matt how do like my new avatar? i thought it looks very la camisa-ish lol

It seriously rocks dude. Best avatar yet! I can just hear you screaming "LA CAMISAAA!!!!!!!" right now. LOL

isn't it sweet?!?! it's a paintball cannon. if you wanna buy one i'm gonna start makin em and sellin them

Haha seriously? Well, I dont have a paintball gun....

i'll sell you one when i make another. then you'll have a big one...

that's what she said!

o and when you look at my avatar think of me saying... "actual size..." hahhahaha

Hahahahahahahah nice man.