...
tfitsaz' mentioning of Pete Peterson reminded me that this morning I saw Dean Baker on CNN along with David Walker, and Dean called Walker a "voice of sanity" on perspective on current deficits in this...
View ArticleBrooks @ 2:08 a.m.
How many DoD contractors have been paying into a fund from which they can later draw? How in the world is the DoD going to pay them? Oh yes, the government doesn't have any money, it's the taxpayers...
View Article...
We don't need a "money tree" to fund social security, we just need to pull the plug on our rampant military spending, or rather, divert the stream to socially useful, self-rewarding programs. The...
View Article...
I guess Ethan is just one of those people who wants to yell out "DoD!" in response to any comment that discusses SS spending vis a vis the problem of our long-term (overall) fiscal imbalance, even if...
View Article...
diesel, The question of what our priorities should be as we choose among options for reducing projected spending and/or raising taxes has nothing to do with my comment. I was just correcting the...
View ArticleDean Baker & David Walker on CNN:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1006/12/cnnitm.01.html BAKER: Well, let me just say, I really applaud, I really appreciate David's comments because he's been an important voice of sanity...
View ArticleNPR and Commercials
NPR went nutty rightist soon after they started depending on commercials for revenue. There is a lesson there. - libhomo
View Article...
How can someone give Andrew a minus vote for reproducing the transcript from a talk show, for crying out loud? - anon
View ArticleSS flow
SS flows are SUPPOSED to go negative. Otherwise, those of us in the working class are subsidizing tax breaks for the wealthy special interests. Ronald Reagan gave HUGE tax breaks to the wealthy and...
View Article...
My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest...no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western...
View Article...
For Mr. Mertz who says we should use gold as our currency, a simple question: Where do you expect to get all that gold? There is about $700 billion in actual paper and coined currency. There are...
View Article...
This notion of cash...I'm not sure I understand it. Isn't cash just something that you can exchange for goods and services, and which pays no return? Specie. Greenbacks. So when somebody says there is...
View ArticleBrooks @ 5:35 pm
Ok, for DoD substitute any other department -- Department of State, Department of Interior (Forest Service BLM, National Park Service and similar do bring in revenue from fees, but the point is the...
View Article...
Ethan, It's hard to know where to start with you because you are confused on so many levels. Let me start by saying you should learn to distinguish between what someone has actually said (and not said)...
View ArticleOK, I'll respond to Brooks
Brooks, I'm glad you're not making the various analytical errors often made in the right wing blogosphere. However, the kind of argument you make can be made for all kinds of financial investments as...
View Article...
Brooks says: "A measure of the gap between dedicated tax revenues and their associated programs (with or without including "trust fund""balances") has no sensible place in a metric for the size of our...
View Article...
diesel, I don't have time tonight to get into a critique of your entire comment, so I'll just say... Sounds like you are saying that, as we make choices among sacrifices to reduce our (currently huge...
View Article...
Charles Peterson, I don't know what your point is or how it relates to what I've said. Yeah, the value of investments is NPV of cash flows. Yeah, spending on anything is (eventually) funded by taxes...
View ArticleWhy I stopped donating to NPR
Since NPR has sold out to the corporate funds that produce Marketplace, I've seen no need to continue donating to it, and won't till they get rid of MArketplace or add a program that diretly...
View Article...
I wish SS were privately run too, mostly so that I could not be forced to participate with my consent. - James
View Article
