Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot
The debt is unsustainable, and even those spending know it. But is right now the time to freeze all spending?
One of the reasons healthcare reform was pushed through now rather than later is for the economic impact - as it's a sixth of the economy, it's a longterm attempt to save trillions in the future, and to help medicare/medicade too.
In the immediate short term, we need jobs. People have to stay alive - to not be homeless, to eat. People with income spend. Spending grows the economy, ends the recession.
It takes money to create jobs out of nothing in a stagnant economy with no growth and 10% unemployment.
There will be no jobs created, as this week our government - the GOP primarily - wants zero spending, thus is blocking the jobs bill. Further unemployment extended benefits have been fillibustered - by the GOP - so now we have hundreds of thousands of people that haven't had a job for months on end, and still have no job prospects, but now have no money to minimally eat and live. It was literally cut off this week (last week I think) Tax cuts won't help these folks.
So we are not going to spend, and add to the deficit, and these people are literally sitting there this week with no food. In America.
No more spending - not one dime - is the line in the stand the GOP has drawn this past month. It's the hill they have chosen to die upon. You want no spending, Joey, it's happening.
The rest of the G20 agrees (with caveats). We'll see how that works out, for our country and the world. I think it's gonna get very, very ugly.
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after the g20, when obama was the only leader wanting to continue spending and it was shot down, one would have to assume the rest of the world has recognized that altho some spending may have been required, long term a deficit will do a lot more harm to a country's economy. that's a proven issue that we cannot ignore. i still think that tax breaks to businesses would have been better than amping up spending by the govt. the govt cannot have a positive over all affect-they receive their taxes from workers-they can't earn enough in taxes to pay enough workers to continue that vicious cycle.
as for people having their benefits abruptly taken away-they had been extended to a previously unheard of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. 5 weeks short of two years! that is also unsustainable. i have people coming and applying, who have been off work for months upon months. they readily concede they saw no reason to seriously job search, as they had easy money flowing in-their words, not mine. they worked odd jobs, for cash and gladly accepted the govt handouts. and then many of them bitch about the state of the govt and its debt, while holding themselves free of any blame. hell, it's 'free' money.
i had a guy i hired back last year. he talked the talk about wanting a job-no, he didn't. it was 'too hard', so he went back on unemployment.