January 24, 2011
"Americans overwhelmingly say that in general, they prefer cutting government spending to paying higher taxes, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published last week. Yet their preference for spending cuts, even in programs that benefit them, dissolves when they are presented with specific options related to Medicare and Social Security, the programs that directly touch millions of lives and are the biggest drivers of the long-term deficit."

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In other words, either Americans are in denial or delusional or plain selfish.  Just don’t stop my government handout, but cut the other guy’s.

State of Union Near, Republicans Draw Line on Spending - NYTimes.com

10:32am
Filed under: america politics deficit spending 
December 8, 2010
Do tax cuts for the wealthy stimulate the economy?

Initial estimates by economists suggested that the overall legislation would reduce the unemployment rate by one-half a percentage point to a full point over the next year, compared with allowing all the tax cuts to expire and passing no new stimulus. By the end of 2012, the decline could be up to 1.5 percentage points, economists said.

Since economists are not always right and they have been wrong so often recently, I am not sure at all if the giveaway to the rich will do anything more than add to the deficit.

While I am no millionaire, with all the uncertainty in the economy, I plan to make no change in my spending during the next year.  Whatever additional money that I have coming in from payroll tax holiday, I simply plan to save and/or invest, and like any other investor, the money might as well end up in foreign stocks.

(Source: The New York Times)

11:10am
Filed under: obama economy politics deficit investment tax cut republicans gop democrats