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The problem is neither taxation nor spending. It's a failure to correlate revenue to our financial commitments. We will not be able to cut our way to deficit re
by jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
The problem is neither taxation nor spending. It's a failure to correlate revenue to our financial commitments. We will not be able to cut our way to deficit reduction in our lifetimes; there's just too much deficit there. The superstitious belief that we can balance our books by cuts alone (thereby likely throwing the country into a second recession, which would make matters worse) is the real madness in this discussion.
- wisty 15y agoThere are multiple problems, some of which interrelated. You could go all the way back to the constitution of the USA. The US has non-compulsory voting, because in theory this ensures only well-informed, conscientious voters turn up. In reality, it leads to pork barrelling. Let's say you are a chicken farmer, in a chicken farming district, and Congress is considering a subsidy (or tax) on chicken farms. You and the boys at the chicken farmer's club have an incentive to mobilize, and try to get people to vote for the party (or candidates) with chicken-friendly views. But the apathetic masses would rather just not vote, because this pork barreling debate will not hurt their wallets that much. Whereas in Australia (which has compulsory voting), a politician who runs an anti-pork campaign can get a fair bit of support from apathetic voters who don't want to be at the polling booth, but have a sneaking suspicion that government spending is not always wise.