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They eliminated the budget deficit during the Clinton years on the backs of the Reagan 80s boom and the end of the cold war. It was a unique time. Also, we did

They eliminated the budget deficit during the Clinton years on the backs of the Reagan 80s boom and the end of the cold war. It was a unique time. Also, we did not spend nearly as much back then and it was easier to do. It didn't last very long and soon we were to Bush 2 spending and massive deficits again. Every subsequent administration has dug the hole deeper to the point we spent 140 billion in June alone on federal debt interest payments. Who will you raise taxes on? The "Rich"? (see my other comment, it's not enough money), the "middle class" who are being squeezed silly by inflation at the moment? I don't know that they can shoulder much increase without big upheaval. I agree no problem is unsolvable, but that doesn't mean the problem will be solved gracefully. I suspect a new order of things economically is how it works out in the end, and what that looks like and when it occurs I do not know.

kmbfjr 2y ago
Stop it. There was no “Reagan boom” other than new found free money flowing through the government via Reagan’s Social Security Modernization Act. Fast forward 45 years and his party is telling you that in orders to save the country, you have to accept a lesser benefit because they spent all the money from a fund that was supposed to be a social safety net. You can also stop defending people who are tax cheats with “the rich really do pay”. Apparently not, because that is the premise of the entire article that the IRS collected tax due.
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Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
> Every subsequent administration has dug the hole deeper I find this claim to be intellectually dishonest. It's pretty well-known that deficits drop during Democrat presidencies and then skyrocket again during Republican presidencies. But because democrats haven't been able to bring the deficit to zero since Clinton, somehow they still get blamed for the debt continuing to rise, even when they still manage to reduce deficit while Republicans increase it. It drove me absolutely bonkers that people blamed Obama for skyrocketing debt when he inherited a huge deficit because of Bush's tax cuts.
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rhelz 2y ago
// on the backs of the Reagan 80s boom // chuckle if you were even alive back in 1990, you would remember that the economy was pretty bad--or at least, we thought it was pretty bad; our scale of just how bad "pretty bad" can get has expanded throughout this century. Fun Fact: Ronald Reagan raised my taxes. Graduate student stipends did not used to be subject to federal taxation---and then they were. Just a bit more than $100 was taken out of my pay check. $100 is a lot of money, when you are only making $800 a month. So yeah, Reagan gave tax cuts to one class of people, and paid for them by raising taxes on another class of people (as I recall, he started taxing me to 'fix social security.' I hear that fix is about to run out, and they'll need another one if it is to last through my retirement.). Forgive me if I don't look back on the Reagan years with a golden, warm, fuzzy glow of nostalgia.

kmbfjr 2y ago

Stop it. There was no “Reagan boom” other than new found free money flowing through the government via Reagan’s Social Security Modernization Act. Fast forward 45 years and his party is telling you that in orders to save the country, you have to accept a lesser benefit because they spent all the money from a fund that was supposed to be a social safety net. You can also stop defending people who are tax cheats with “the rich really do pay”. Apparently not, because that is the premise of the entire article that the IRS collected tax due.

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Sohcahtoa82 2y ago

> Every subsequent administration has dug the hole deeper I find this claim to be intellectually dishonest. It's pretty well-known that deficits drop during Democrat presidencies and then skyrocket again during Republican presidencies. But because democrats haven't been able to bring the deficit to zero since Clinton, somehow they still get blamed for the debt continuing to rise, even when they still manage to reduce deficit while Republicans increase it. It drove me absolutely bonkers that people blamed Obama for skyrocketing debt when he inherited a huge deficit because of Bush's tax cuts.

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rhelz 2y ago

// on the backs of the Reagan 80s boom // chuckle if you were even alive back in 1990, you would remember that the economy was pretty bad--or at least, we thought it was pretty bad; our scale of just how bad "pretty bad" can get has expanded throughout this century. Fun Fact: Ronald Reagan raised my taxes. Graduate student stipends did not used to be subject to federal taxation---and then they were. Just a bit more than $100 was taken out of my pay check. $100 is a lot of money, when you are only making $800 a month. So yeah, Reagan gave tax cuts to one class of people, and paid for them by raising taxes on another class of people (as I recall, he started taxing me to 'fix social security.' I hear that fix is about to run out, and they'll need another one if it is to last through my retirement.). Forgive me if I don't look back on the Reagan years with a golden, warm, fuzzy glow of nostalgia.