Why “Deficits” Don’t Always Matter:

12 November 2013

As “Fiscal Conservatives,” we take issue with how the “Conservative” side of American politics looks at deficit spending and debt. Here’s why:

Every year, our family takes in a certain amount of money as “income.” A portion of that income, we use to make “capital improvements” and “investments.”

A portion of funds employed for capital investments constitutes down-payments for new real estate properties, for which we take out mortgages.

____________________

If One Were to Look at selective parts of our family balance sheet, one might see:

Deficit Spending (We have added 80% of “spending” in relation to the 20% down-payment)

Increasing Debt (We have added that 80% of “debt” to the balance sheet. This debt addition may be offset by total reduction of principal on all mortgages.)

Over more than three decades of such “deficit spending,” our debt-to-equity ratio is less than 50%.

Any political “Conservative” might say that we are “spending” ourselves to ruin, and that we risk leaving a mountain of debt to our children and grandchildren.

Our children don’t mind.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

[NOTE: The above post on “deficit spending” was prompted by our reading of Why The Most Important Budget Event Of The Year Has Had No Impact, which was posted earlier today by Stan Collender, at “StanCollender’s Capital Gains and Games.”

@GozoTweets

At Forty-Six Cents a Pop, Why Doesn’t the Postal Service Make Money?

16 February 2013

More than a week ago on Slate, Brian Palmer posed the following questions:

“Why Doesn’t the Postal Service Make Money? What do UPS and FedEx know that the USPS doesn’t?”*

These frequently heard questions seem deliberately determined to undermine a fine, government program that has served America since its founding, by making an odd, apples-to-oranges comparison.

I can send a letter from where I sit, here in Bee Cave, Texas (78738), all the way to Barrow, Alaska (99723) or  Mililani, Hawaii (96789) for 46¢, and it will arrive in a day or two.

When was the last time that UPS and FedEx delivered a letter for 46¢? When was the first time either private company did this? Even back in their founding days (1971 for FedEx; 1907 for UPS, which started as a parcel service in Seattle).

Why doesn’t the Postal Service make money, indeed?
____________________

Forget about Congress’s requirement that the USPS fully fund all its pension obligations up front. Forget the requirement that the USPS visit every mail box receiving even a single piece of cut-rate “bulk” mail six or five days a week:

When’s the last time you mailed a letter using FedEx or UPS, and got change back from your dollar?

What’s missing here? Other than an ideological determination to undermine the constitutional mandate that the United States government provide postal service?

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!
__________
*Why Doesn’t the Postal Service Make Money?
by Brian Palmer, Slate (02/07/2013 at 2:29 PM CT)

@GozoTweets

BEATING A DEAD HORSE DEPT: What Republicans Understand About Government—or Fail To:

14 January 2013

Republican Objection to Chuck Hagel’s nomination focuses entirely on the Republicans’ disagreement with the Senator’s policies. Otherwise, his character and capabilities stand unquestioned.

In relation to the confirmation process, one might believe that Republicans expect only to vote for cabinet members who would serve their own, Republican, partisan agenda, rather than serve the elected officials whose political values won the relevant elections.

In the current case, the “elected official” is our reelected President of the United States. The political values relate to those voted on by the majority of the people of the United States.
____________________

Something There Is, about the American political system and majority rule, that leading members of the Grand Old Party of the Republic fail to understand.

Maybe it’s not the American “government” that’s the problem. Maybe it’s just the “Republican” side  which, by failing to understand how our government works, constitutes America’s real “problem.”*

As someone younger and wiser once said, “No wonder Republicans hate government: they don’t know how it works.”

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

__________

*Ronald Reagan, “First Inaugural Address”

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0002

__________

If you always vote for the candidate who promises what you want to hear, you’ll always get the government you deserve.
__________

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

Hypocrisy VERSUS What Government Does Best:

“During Bush Presidency, Current GOP Leaders Voted 19 Times To Increase Debt Limit By $4 Trillion Without Asking for Anything to Reduce the Deficit”

—http://www.topix.com/forum/us/tea-party/T53FBNAQJKCQ5OVGM/p71#c1601

While it may be true that both parties, Republican and Democratic, have their share of hypocrites, it is hard to argue with the premise that Democrats govern in pursuit of the COMMON good, while Republicans govern in the belief that what’s good for them INDIVIDUALLY is good for all.

Thus, it makes sense that GOP leaders vote to increase national debt and deficit spending when they control the purse strings. If it’s good for them, it must be good for America.

Look at the debt that President Reagan left America: we were convinced that it would impoverish our grandchildren. But soon we had a surplus—and now the Republicans lay that debt-and-deficit blame on the Democrats.

__________

You can’t always “grow” your way out of debt, as the U.S. did during the Clinton years. You can’t always “cut” your way out of debt, either. And if you always confuse “spending” with “investing” (as Republican politicians do) then you’re really selling American ingenuity short.

Meanwhile, those of us with wealth are squirreling it safely away, rather than this Republican fantasy of “creating jobs.” While those of us without wealth are barely getting by, and spending as little as possible. (Keep in mind that it was the Reagan Administration that both reined in inflation AND put homeless people on the streets of America for the first time in generations.)

When the citizens aren’t investing (the wealthy) or spending (the poor), that’s when government’s role kicks into gear. Government is the combined power of the people: it’s job is to do what we cannot, whether it comes to waging war, or to investing in infrastructure and new technology.

You may not like the idea of how government “investment” in research and infrastructure builds America. But it wasn’t private industry that built the transcontinental railroad or put Americans on the moon. Sometimes you just need to let go of your ideology. Or be destroyed by it.

Your choice, fellow Americans.

Regards,

(($;-)}

Gozo!