Public Spending Cuts: Much Needed Suregery

The only sources I can find suggests the US debt was only 40% of GDP when Roosevelt took office , compared to the 101% as it currently stands. I can also find no evidence supporting the idea that this was one of the main causes of the Great Depression.

The debt was not the main cause of the great recession we are in right now either. This was caused by the too big to fail banks failing. Cutting spending on the scale the Republicans and Torries want will only make it harder for the economy to get back on its feet.

As Stalin once said(our stalin): "You need to spend money to make money"

Even if that spending pushes you into further, overwhelming debt? Certainly, spending would get us out of the recession, but I highly doubt it could create enough new income to solve our deficit or debt. And that in the long term, would be far more damaging.

The Republicans cutting everything left right and center would leave the US with virtually no social security and no entitlement programs at all by 2050. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Diddly Squat. First you have to get out of the recession. Then you worry about the debt.

Well of course there has too be a balance struck and from what you tell me about the Republican's plan (of which I know nothing about) that seem utterly reckless and unfair.

But, how long do you think the US can continue spending the way it is? You only have to look at Greece or Spain to see the immense damage fiscally irresponsible spending can cause. In no way am I advocating cutting everything, I just feel there needs to be an acceptance that they are inevitable without radically raising taxes on everything and everyone. And if the idea of cuts still horrifies people, then there needs to be an open and grown up discussion about how it can be done in a fair and least painful way as possible

The tory plan seems similar.

You fund the spending by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations and the like.

"Democracy sounds great on paper, but in practice it's a fallacy. You in America will see that some day." -Mussolini

People are fucking stupid, and Democracy merely focuses that stupidity. Are you really surprised that our nations are failing when we're electing all these shit for brains people? Hell, Newt Gingrich is taken seriously and he's the human manifestation of disgust and failure.

Has it occured to you that your economy as it is is largely artificial and totally unsustainable if you have THAT many government jobs that can just be cut? Jesus christ!

Mussolini is probably the worst guy to quote.

"The history of saints is mainly the history of insane people." - Mussolini

I don't know, he has some good ones...

"Socialism is a fraud, a comedy, a phantom, a blackmail."
Benito Mussolini
You may be right...

Here's a solution that'd horrify everyone wearing a blue tie from cornwall to the Shetlands:

Sieze the UK based assets of the Lloyds Banking group, HSBC, Barclays and what's left of RBS that isn't already owned by the government. Then Nationalise the lot. The combined funds generated by an endeavour like that would be astronomical. Enough to pay off our debt AND continue banking for their big consumers. Added bonus here: Most of these banks operate as the bankers for the arms industry, particularly corporatons like BAE, who sell British technology as well as materials like depleted uranium to hostile, criminal, terrorist groups and "rogue states" overseas. In short? The government would be in a far more powerful position to prevent this kind of bullshit from happening. Not to mention both Barclays and Lloyds have actively aided countries like Iran in circumventing UN sanctions in the past - their bankrupting of the country in the bailouts is pretty much the tip of their rotten, sordid icebergs.

Spending cuts during a bad economy is like digging a hole whilst someone is filling it back up again. It basically make no difference to debt in the end and therefore makes for meaningless suffering for ordinary people.