How is intelligence the first thing people notice? Not like women walk around in lab coats. I guess the first thing I notice is her face.
I suppose this is a matter of perspectives. On the one hand, many companies are making record profits (even GM is in the green). S&P;'s index was up 7% for July. The problem is that many companies have grown comfortable with the current state of affairs--by squeezing labor costs, they're boosting profits and arming themselves with leverage to bully existing employees. I was reading an article about Harley Davidson, where employers threatened to leave the country if the unions didn't concede ground on certain working issues. Right now is a good time for shareholders and a bad time for laborers.
So, my bottom line: full effect? No, hardly. Stalled? Eh. I mean, it took Reagan 3 years to get out of a much smaller recession, and during that period unemployment hovered over 10%. I think we'll have to wait and see.
You're not looking at inflation-adjusted, population-adjusted tax receipts. Unadjusted, federal revenue grew by 80%. Adjusted for both population and inflation, real revenue gain was a wimpy 19%, compared to 24% during the stagflationary period of 1972-1980 (during which the debt-to-gdp ratio still decreased) and to the 41% real revenue increase during Clinton's term. As for unemployment, it shilly-shallied under Reagan from 6% to 10%--whereas the average rate during the 35 years preceding his term was about 5%.
To call the Tea Partiers fascists is an untenable stretch (akin to calling Obama is a socialist), but to imply the Tea Partiers are through and through libertarians is wrong. On social issues, Tea Partiers tend to the authoritarian hemisphere of the political spectrum (gay rights, marijuana, euthanasia, abortion, and so on).
I would further add that Nazis were certainly not socialists, insofar as any self-avowed socialist would come to define their politics. Admittedly, they did graft certain tenets of socialism onto the so called "Third Way" (that is, they stressed the community over the individual). But saying the Nazis were socialists because their name can be parsed into National Socialists is like saying the Democratic Republic of North Korea is a Democratic Republic.
A majority of Americans want to have their cake and eat it too. Ever since Reagan reduced the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%, the government budget has routinely broken bank. Libertarians can rail about profligate spending habits, but in reality a good 60% of the budget includes things like Social Security and Medicare (a system which people pay into and are reimbursed by later in life) and interest on the national debt (which can't be absolved simply by changing the law or voting red). Even if we cut all discretionary spending (including the military), we're still operating in the red.
I speak from the perspective of an American. Perhaps that clouds my judgment, but so be it.
Libertarianism is simply unsustainable within the American polity. Cutting taxes and cutting government spending is a noble goal--hell, it's common sense, right? Prima facie, yes. But you need to dig deeper to get a good grasp of the reality.
First off: only 40% of government spending is discretionary. The remaining 60% includes things such as medicare/social security/interest on the national debt--that is, things that can't be changed. No matter how red Congress/WH becomes, we can only phase out up to 40% of government spending, and that's including defense spending (and most conservatives wouldn't support cutting defense).
I'll give libertarians the benefit of the doubt and assume we can manage to cut a full 40% of the government budget. Even by Bush spending habits we're still operating in the red.
The problem with the debt isn't government spending, it's Reagonomics. Reagan reduced the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%, and dipped into social security to offset the difference. Excuse me, "offset" is used malapropically, because it didn't offset the revenue loss at all. In fact, the national debt tripled. Since Reagan's term, the government has continued to break bank with each president except Clinton.
Theoretically, we can phase out almost all of the government budget--including entitlements and the interest. But before we can successfully accomplish that, we need to first reset the top marginal tax rates where they belong (in the 50% + ballpark), and until the government accomplishes that, I will continue to vote liberal.
Oh, one last thing: as someone who studies climate science as a hobby, I take exception to the libertarian response to global warming. It seems as if libertarians fully ignore the existence of negative externalities. If you press them on it, they claim we can rectify the externality through tort law. But let's be realistic here. Think about the Gulf oil spill, and how people were worried BP would go bankrupt over the escrow fund. Heck, think of global warming. Utilities companies are hardly penniless, but could their combined monetary might really pay off the externalities their ventures have created? No way!
