Steve Bannon Turns On Trump

[Jaywalker]

The deficit/debt is in no way tied to tax revenue.
You could tax everyone 100% and we would still never pay of the "deficit/debt", because taxation is control not revenue.
The sooner people realize that taxation is just a way for the government to pick winners and losers the better off we'll be.

JodyH,

I pay careful attention to what you say about guns and such, but I think you've been listening to the wrong TV channel on national debt.

Leave aside for a moment whether debt is good or bad (I'm in the "not good" category, but there are other arguments.) Here's an interesting web site on debt and income: http://www.usdebtclock.org/. As I write this on 6 January 2018 the National Debt is $20.6 Trillion. Most of that we owe to US taxable entities, who can be taxed on the interest they receive (one of the reason some economists are in the "debt is good" column.) As of now debt owed to foreign entities is $6.4 Trillion. (Same citation)

In 2000 the national debt was $5 Trillion; by the time Bush II left office it had doubled to $10 Trillion. https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/...ebt_histo5.htm

For that debt the US must pay interest. As of December 2016 the average interest rate was 2.1% (or 2.3%, but who's quibbling). It's nearly simple: 2.1% of $20.6 Trillion is approximately $400 Billion. Those are checks the government must write to pay interest on the debt each year, some of which goes out of country and can't be taxed. So, $400 Billion of our taxes goes to pay the interest on our outstanding debt.

Interestingly, our national deficit (which adds to the national debt annually) was about $585 Billion in 2016.

Compare the $585 Billion deficit to the $400 Billion in interest paid on national debt and it appears (from these numbers) that approximately $185 Billion in additional taxes would stop the national debt from rising. More would begin to pay it down.

So, I really do dispute your statement that "The deficit/debt is in no way tied to tax revenue." It is extremely closely tied.

[JodyH]

As long as the feds can print money and deficit spend, tax revenue doesn't mean jack-shit.

[scjbash]

Compare the $585 Billion deficit to the $400 Billion in interest paid on national debt and it appears (from these numbers) that approximately $185 Billion in additional taxes would stop the national debt from rising.

Increase tax revenue by $185 Billion and they'll simply increase spending by $200 Billion. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

[Jaywalker]

Increase tax revenue by $185 Billion and they'll simply increase spending by $200 Billion. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

So the "fed" is one guy who decides to run up the deficit?

[Jaywalker]

Increase tax revenue by $185 Billion and they'll simply increase spending by $200 Billion. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

"They'll" means who? Congress?

[Jaywalker]

Okay, I get you disagree, but the problem we have in the US now is that we absolutely refuse to agree on a common set of facts. I'm talking about fiscal matters and you want to talk about human nature. As I used to say in briefings about insoluble matters, "All we need is a small change in human nature." They aren't going to happen, but I damn sure know that we owe $20.6 T; we need to pay it back so that we don't have to pay interest on it.

[Tamara]

The flip side is...Trump had 16 Republican opponents in the primaries.
If he's the dumbest most incompetent man to ever run and achieve the Presidency... what's that say about registered Republicans who ignored 16 better candidates and voted for Trump?

They don't appear to think very highly of weed.

[GuanoLoco]

Just take the $20 TRILLION debt, and consider the $62,000 owed by every man, woman and child - many of which who do not pay in to the system, an increasing # of whom are being subsidized by the system.

We will be adding about $700 Billion to the debt in 2017.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the “Tax Cut” will increade the deficit (not the debt) $1.4 TRILLION over 10 years. I have not seen a single credible report, even from “conservative sources” that claims this so-called “Tax Cut” can pay for itself.

How about these one-time $1000 bonuses being doled out to employees by AT&T, etc.? I did the math - AT&T will pay this one-time deductable expense off (say $200 million) in a fraction of a year and take profits every year until the benefit expires. I hope you are all deep stockholders, because that is who it will benefit - at the expense of everyday american people.

Do your homework, do the math. We are being routinely lied to, and far to many seem willing accept these lies at face value.

[Joe in PNG]

They don't appear to think very highly of weed.

It's not the weed as much as the people who really, really, REALLY like weed.
You know, the really obnoxious types with the bad whiteboy dreds and worse smell who just. Won't. Shut. Up! about weed and how great it is, and that sort of thing.

[blues]

It's not the weed as much as the people who really, really, REALLY like weed.
You know, the really obnoxious types with the bad whiteboy dreds and worse smell who just. Won't. Shut. Up! about weed and how great it is, and that sort of thing.

"Dude, I tolja we were gonna be famous! No more of that 'what the heck is that, a tarantula on your head?' Let's burn one!"