Quote Originally Posted by Lemur View Post
When you find yourself far, far to the right of Grover Norquist, I think it's time to re-evaluate. Kinda similar to waking up one day and realizing you're way to the left of Abbie Hoffman. Alarm bells should sound.

“I am not an advocate or adherent of the position I have heard some state, that a default would be ‘not a big deal’ or ‘would strengthen the hand of those arguing for limited government.’ I worry that handing the executive branch control over what bills to pay is not a wise move....even when they would have less cash to spend.”

Norquist went on to say that “a ‘shutdown’ or ‘default’ or ‘wobbly walk around the rim of default’ would be, as my mother would say, ‘unhelpful.’ How unhelpful? I don’t know, [and I’m] not real interested in finding out. Let’s experiment on a smaller country.”



Dramatic rhetoric notwithstanding, I'm to the left of Norquist on taxes. I don't share his fear of the government only being able to spend what it collects and not burrow indefinitely, but I'm not sure that's a left-right issue.

Depends on what is being created by the government. For the most part all this money being borrowed is being spent in indirect ways to create jobs. Giving more money to those unemployed is them "creating jobs" because more money to unemployed will spur demand which will spur more production which will open more jobs. However, that isn't exactly how it works because people don't spend like they should.

Now if they had actually used all this debt to restore the nation's highway system, bridges and did an overhaul for a new electrical grid capable of handling and directing intermittent sources of renewable energy in a smart manner, we would be in a better position because we would have created something that actually has value and would actually be generating revenue for many decades.
Even with the best investments it's not as efficient as individuals spending their money on what they decide they want. Even improved infrastructure is an imposition of whatever log-rolling compromise a bunch of politicians decided on. If infrastructure improvements are needed and not just a nice thing to have, that's different. But to create jobs, a federal plan for 300 million people is not efficient.

CR