Report: If Not for Republican Policies, the Federal Gov't Would Be Running a Surplus

[adrina]

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Following an announcement Monday from the Treasury that the federal government ran a deficit of $779 billion in Fiscal Year 2018, the Democratic staff on the Senate Budget Committee released a report showing that the federal government would be running a surplus today if not for four Republican policies.

Without the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the enormous post-9/11 defense buildup and two rounds of costly, regressive tax cuts, the federal government would be running a $156 billion surplus instead of a $779 billion deficit. The Trump Tax Cuts – which coupled permanent corporate tax cuts with temporary individual tax cuts – added $164 billion to the 2018 deficit.

The Bush tax cuts contributed $488 billion to the deficit in FY 2018, the Trump tax cuts added $164 billion, the direct costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ran up $127 billion and base defense increases led to $156 billion in spending.

Instead of spending nearly $1 trillion on the military and tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations, the federal government could have paid for any of the following proposals – multiple times over for some – in FY 2018 and still balanced the budget.

And that doesn't even take into account the bailouts and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

 

[Ann_Tagonist]

Guess what the federal government would do with a surplus.

 

[Not Normal]

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And that doesn't even take into account the bailouts and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

Kinda like when that rogue crazy man Bill Clinton was running the show...

 

[Kirkrapine]

Without the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the enormous post-9/11 defense buildup . . .

Oh, yeah, about that . . .

 

[adrina]

Kinda like when that rogue crazy man Bill Clinton was running the show...

Crazy ain't it.

Oh, yeah, about that . . .

Are you advertising your thread in mine?

For some reason war is seen as a very normal thing for this world in this time.

 

[HisArpy]

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And that doesn't even take into account the bailouts and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

So, lessee, take out the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Take out the costs of the bailouts. Take out the costs of rebuilding the military after it being depleted by said wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And repatriate the tax cut crumbs back to the US treasury.

If we do all that, the FedGov would have $156 Billion in surplus. Good, I'm cool with that. Except who's gonna pay for all the crap they decided to not include in their calculations? You?

Hey! maybe it'll all just magically disappear!

 

[Kirkrapine]

For some reason war is seen as a very normal thing for this world in this time.

Well, not so much. These days, all the wars, including the ones we're involved in, are small-scale. Conflicts that engulf continents appear to be a thing of the past. And yet we maintain a military establishment capable of fighting such a war. It's a waste of money.

 

[adrina]

Well, not so much. These days, all the wars, including the ones we're involved in, are small-scale. Conflicts that engulf continents appear to be a thing of the past. And yet we maintain a military establishment capable of fighting such a war. It's a waste of money.

I don't know about that.

Middle east? Terrorism? Syria, Iraq, Turkey etc. A lot of fighting all over the place.

It's been almost 20 years since 9/11. Just because it isn't like WWI or WWII doesn't mean that war hasn't been normalized. But then so has violence.

I agree about the waste of money. But then the military industrial complex must be fed, right?

 

[Que]

Go back and do the math again you're going to have to now assume the baseline of the Obama economy not the Trump economy. Republican policies are specifically responsible for the growth and with growth came record revenues to the treasury.

Unless you mean Republican SPENDING (abetted by Democrats) in which case you are right. Except for the fact that the Democrats given the opportunity would spend every bit of that and more. It isn't like you're exactly the party that even pretends that they care about spending. The Republicans pretend which makes them Hypocrites but the Democrats can't claim fiscal responsibility.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Been normalized?

War and violence have been the norm since the very beginning.

 

[TalkRadio1]

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And that doesn't even take into account the bailouts and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

The Democratic staff on the Senate Budget Committee? Is that the same committee whose ranking member is Bernie Sanders?

Here is a little something your linked article failed to mention...

More importantly, most estimates suggest that the deficit will worsen as spending on Social Security, Medicare and other programs increase with the aging baby boomer population.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/econom...es-to-highest-level-in-6-years-at-779-billion

 

[IG_88]

For some reason war is seen as a very normal thing for this world in this time.

Where the hell have you been for the last 100,000 years?

 

[adrina]

Where the hell have you been for the last 100,000 years?

You're being ridiculous. By about 95,000 years.

 

[BotanyBoy]

You're being ridiculous. By about 95,000 years.

Says the fucking retard who can't understand why war is normalized after 200,000 years of it.

God damn and I thought LT was low wattage

 

[HisArpy]

Says the fucking retard who can't understand why war is normalized after 200,000 years of it.

Wait, wait, wait... You're looking at it all wrong. She's not saying 100,000 MINUS 95,000. She's saying he's off by 95,000 and that the real number should be 195,000.

Couldn't you tell? I mean it's not like she was vague about it or anything.

 

[adrina]

There are some seriously bitter and stupid people in this world. And two of them posted right above me.

 

[myrionomos]

Senator Orin Hatch of Utah has been almost alone in working for a balanced budget for more than 30 years. He has been defeated on this point many times over.

Can we assume that Adrina is a supporter of the Senator?

 

[HisArpy]

There are some seriously bitter and stupid people in this world. And two of them posted right above me.

Does this mean you like being on the bottom? Asking for a friend.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Wait, wait, wait... You're looking at it all wrong. She's not saying 100,000 MINUS 95,000. She's saying he's off by 95,000 and that the real number should be 195,000.

Couldn't you tell? I mean it's not like she was vague about it or anything.

Even if that were true it still doesn't explain her earlier comments where the normality of violence clearly baffles her little overly emotional brain.

There are some seriously bitter and stupid people in this world. And two of them posted right above me.

Sideline shit talk....worth about as much as your bewilderment about war and violence.

 

[needit700]

That is the

dumbest thing any one ever, I mean EVER!!! said. Obama double the national debt in 8 years So you're FAKE NEWS!!!!

 

[Kirkrapine]

Says the fucking retard who can't understand why war is normalized after 200,000 years of it.

But really it's only the last 5,000 years that matter, because civilization is no older than that; all previous wars were tiny tribal affairs.

 

[HisArpy]

But really it's only the last 5,000 years that matter, because civilization is no older than that; all previous wars were tiny tribal affairs.

War is war. You can't erase that fact by minimizing the number of combatants.

 

[Kirkrapine]

War is war. You can't erase that fact by minimizing the number of combatants.

No, but I can fairly minimize the relevance of such wars.

 

[HisArpy]

No, but I can fairly minimize the relevance of such wars.

When the discussion centers around the number of years mankind has been making war, you just can't arbitrarily cut it off somewhere in the middle and say "earlier stuff doesn't matter. Even if it's war, it doesn't matter because it was too small compared to today's size of warfare."

 

[Kirkrapine]

When the discussion centers around the number of years mankind has been making war, you just can't arbitrarily cut it off somewhere in the middle and say "earlier stuff doesn't matter. Even if it's war, it doesn't matter because it was too small compared to today's size of warfare."

It does matter, because civilization inaugurated warfare as an actual state project, and that's what Adrina was talking about.