Hello tsuke,
if revenue is up then we have a spending problem.
And if you think the issue can be adequately explained in such a short sound byte then you are mistaken. In short, no. We do not have a spending problem. We have a tax-cut-not-generating-enough-revenue problem. Revenue is up, but it is NOT UP ENOUGH. Republicans promised it would be up enough to reduce the deficit. It is not. The deficit is higher.
Also if reducing spending would hurt the economy then increasing taxes would do so as well.
Not as much as reducing spending would. It is a matter of degree. Once again, you are over-simplifying the issue. This is complex. There is no fitting it into a sound byte and adequately explaining our predicament.
The economy is on a 'sugar high' right now. Sure, paying lower taxes helped in the short run. But it won't last, can't last. Mark my words. A crash is coming. It is irresponsible to cut taxes so much that insufficient revenue is being collected. The thought of reducing spending is imaginary. Republicans have the votes to eliminate the dole. Force all the 'slackers' to work or starve. Why don't they cut that 'needless spending?' Because it isn't needless. It is needed to feed people. And their spending goes pretty much 100% right into the economy, unlike the rich who do not contribute as much to the economy since they don't spend as much of what they get.
The poor spend nearly everything they get.
The rich don't.
Cutting spending (taking money from the poor) takes away every dollar of cutting right out of economic spending.
Taxing the rich more (increasing revenue) doesn't hurt the economy as much because the rich don't spend their money. They invest it.
And then the argument is that investing creates jobs. No, it doesn't. Not any more. Because corporations already have so much money they have all the funds they need to build factories, create jobs. They don't, because they don't need more factories or more workers on a great enough scale to equal the revenue that taxing them more would generate. That's because there is no more unfulfilled demand for their products. That's because workers are not making much more money. Most Americans have very little savings. Until wages increase significantly, there will be no big increase in demand for products, no big reason for corporate expansion.
And that is shown by the fact that corporations did not expand when they got the big tax cut. What did they do with the money? They bought back their own stock. That made their stock prices soar. The market went up. Looks good on the books, so executives all got great big raises and bonuses. Workers got almost none of that. A few one-time small bonuses, mostly done for publicity.
The economy is going strong. GDP up at 3.9%. Great for Wall Street. But what about Main Street? Wages are only up 2.9%. That's barely enough to keep up with inflation. No virtual gain for workers. Big gains for the super-rich. And the US govt debt is rising too quickly. It is unsustainable. It can't last.
The economy is going to crash. It is only a matter of time.
It doesn't have to if we had responsible fiscal management. Republicans appear incapable of that. The President is building a giant house of cards and a big wind is beginning to stir. How high do you think the economy can go like this? It's going to crash hard. It's like we are building a great house, but we are using rotted termite-infested wood. It's gonna be the greatest house you ever saw. Nobody builds a house like this one. Fine, fine house. Bigger and more impressive than anything on the block. Better take a snap shot real quick. It won't last. A big fall is coming. Mark my words. The economy that Trump built is going to crash hard.
