The Economy

[RoadToad]

With regard to the Bush tax cuts, I'm going to hit you with a concept that may be hard to grasp, but stay with me. The less money the federal government takes the more money people have to spend, thus spurring economic activity. As I said it's just a start.

You're still dodging Pontooner's question, somewhat condescendingly, I might add. Maybe it's "hard to grasp," so stay with me while I rephrase it for you. President Bush's tax cuts were enacted in 2001. If they're going to "spur economic activity," why hasn't that happened in the nearly 10 years they've already been in place? It seems to me that an assumption was made that the extra pocket money was going to go towards discretionary spending, which might have actually had a positive effect, but instead people used it to pay bills, or worse (for the economy), put it into savings. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for extending them, because to not do so would amount to a tax increase. But if you think that just extending tax cuts that have been in place since 2001 is going to provide a "boost" to the economy, I think you must have blinders on.

I too agree with Splitshot's statement about the PEOPLE being the key, but I would submit that that means there's little hope of a turnaround any time soon. Call me a cynic, but I don't think the American public is going to just spontaneously wake up and smell the coffee, and say, "You know what? I need to stop living beyond my means, and enjoying all these things in life that I really can't afford." My impression is that the prevailing attitude among Americans, particularly today's youth, is "live for the moment." And the quote "You can't fix stupid" is right on the mark!