deficit question: do we have a revenue problem or a spending problem?

[carathon]

[Sadcat]

Yes.

We have both. Those are not mutually exclusive alternatives.

[IceT]

Both!

[The Truth Hurts]

Both...

[Joan]

Both. We need to raise revenue and cut spending. The problem is the children in Congress are more worried about their party then they are American citizens. They have to compromise..all of them.

[George B]

If you have a deficit the only possible answer (or at least an honest answer) is that you have been spending too much. That is the only way a deficit is created.

<added> negative votes???? Now there is a demonstration of the liberal's inability to understand even the simplest economic situations. No wonder we have financial problems.

[Davros]

Both. We would be in better shape if the Bush tax cuts had never been passed. They were unnecessary.

[David]

We bring in more tax revenue than any country in world history and have the highest coporate income taxes in the world. Do you really think revenue is the problem?

If the government was limited to the powers it actually had in the constitution, the entire debt could be paid off in under a decade.

[?]

Billions and billions are paid into the Government and it goes through the hands of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is not a Government department, it's not even American. Obama allowed the US Treasury to be looted by the banks of the World. It's pointless to think any of these bastards have interest in what's right for America.

Most of our money paid in is siphoned off each year and they always want more. We are slaves to there tyranny.

[tehabwa]

The BIGGER problems, in the short term, is our unemployment problem, and low GDP rate. Spending would HELP those quickly and a lot.

We do also have a huge revenue problem, as most of the wealth goes untaxed, or taxed at an absurdly low rate. Most of the people who have most of the money and the highest incomes pay either NO taxes, or very low taxes. That has cost trillions.

Unfortunately, no one is talking about a really sane taxation system. They're just arguing about a tiny increase on a few people's earned income (and not at all about a transaction tax, that would do MASSIVE good, in controlling the prices of everything, and prevent so much fuel speculation, for instance); or about taxing investment income at a reasonable rate.

We will be able to cut "Defense" spending as we wind down our wars; and there's some waste in other areas.

What few people seem to realize is that Dems have already cut lot of spending. But Republicans basically oppose ALL spending that saves lives or prevents suffering.