Both approaches hurt during a recession, but (simplifying) wouldn't 2% of each accomplish about 4% of either?
in otherwords, if you are anti austerity, and want a truly "balanced approach" wouldn't the best plan be to lower taxes and increase spending? sort of an anti double whammy knowing full well that you are going to have to pay the piper at some point down the road but by then, you are gambling that growth will be above 2% and then you will finally implement your severe "balanced approach' of austerity namely, cutting spending, and raising taxes
You're right, if we actually employed austerity during "the boom", as Keynes advocated, we'd be a lot better off during the busts. But from what I've seen, anytime the government is running a surplus it's taken for granted that taxes are too high--and they're cut, or spending is increased, or both. I'm all for cutting taxes to stimulate, but cut taxes for who, the black tie and ballgown set? Their taxes have never been lower. And we can't seem to get a tax cut passed for the working man without reps insisting that capital gets a tax cut too, out of "fairness".
why the hell should anyone be taxed when we are running massive deficits and emplying quantitative easing. we need to steal peoples earnings to pay off interest on bonds? why bother creating bonds and then paying interest on them. we need to end the personal income tax. its just theft.
yes.. that is my point... he advocates liberal ideas such as loan forgiveness even if it means more taxes... and then hides hundreds of millions from his country's tax man. So right there you have typical lomousine liberal hypocrite. But, bono is clearly smart, he hangs outs with bankers. owns a very successful and profitable venture fund. He must know how money is made by private banks. he should therefore be push his bankers friends to extinguish the debt rather than taxing the working man. Finally, I have no issue with him making the world his oyster. I advocate that to my own children. I even tell them they may wish to become bankers if they do not become pro athletes. I do admonish them to stay true to what is really important. (That is not easy.) Which is why so many in the public eye are such easy targets for people on a thread like this to call them hypocrites. They probably all are at one time or another. As I have been / will be. For a guy trying to the right thing... it must be tough... public schools or child safety... Banker wealth or sticking to your core values. Criticize your buddies or hope you can influence them privately. But then there is this... Fly around in your jet to give bullshit speeches about co2. or advocate for more taxes as you hide your income in tax shelters. If you are going to hide your income from the tax man... then shut the hell up about raising taxes (for sure)... and you should probably shut up about increasing spending when it is increasing the deficit.