The Socratic method is a teaching and philosophical approach developed by Socrates that uses a questioning technique to explore ideas and uncover underlying assumptions. It involves engaging in a dialogue where individuals are questioned to examine their beliefs, arguments, and the reasoning behind their assertions. The goal is not to impose a specific answer but rather to encourage critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.
RVonse -- I am willing to engage you in discussion. But I ask that you approach this with an open mind. I answer your questions. You do NOT answer mine; you just repeat the same canards over and over.
Did you tackle the following question yet?
Swammerdami said:
Did you figure out what agency Musk cut where the cuts could not possibly have been a genuine effort to save government money?
You insist that Trump and Musk are trying to reduce the deficit. Question your assumptions. Our discussion can hardly move on until you can answer this.
The debt death spiral has been looming far before the arrival of Trump. The debt interest that is so out of control it is more than the defense budget now....
The Democrats need to acknowledge reality and work to prevent this from happening. Not because they like Trump but because they like their country.
I, and others, have posted MANY times graphs showing VERY clearly that deficits INCREASE when Rs control the White House and Congress, and that deficits DECREASE when Ds control the White House and Congress.
...
Do you even remember seeing those graphs?
Other than Clinton, the deficit has never gone positive.
Is that ALL you remember from those graphs??
Think beyond a snitty little binary meme!
Answer this question:
Which is better?
(a) to convert a $5 billion deficit into a $5 billion surplus; or
(b) to convert a $900 billion deficit into a $5 billion deficit.
Do you grasp the simple arithmetic point this question drives at? If you DO reply to this post, please include this question and your answer, A or B. If instead we get no sign of progress from you, this "discussion" will be much too frustrating.
Ill even give Clinton the credit for that brief interlude of sanity although Gingrich and the Republicans controlled congress at the time.
It sounds like you've fallen for GOP propaganda again. When Clinton was elected, his "coat-tails" gave him a majority in both Houses. That was the only reason he was able to pass
The Deficit Reduction Act of 1993. That Bill passed the House of Reps
without a single Republican vote. The bill then went to the Senate where the vote was 50-50. Again,
not a single Republican Senator voted for the Bill. Al Gore, climbed the dais and exercised his Constitutional duty by casting the deciding vote. The Bill then went to the White House where Bill Clinton signed it into law.
Newt Gingrich -- the very nasty man who sent American politics on his downward spiral -- went on TV and BRAGGED that not a single Republican had voted for the Deficit Reduction Act: The Democrats owned this law and owned the chaos and recession that would follow.
But instead the Act ushered in one of the most prosperous periods in all of American history. Economists from BOTH sides of the political divide admit that the Deficit Reduction Act was a principal key to this prosperity. This great success story should be better known. And let me repeat again: The legislation received ZERO votes from Republican Congressmen and Senators. ZERO. Z-E-R-O. With a Z.
If and when you dare to quote this post and respond to it, I want you to acknowledge that you've learned something new.
In 2001 GW Bush became President (despite losing the popular vote to Al Gore) and almost immediately began reversing the Democrat's fiscal prudence. Massive tax cuts for the rich were passed;
These cuts made the rich richer but that wasn't even the main purpose. The idea --
Starve the beast -- was to DELIBERATELY increase the deficit! (In the Wiki article you can read right-wingers admitting this in so many words.) By increasing the deficit, the right-wing has an excuse ("we need to save money") for firing regulators.
@RVonse -- If and when you reply to this, please respond to EACH paragraph, even if it's only with a single word like "Understood." Can you understand why it is frustrating for me to try to inform you when you'll just go back to the same tired memes and insults, without making any effort to educate yourself?
So what is your solution to this Swammerdami?
The short answer? Difficult long-term problems require careful long-term solutions. Do NOT fall for magic quick fixes peddled by a con-man.
The problems you pose are real problems, and difficult. The first and foremost step is to STOP electing Republicans with their "Starve the Beast" agenda. To achieve that, we need to educate people like you. I realize your single vote will not be enough to swing an election; I consider my discussion with you to be an experiment. The experiment appears to be an on-going failure.
Firing the tax auditors at the IRS -- each of whom earns millions for U.S. Treasury by finding cheaters among the rich and super-rich -- is proof that Trump-Musk pursue the same old "Starve the Beast" agenda.
Firing these auditors OBVIOUSLY acts to increase the deficit, NOT reduce it. Surely that must be clear to you?? Yet you love your psychopathic messiah and refuse to see the light. If your ilk continues to elect scamsters like that, what can us rational thinkers do?
... For the people who think doing nothing is great.....how do you propose we pay the interest on our debt?
You and I agree on something! Some on this Board refuse to understand the distinction I make between fiat money and bank-created money. They argue that "Sovereign debt can be made to disappear by simply adding more zeroes to banknotes." Perhaps those Infidels understand that printing oodles of fiat money is not a good solution, but they inject the idea into discussions out of exasperation with your obduracy. In any event I may add a post or two to the thread I started about the history of bank-created money.
And do you believe the magic fairy is just going to pop the debt away without some kind of bondholder revolt?
These aren't easy problems. The short answer is: We listen to the long-term solutions proposed by respectable thinkers; the USA has produced many Nobel Laureates in Economics. What we should NOT do is to fall for larcenous "snake oil salesmen" as you have done.
Is there a major financial crisis coming? One that will dwarf the crisis of 2008? A crisis which will challenge Dollar Domination itself? Yes, such a crisis is increasingly likely, though nobody can say with certainty WHEN it will appear. One thing IS clear to rational observers: The Trump Presidency is HASTENING that crisis, not delaying it.
