America in 1917 did not fight on a credit card. In 1917, President Wilson, with Congress’ support, raised taxes and sold Liberty Bonds to cover costs.Right, selling bonds not being borrowing. Does the phrase 'put out to pasture' mean anything to the editors at the WaPo?
In 1916 tax revenue was about 7% of GDP, it gradually grew to a little over 14% to pay for WWI--that stands for WORLD war, i.e. a major conflict. There was zero spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the Dept. of Education, OSHA, Housing and Urban Development....
Then we have (also the WaPo, this time Chico Harlan) the terrors of Korea;
Economists, owners of small- and medium-size businesses, and some politicians say Samsung no longer merely powers the country, but in fact overpowers it, wielding influence that nearly matches that of the government.
Debate over how to curb the size and power of Samsung and other family-run conglomerates has turned into the key issue in South Korea’s Dec. 19 presidential election, with polls showing that about three in four voters say they feel negatively about the country’s few behemoth businesses, and candidates sparring over how far to go to constrain them.
Is that really the part of Korea that suffers from too big a role in the economy played by one family?
Finally, syndicated columnist Froma Harrop checks in with;
Since 1960, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 times, 49 of them under Republican presidents. The government should hit its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit sometime before New Year’s Eve. With the fiscal cliff weighing heavy, can we skip a traumatic debate over the debt ceiling?What's a little thing like the Constitution got to with it? That it's congress that has the power to borrow money on the credit of the United States . Nor is it likely that there is no connection between those 78 instances of raising the debt limit and the accumulated debt of over 100% of GDP.
We wonder what's in the funny pages this morning.
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