[expat_panama]

The deficit should be going down because of decreases in spending, not increases in tax revenues.

Taxes are costs (to us taxpayers) so lower taxes are better.  Deficits are only bad if they get so bad that we can't keep the government going (we need the government to keep going so we don't have anarchy).  Therefore, we need to lower the deficit by cutting spending and getting along with the smallest government we can get by on.

BUT, we can also manage the gov't and the deficit by growing the economy and our wealth faster than the deficit.   The deficit can grow as fast as it wants, as big as it wants, so long as we get richer even faster.  Over the past 10 years the deficit has gone from 16 percent of total family wealth to only 12 percent.  That's good.  We can do that forever.

I'm tellin' ya guys, it don't matter if the debt goes up to a $100 trillion; if my personal family's wealth goes up to say, $200 trillion, I promise to pay it off myself as a philanthropic gesture.

Your welcome.

[Moonman62]

Deficits are only bad if they get so bad that we can't keep the government going (we need the government to keep going so we don't have anarchy).

Deficits are bad if the spending creating them is unethical, or if the money could have been better used somewhere else. You've made your point on the financial side of it.