[AmericaUnited]

Let's say we cut the US Federal Budget across the board by 40% tomorrow (to $1.7 Trillion dollars, roughly as large as the biggest of the CLINTON Budgets), and we cut all Federal taxes by 10% across the board also (to roughly $2.2 Trillion). At that point, we're running a Federal Budget Surplus of $500 Billion per year

Only some sophomoric moron thinks you could cut the Federal budget 40%, taking $680 BILLION dollars of economic activity out of the economy, and somehow MAGICALLY your tax receipts will stay the same. WHAT A HUGE AND BASIC SCREWUP!

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Only some sophomoric moron thinks you could cut the Federal budget 40%, taking $680 BILLION dollars of economic activity out of the economy, and somehow MAGICALLY your tax receipts will stay the same. WHAT A HUGE AND BASIC SCREWUP!

Hold on... do you mean to tell me that you are some Marxist-Educated freshman undergrad (if you've even gotten that far) who actually thinks that most Federal Spending is in some way Economically Productive?!

Do you not even recognize the Economic Fact that MOST Federal Domestic Spending (on Welfare, on Health Care, on Education, et cetera) is actually COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE? That Federal Spending so utterly distorts incentives, pricing structures, capital allocations, and productivity as to actually reduce Private Market profitability for every Federal Dollar spent??

Are you really THAT stupid? I had, honestly, no idea. WHAT A HUGE AND BASIC SCREWUP!

Do you really think that spending $250 Million dollars on an Alaskan "Bridge to Nowhere" is somehow GOOD because it generates "Economic Activity"?

What about the Opportunity Costs the Economy suffers when the Federal Government sells Bonds in order to paper over such Deficit Spending, thus taking money out of the Private Capital Markets? OR WORSE, just prints the additional money via Debt Purchase into the Federal Reserve System, thereby generating dollar-destroying Inflation throughout the entire Economy? Did you ever think about THAT??

Mere "Economic Activity", if generated by COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE and therefore ANTI-PROFITABLE Government Spending, is NOT a Good Thing!

Gross "Economic Activity" is NOT necessarily a virtue in and of itself. Good grief, am I debating a Conservative or a Marxist Keynesian??

Gross Domestic Product
GDP = C + I + G + NX (Where C is Private Consumption, and I is Private Investment, and G is Government Spending, and NX is Net Exports over Imports [Trade Balance]).

A Tale of Two Economies (Each with an equivalent Trade Balance, NX, for the sake of Example).

• Economy A: GDP = 12, 4C+4I+4G+0NX (The GDP is 12; but 33% [4G] is being spent by the Government on wasteful and anti-profitable Government Boondoggles. There is much "Economic Activity", but Private Citizens [4C+4I] have less to Consume and Invest)
• Economy B: GDP = 11, 5C+5I+1G+0NX (The GDP is only 11; but less than 10% [1G] is being spent by the Government on wasteful and anti-profitable Government Boondoggles. There is somewhat less "Economic Activity", but Private Citizens [5C+5I] have 25% MORE to Consume and Invest. They are HAPPIER and MORE Profitable, individually, DESPITE living in a "Smaller Economy" overall).

Of course, if we admit of any sort of economic forecasting, I think that it is CERTAIN that the more-Capitalistic "Economy B" will out-perform the more-Socialistic "Economy A" over time, thus producing both MORE for the Private Citizenry AND a larger Gross Product.

However, at this point, I am really trying to make it as simple as possible for you to understand. Gross "Economic Activity" itself is NOT necessarily a "Good Thing" if it is Inflation-Funded or Tax-Funded or Debt-Funded Government Spending which operates at the expense of the Private Markets and undermines incentives, pricing structures, capital allocations, and productivity. Can you at least grasp that notion?

If you can't... well, then there's only so much I can do. I can't make a Fiscal Conservative of someone who's been poisoned by fiscal Marxism to the root. I'm not Jesus Christ and I can't work miracles.