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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   9641 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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Similarly, there is hope on the budget. A return to 2019 spending would mean a $500 billion budget surplus. While that's not possible due to inflation, the era of mega deficits only started in 2020. We can and will go back to a more reasonable 3% deficit/GDP. When we do, interest rates will fall, reducing our borrowing costs and further reducing the deficit.

Actual question- where's the extra spending? Totally understandable that the deficit exploded in 2020 and 2021 due to stimulus packages but those aren't going on anymore. Is it just social security increases due to population aging?

A decent chunk is also interest expense

Yes. And this is what makes the problem more tractable than it may seem at first. If we can get the budget under control, interest rates will come down, which creates a virtuous cycle.

Check out the IRA budget. I haven't even started to wrap my head around the scale of it. It's literally all the crazy "green new deal" stuff they ever asked for. I see articles from WA green groups about how they can't spend all the money.

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