Why do some many of you conservative democrats around here think government debt is bad?

Question

The reason a person's debt is bad is because that person dies and don't want his kids to have to pay it. A country doesn't die so we can live forever with debt. Debt also devalues our dollar, while to much of this is bad, some devaluing is good because it makes our goods and services cheeper for other countries to buy thereby causing demand that would not have been there. We(America) sells t-bonds to foreginors to pay for this debt. These foreginors then have a stake in America and don't want to see us blown up. This are good things about debt. It also slows the growth of the government, which I like!! And for the record hippies, Clinton inherited a growing economy and handed off a declining economy. The reason he inherited a growing economy was from the tax cuts of the two previous prezs.

I think it's funny when all you communist suddenly become conservatives when we have debt.

For the record I don't like bush. He's not a conservative. He's a big government hippie too.

Answer 1

You made some good arguments, I must admit. While too much debt is bad, as you pointed out, some debt is good. What's bad is a deficit - overspending a budget. That needs to stop. We also shouldn't have a surplus - that means we're being taxed too much.

I'm also creeped out by the people who answered this question. Some clearly don't know the difference between debt and deficit.

Answer 2

Clinton did not inherit a growing economy, it was in a straight up stall from Bush senior, everyone will have to give Clinton credit for a dynamic economy no doubt, he might have been a bad boy but he helped to gear the ecomy right. As for the debt, we now pay between 25% and 30% of all government revenues just to service the debt. now ask yourself if that debt was real low or gone couldn't we cut taxes permanently?So can you see now how to much debt is bad.

Answer 3

while there may be some positives... as you point out... I think we've CLEARLY went above and beyond a healthy level of debt into an unhealthy level...

and HW was clearly in a recession before Bush... that was a major reason why Clinton was elected... 7 percent unemployment under HW... Clinton handed over a 4 percent rate to Bush...

in fact almost any economic indicator greatly rose under Clinton, by several fold in most cases... the slight correction at the end of his term didn't made only a minor dent in his overall gains...

Answer 4

Republicans and conservatives were always against debt, for fiscal responsibility. Ronald Reagan, when he was running for president, said over and over that our national debt was just outrageous. Even if it was for defense, he said, it was unacceptable because a country with $900 billion in debt can't be strong. He said he could balance the budget in 3 years. In fact this was one of the main points of his campaign in 1980.

Once he got into office, though, he acted like debt didn't even matter. The only president since then who's even tried to cut spending was Clinton.

Democrats believed that going into debt was okay when we NEEDED to. Like you would go into debt to buy a house because that's a good investment, or if you needed money in a hurry, like if your kid needed an operation. But going into debt when you don't really need to, that's just irresponsible. And that's what Reagan did. He spent money to boost the economy, to make it look like things were better than they were. We will pay that debt back with interest, over decades, and it will end up being twice as much. It will be a drag on the economy for all that time. So it was like stealing from ourselves in the future. Or, much worse, from our kids.

As for making American goods cheaper, well that's true too. But consider that we have a huge trade imbalance. We buy much more stuff from other countries than we sell, and all that stuff we buy overseas becomes more expensive. So the net effect is that we are poorer.

Also consider that our debt is purchased by Japan and China. This gives them a lot of power over us. GW Bush sold A TRILLION DOLLARS of America to China just in his first term. If China decided to just stop lending us money, we'd be in big trouble!

Answer 5

Hippies have not been around since the 60's, which appears to be the last time you looked at an economics book

Answer 6

Not necessarily. The government is in debt because they continue to borrow money and not paying their debts.Also, senseless wars has also put the government in debt. Billions of dollars are going towards war spending.

Also, it seems like the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Answer 7

More power to you, however I am a Democrat. And believe stronly as you are being on the right track. Clinton was a GOOD president! Bush has messed up BAD.

Answer 8

Debt to help the US good,
Debt to police a civil war- bad.

Answer 9

Sorry I don`t think debt to save is a good plan.

Answer 10

Hmm - Because being in the black is so much better for all of us....
Something NO Repug party has ever delivered!