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Showing Original Post only (View all)3 simplistic conservative beliefs that are radically slowing American progress [View all]
3 simplistic conservative beliefs that are radically slowing American progressby John Enrenreich, AlterNet, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/15/3_simplistic_conservative_beliefs_that_are_radically_slowing_american_progress_partner/
"SNIP...........
Three sets of simplistic conservative belief stand out, accepted by virtually all Republicans and, unfortunately, by many Democrats. First: We cant. The most pressing problem in the United States and the key to most of its problems, say conservatives, is our unbalanced budget and the resultant overwhelmingly large national debt. Raising taxes to deal with it is unthinkable. Higher taxes would burden ordinary taxpayers and businesses, the job creators, and would threaten our international competitiveness. The bottom line is that we simply cant afford to expand government programs (for example, the social safety net).
Second: The problems are too complex. The belief that complex social problems can be solved through acts of government is widely considered to be foolish. Many years ago, when I was in college, Henry Kissinger, then a professor, would occasionally have lunch with the members of our campus antinuclear weapons group. Scoffing at what he saw as the naïveté of our proposals to advance world peace through a nuclear test ban treaty, he would proclaim in his deep German accent, These things are more complicated than they seem. (We callow youths, out of his presence, would mock him, proclaiming in fake German accents, These things seem more complicated than they are.)
Third: We dont want to. To conservatives, freedom is inherently a characteristic of individuals and big government is the enemy of freedom and prosperity. Societal constraints on individual freedom put us on the slippery slope to tyranny. It is not government but the free market that solves social problems, and the only legitimate goals of public policy are to promote growth and serve the needs of businesses (the job creators, the drivers of the economic engine).
Let us examine each of these contentions. First, we cant and the problem of the debt: Budgetary constraints seem to make it impossible even to consider introducing new and expensive government programs. Many liberal economists have argued that the supposed threat to our economy posed by the national debt has been greatly exaggerated. In any case, the budget surpluses of the later Clinton years were turned into massive deficit neither by something inherent in our system of government nor by the alleged tendency of liberals to throw money at social problems. The causes of the deficit were simple. Government income was deliberately reduced by the Bush-era tax cuts favoring the wealthy and then reduced further, involuntarily, by the recessions of 2001 and 2008. Meanwhile government spending increased, largely due to the soaring costs of the Bush war of aggression in Iraq. Nothing inevitable. All reversible.
.............SNIP"
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3 simplistic conservative beliefs that are radically slowing American progress [View all]
applegrove
May 2016
OP
The reasons that conservatives give for rejecting Bernie's policy proposals...
immoderate
May 2016
#1
Yes. If the US had a parliament like Canada, meaning he would win the congress if he won the
applegrove
May 2016
#2