Meet A Real Socialist And The U.S. Debt/Deficit Are Not Falling

It fascinates me how utterly banal and unimaginative progressive thinking has become. They cling on to their notions and beliefs so tightly as if there's absolutely no room for any other ideas. If it ain't broke, why fix it, right? Well, some of us think things are broken. There's room for improvement.

Better the status quo than the "impractical" theories of libertarians that's for sure. Yet, to me, libertarians offer an abstract interpretation of many of society's ills worth considering. Like socialism can be an "economic principle" more than a coercive ideology backed by state force (and sometimes violence), libertarianism offers a real alternative to the excess reliance on the social-welfare state by progressives.

Every solution seems to fall back on one thing: Taxes. As in, increase in taxes.

Yet we don't have to go too far to see how corrosive to the well-being of a nation high taxes can be. The most recent of these examples being France. History is littered with examples people rebelling once they feel the government becomes tyrannical in its tax collection and application.

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Obama said he's not a socialist and that people who say so should 'meet a real socialist.'

Whatever that means.

I know I've met a few and I can tell you I disagree with them because they do accept the notion of taking something from you through force for the 'greater good' as they see it.

While technically true, he's not a socialist there's no question he sympathizes with leftist ideals. That should be clear to anyone now.

Socialism, to me, is not necessarily a bad thing. No man is an island onto himself and does rely on different forms of social institutions like family, the community at large and even the protection of rights the government offers.

The difference is while libertarians believe in a voluntary and free interaction of people leading to socialist behavior, progressives rely on state force to push their agenda. Personally, the latter is invalid.

Libertarians DO NOT eschew cooperation among people. They encourage it. What they oppose is the use of force to compel people without their consent action they would otherwise not undertake without the threat of jail time and fines.

This is the failure of the modern social-welfare state.

Time to restore some semblance of true cooperative action among free people.

And no, belief in the free-markets does not mean libertarians accept corporate cronyism. They abhor it. However, to them, it exists because of government involvement in the markets. The government distorts more than it balances.

While it's true that the same imbalance can happen without the state among free people the fact is it's a 'natural imbalance' of life taking its course. Life is not fair and injustice happens - at least it wouldn't happen by the arbitrary pen of a bureaucrat.

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Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster filled with unbelievable incompetence (Factcheck takes to task President Obama's false claims about Obamacare). People's lives will be directly affected by this mess. The warnings and concerns about this 2000 page monstrosity seems to be coming true.

I can't see how his Presidency can move forward without fixing this first. His credibility is on the line and as such how can the people trust his judgment on immigration and the economy at the moment?

Speaking of the economy, the administration is putting out flat out lies about the debt and the deficit.

You have to be a complete hack or ignoramus or liar (or all of the above) to believe the debt and the deficit are coming down.

It's absurd to think that Obama can increase social services while cutting the deficit. Wait until Obamacare kicks in.

But don't believe me. Aside from the endless amount of essays and articles confirming this fact, here's Politifact on the matter:

"In raw dollars: Gross federal debt is at an historic high of $17.1 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, it was $10.6 trillion. (The debt grew by $4.9 trillion under President George W. Bush. Under Obama, it is poised to double.)

* As a percentage of the national economy, commonly measured as the Gross Domestic Product: The debt as a percentage of GDP reached 103 percent in 2012 after a steady climb since 2009, according to tables from the White House Office of Management and Budget. The debt as a percentage of GDP had not been that high since 1947, when it was 110.3 percent.

The story is the same for the 2012 federal deficit, which fell to 7 percent of GDP but was larger than any year since the end of World War II. In fact, as University of California Berkeley law professor Alan Auerbach pointed out, the federal government had budget surpluses while Bill Clinton was president.

"Whether you look at the debt or the deficit, it is clearly false that the figures are smaller than anything since WWII," said Princeton University economist Harvey Rosen."

The perception the deficit is falling looks great as measured against the debt which has been at an all-time high. In other words, they're playing with the numbers. 

They lie. Simple as that.

And they're terrible at it.