1961 Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio on Adam Versus the Man - the Debt Limit Dance!
dear god i said something good about republicans...
July 22, 2011 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
04:52
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| Speaking of artificial drama, joining me now is Stefan Molyneux of freedomainradio.com. | |
| Stefan, thank you so much for being with us tonight. | |
| My pleasure. All right, so you pointed out that this has happened before. | |
| What we're seeing today in Washington with the debt ceiling talks, the back and forth, the drama, the dance. | |
| When could we have possibly seen this before, Stefan? | |
| Well, let's go back in time to 1990, when the elder George Bush was offered two, count him, two dollars in spending cuts for every dollar in tax hikes, and he and the Republicans at the time agreed to said deal with the devil. | |
| And what happened was all Hundreds of billions of dollars of tax increases were pushed through, but zero of the spending cuts ended up being pushed through. | |
| And this is one of the reasons why the GOP is unwilling to allow for any tax increases in this budget negotiation or this debt ceiling negotiation. | |
| Because they got burned once before. | |
| All of the tax increases went through. | |
| None of the tax cuts. In fact, spending increased over that time period. | |
| So this is one of the reasons why they're holding fast. | |
| And of course, the Tea Party inclusion and the really conservative, perhaps even libertarian, GOP candidates are holding fast to this, and we don't know as yet whether it's a strategy or not. | |
| But we do know that no disaster is going to happen on August 2 because it's a completely artificial deadline. | |
| The government can sell off gold. | |
| The government can sell off assets. | |
| The government can prioritize spending. | |
| The government can walk through the streets. | |
| Not prioritize spending! | |
| Not prioritize spending, Stefan. | |
| We're talking about government here. | |
| That might be asking a bit much. | |
| But you're saying when we went through this in the early 90s, we had the same back and forth over the debt limit, the same song and dance from Republicans, Democrats, big spending, taxes versus tax raises versus tax cuts, and we got increased taxes and increased spending and more borrowing. | |
| Is that right? Yeah, and no spending cuts. | |
| None of the promised spending cuts were put forward, and we all know that that's going to be the case. | |
| It's really easy to cut spending in the theoretical future. | |
| It's one of the reasons there isn't even a budget ready for the start of the new fiscal year in October 2011. | |
| They can't get any of this stuff together, so the idea that they're going to come to some intelligent resolution which is going to involve some real spending cuts is a pipe dream. | |
| The system can't work without debt. | |
| Everybody on the inside knows that, and more and more people on the outside, thanks to shows like yours, are beginning to realize it too. | |
| Okay, for another flashback, going back to 2006, which is one of the more recent increases in the debt limit. | |
| I want to share this quote from you from the President, then-Senator Barack Obama. | |
| He said then, the fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. | |
| It is a sign that the U.S. government can't pay its own bills. | |
| It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government's reckless fiscal policies. | |
| Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. | |
| Leadership means that the buck stops here. | |
| Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. | |
| America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. | |
| Americans deserve better. | |
| So was Obama right then? | |
| Well, he was right in that when you're in the opposition you steadfastly refuse to raise the debt ceiling because it's a good way to get what you want. | |
| I liked Barack Obama back in 2006 a lot more when he actually liked his own children and his own potential grandchildren because he was right. | |
| Yeah, of course we're pushing the debt forward, but once you get into power the machinery and the mechanics of power take over and then you become completely for raising the debt ceiling because otherwise you have to make difficult decisions that are going to get you out of It's out of power. | |
| Is there anything new about this round of drama? | |
| I mean, anything? Public awareness? | |
| Understanding? Tell me something's different this time. | |
| Well, I'll tell you a few things that are different very, very briefly, I know. | |
| But first of all, if you look at state governments, giving them more money is not going to work. | |
| They've had a four-fold increase in income over the past almost decade, relative even to population growth and inflation, and they're just heavily into debt. | |
| Giving the government more money is only going to make the problem worse because they just used that money as collateral to borrow more. | |
| So I think the republic has the right to stand against tax increases. | |
| The federal government spending over the last decade has gone up 60%. | |
| So even if we cut it by that amount, it would go back to 2001. | |
| It's not like the society is going to collapse. | |
| So yeah, they need to cut spending and it needs to happen. | |
| But this has been cycled a hundred times the debt ceiling has been raised since it was implemented. | |
| Wait a second. Did I just hear Stefan Molyneux say, The Republicans are right? | |
| Imagine that. All right, we're gonna have to end the interview on that note, then. | |
| Thank you so much for joining us tonight, Simone. | |
| Molyneux of FreeDomainRadio.com. |
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