"SteveB" wrote in message
news
Sure. They count. It's worth having a discussion about how to pay for
what we need/want. It's actually pretty hard to do the math, since there
are so many different ways of adding things up. In the past, many of the
costs were hidden and/or pulled out of the budget, for example.

It's easy to say, we're running huge deficits and spending tons of money
without examining why and what we might get out of it. For example, if
you want to claim (falsely I believe) that FDR's social programs were not
what got us out of the Depression, then what did? Some say, with some
justification that massive military spending as a prelude to WWII did it.
Yet, it was gov't spending that did it.
Wow. With our debt quadrupling every year, I see a dark and stormy night
on the horizon. But I guess it's like Shopaholic Suzie .......... I got
checks and the bank has money. What's the problem. How do you suggest we
get the current crew up there to examine spending and see how we might get
out of it?


Our debt accumulating every year... A dark and stormy night... perhaps. I
guess we could go back to no gov't involvement, but I don't think anyone
with any intelligence is really suggesting that. The Dark Ages weren't all
that comfy, as I recall from the history books. I don't mind paying for
things I might not use directly. I am my brother's keeper. Who would Jesus
not cover with health insurance? Didn't He take the side of the poor, and
wasn't He against the money changers? Or, was He for big business, and
anything-goes capitalism?

I think that the "crew" is acutely aware of the issues you raise... growing
debt and potentional financial disaster. Heck, the boys in charge in the
last administration knew they had to do something.

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Nom=de=Plume