Reader Questions
I know that I don’t have a ton of readers these days, mostly due to my negligence in posting frequently, but for those that I have, I would be interested in the answer to the following questions:
What level of deficit spending do you think is appropriate? (Some, very little, none, or negative in order to pay down the debt are fine, or if you have some sort of formula you think should be applied that is fine too)
What economic and fiscal effects do you believe would result fromadopting your prefered policy and why?
I won’t be arguing with anyone comments on this post, and I would prefer that on this post you simply answer the question and not respond to anyone else. I may write more on this later, for now though this is just an informal survey about what the people who come here think on this topic.
Saying that you don’t know or don’t care is perfectly valid too.
Deficit spending that represents a positive investment can be good. But because the inefficiency of government, it is doubtful that this deficit spending will be as efficient as letting individuals and state governments do that spending.
My suggestion: Target the next year’s budget based on the current year’s actual results, as appropriate to an expectation of growth equal to the expected population growth, minus 2%. Assume the economy is in a mild recession, and you’ll rarely overspend your next year’s tax revenue. And if the economy is good, you’ll collect a lot more tax revenue than you spend, and can spend somewhat more next year.
Do this until the debt is largely reduced.