(Video) CNN Debate - January 30, 2008

JumpInTheFire · #1 (**permalink**) 01-31-2008, 01:15 AM

http://www.youtube.com/v/2WLGMLpA-20&rel=1

rightwinger · 01-31-2008, 11:43 AM

More of a Ron Paul highlight tape than a video of the actual debate....

He doesn't know what he's talking about on the economy. He also referenced Reagan on the economy at the end...and Reagan didn't really know what he was doing with the economy anyhow. Sure, he was against inflation, which he essentially crushed when he came into office. But by lowering inflation, unemployment rises. And when Reagan did that, unemployment went on the rise. And the argument that the only role government should play in an economy is to lower the taxes is silly. There are times when you have to raise taxes.

And about the disappearing middle class, that is a biproduct of Reaganomics, supply side economics. It had the support of no economists (a rogue one here and there) but the vast conventional wisdom on economics was that supply side economics wouldn't work, and it didn't. But Reagan used it. Bush used it. W. Bush has used it. It doesn't work. That effect has nothing to do with the monetary policy. With supply side economics, you get huge deficits, and a disappearing middle class among other things. A growing gap between rich and poor.

And the "print money out of thin air" thing is a mischaracterization of what is really happening. And the gold standard was a ball and chain on the economy. During the depression, the countries that got rid of the gold standard recovered much faster, and much better. It is unnecessary in a global economy.

RATSOADM · 01-31-2008, 03:36 PM

You mean the 1920's depression...? The one that happened after the federal reserve was established in 1913?

**Brother of Yeshua** · 01-31-2008, 06:04 PM

It was the whole debate when he first posted it. What happened?

JumpInTheFire · 01-31-2008, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brother of Yeshua

It was the whole debate when he first posted it. What happened?

yea im not sure, maybe the uploader changed the vid?

**Brother of Yeshua** · 01-31-2008, 09:21 PM

*GASP* Must mean Ron Paul extremists hacked the toast

tombinghamthegreat · 01-31-2008, 10:11 PM

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Based off of this qoute, Ron Paul could be considered extreme for telling the truth and only wants to restore the constitution.

WillyBubba · 01-31-2008, 10:19 PM

First of all, Anderson did a terrible job of conducting the debate. There are four Republican nominees, admittedly two front runners, but Paul and Huckabee weren't treated properly at all. You could see them talking to each other at one point about their lack of airtime and it seemed as if McCain was simply laughing at them (though he grinned throughout the whole night at any rate, even when his double talk was thrown in his face).

@ rightwinger - The only time to raise taxes is when the government needs to spend money. For the federal government this should be for war otherwise taxes need only be high enough to fund the administration and what little the feds are actually supposed to do. The states are supposed to deal with the other issues (like welfare programs) and raise or lower state taxes accordingly. Reagan knew perfectly well what he was doing. Cutting taxes increased consumerism which directly and immediately helps the economy. Reagan had a lot of work to do and while unemployment rose dramatically in 1982, by the end of his administration over 20 million jobs had been created and unemployment was at what is considered to be full employment of about 5% unemployed. (src: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, William A. DeGregorio, 2004)

An economy does the best it can to adjust to inflation and to a point it can. There is a breaking point however, most noticeable back when Germany's paper money failed due to ridiculous inflation. To reverse this trend it is also difficult and does create joblessness initially, but the market corrects and things quickly get even better than before. Inflation hurts the value of our money, meaning we can buy less and less for the same amount. Wages rarely rise quickly enough to combat this and things increasingly get worse. On the reverse, carefully scaled deflation will restore the dollar's power both at home and in the global economy.

rightwinger · 02-01-2008, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RATSOADM

You mean the 1920's depression...? The one that happened after the federal reserve was established in 1913?

Yeah. Do you have a point? Are you gonna blame the existence of the Fed for the Depression? It didn't help at that point...but not due to it's existence, but due to mismanagement. It pursued a contractionary policy, which wasn't smart.

It's not a perfect institution, but we need it. There was a stock market crash in the 80's you know....the Fed dealt with it immediately.

Quote:

@ rightwinger - The only time to raise taxes is when the government needs to spend money.

And the government needs to spend money, at times of recession. But, if there is a gigantic national debt....I don't think cutting taxes, and increasing spending is the way to go. Which is what we've been doing.

**Ristaron** · 02-01-2008, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rightwinger

Yeah. Do you have a point? Are you gonna blame the existence of the Fed for the Depression? It didn't help at that point...but not due to it's existence, but due to mismanagement. It pursued a contractionary policy, which wasn't smart.

It's not a perfect institution, but we need it. There was a stock market crash in the 80's you know....the Fed dealt with it immediately.

And the government needs to spend money, at times of recession. But, if there is a gigantic national debt....I don't think cutting taxes, and increasing spending is the way to go. Which is what we've been doing.

God you infuriate me with the holier-than-thou attitude, especially because you don't seem to have a clue what you're talking about.

The reason the dollar is crashing is because it has NO intrinsic value! If you had a gold standard, you have set amounts and limits. You don't get runaway inflation, which is what caused the Depression because the banks called in all their debts, driving people into bankruptcy.
So, YES, we are going to blame the Fed for the Depression. It's an unconstitutional organization vested with power that the founding fathers sought to award (and did, if you actually read the fucking constitution) ONLY to the government itself.