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01.21.04.9:52 am

Why the deficit is bad.

Ok. Let me explain it this way. If the budget remains on its current path and Bush's tax cuts are extended and not allowed to expire in 2010, the national debt could soar from $4 trillion today to more than $10 trillion by 2014 (economists say.) That's equal to more than $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

Every man, woman and child in the United States would have the equiviliant of a $30,000 loan held against them. That's what a deficit is. A loan. The country doesn't have the money for everything it spends - it has less money taken in (taxes) than it spends (Cost of the military at 400 Billion a year, cost of all social and economic programs at 350 billion a year, etc..)

Even though you wouldn�t be getting a bill from a creditor for the interest and principal payments on your $30,000 loan, that money has to come from somewhere. Where you ask? From higher rates of interest - your credit card rates will be 24% instead of 18%. From the U.S. dollar being worth less than foreign money - thus making imported goods cost more, and tell me, how many products are actually made in the U.S. these days? From the roads having more and more potholes going unfilled.

Were Bush's tax cuts a good idea for you? Are you in a better position today than you were 4 years ago? Where do you think you will be 10 years from now?

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