-=> BOB KLAHN wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-   
      
    DD>> ditch - than at any time since. A balanced budget is a good   
    DD>> thing occasionally. As is paying down the national debt --   
      
    BK>>  Why is a balanced budget a good thing?   
      
    DD>  Why is it not?   
      
    BK>  This country had some 33 balanced budgets in the 20th  century.   
    BK>  What happened to them?   
      
   Like intestinal gas, they have passed.   
       
    BK>>  And paying down the debt does involve reducing it, but not   
    BK>>  necessarily paying it off. There hasn't been one year in this   
    BK>>  country's history when it didn't have a debt.   
      
    DD> True dat. But, we should keep it to a manageable level.   
      
    BK>  I only look at the debt to GDP ratio. The actual numbers are not   
    BK>  as important.   
      
   Dat's true also. But, we should still keep it to a manageable level lest we   
   wind up like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.   
       
    DD> Just where that line is I cannot say as I are not an   
    DD> economist and probably couldn't do a convincing job of   
    DD> playing one on stage.  Bv)=   
      
    BK>  Just make it up a lot, no one will know the difference. Well,   
    BK>  the real economists will, but no one listens to them.   
      
    DD> John Maynard Keynes ain't one of my favourite people,   
    DD> however.   
      
    BK>  Should be, he told us how to fix this economy long ago.   
      
   His version, anyway. Which might work so long as all are on the same page.   
   But, with 'weeds like John Boner and his bunch ......   
       
   ... Teabaggers gave America a Boehner ...   
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    * Origin: Outpost BBS / Johnson City, TN / outpost.slyip.net (1:18/200)