[ExI] libertarianism

[John Clark]

On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 11:15 AM William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The only recent president you cite is Clinton.  And I think your sample
> size is too small, and outdated, to make any judgment about current
> affairs.
>

If you want a larger sample you're going to have to go back further in
time. There have been 29 presidents since the Republican party was created,
and only 7 have reduced the countries debt as a percentage of GDP, 2 have
been Republicans and 5 were Democrats. And only 2 presidents have reduced
the debt significantly and both were Democrats. You never have as much
information as you'd like but I believe that's sufficient data to make a
judgement;and my judgement is that the conventional wisdom that the
Republicans are fiscal conservatives and the Democrats are spendthrifts is
wrong.

> Why restrict the cuts to defense?
>

I don't restrict it to defense but it can't be ignored because it's 54% of
discretionary spending.


> > Some Libertarians think the entire dept. of Education should be closed,
> among others.
>

At one time I said the same thing and at one time I said it was impractical
for the government to guarantee that all its citizens receive health care
and at one time it was indeed impractical, but I don't think it is today.
The USA is far richer than it was a few years ago even if most of the
people who live in it are not.

> When we are spending more than the rest of the world combined on defense,
>

A slight exaggeration, very slight. It's "only" more than the next 7
countries combined, and a flat tire is "only" flat on the bottom.


> > massive cuts can be made if we can get China and Russia to do the same.
>

That's a big "if". For that you'd need a leader with great diplomatic
skill, so obviously that's not going to happen anytime during the Trump
Dynasty.

John K Clark
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