If the federal government needs to fund local governments maybe it should consider that it is taking way too much money for itself, and let some of those taxes go to local governments to hire policemen, firemen, and teachers.
By the way, just for the record, government jobs do not help the economy, they are a drain on it. A necessary drain, up to a point, but a drain none the less. Since you seem to be willing to misapply quotes from Burke, perhaps you should consider this one:
"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing."
You right wing pea brains (you are NO liberal, classic or any other configuration) squeal that the worst policy during a recession is to raise taxes. With the shortfalls of state revenues even with substantial state budget cuts, local communities are having to choose between raising taxes to sustain essential services or firing more workers.
So, you say raise taxes during a recession, but not on the elite or the top 1 %, you say to raise taxes on everyone, the middle class and the poor...
People with government jobs A) provide services to the community i,e. police, fire B) They pay Federal, State and local taxes C) They sustain their family without tapping into public assistance programs D) They SPEND money to support all other jobs that depend on consumers. E) They are not drawing unemployment checks.
Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.
Edmund Burke
Wow, you know my positions without me typing a word.
I am unimpressed.
I think the worst policy is to raise taxes in any economy, at least at the federal level. Local governments are better equipped to know what is needed locally, and react to it faster. Take your vaunted stimulus as an example, and all the federal red tape that made it harder to spend. Do you honestly think LA decided to hold on to all that money because they thought it made sense?
I already admitted that government jobs is a necessary drain to a point, so why are you trying to claim that they are beneficial, and thus justified? Every dollar that goes to taxes comes out of the pockets of people who could be using that money to find a cure for cancer, yet you want to argue that every level of government is responsible for paying for police protection in any community in the country. Exactly why should my taxes go to paying for police in Boston and firemen in Dallas?
By the way, government employees cannot possibly pay more in taxes than they take out of the system in wages and benefits. Pointing out that they pay taxes is plain stupid, and I have no idea why people even mention it. Is it because you know any defense that you mount of the public sector is so weak that it will inevitably fail, and you thus want to throw out as much BS as possible in an attempt to cloud the issue?
As for the rest of your arguments,
it would probably be less expensive to simply fire every government employee and give them the food and shelter they need for their family. Since they are spending money that I could spend myself, that does not impress me, and unemployment would at least come with a time limit.
Want to keep trying, or can you admit that you are totally lost already?
