We NEED to start talking more about "odious debts" and govt. spending

We always hear about "govt. waste" and "pork", but this term actually gets straight to the point, and also has a damn good solution.

http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=subcontent&AreaID=3

But Sack believed that debts not created in the interests of the state should not be bound to this general rule. Some debts, he said, were "dettes odieuses."

*If a despotic power incurs a debt not for the needs or in the interest of the State, but to strengthen its despotic regime, to repress the population that fights against it, etc., this debt is odious for the population of all the State.

*This debt is not an obligation for the nation; it is a regime's debt, a personal debt of the power that has incurred it, consequently it falls with the fall of this power.

*The reason these "odious" debts cannot be considered to encumber the territory of the State, is that such debts do not fulfill one of the conditions that determine the legality of the debts of the State, that is: the debts of the State must be incurred and the funds from it employed for the needs and in the interests of the State.

"Odious" debts, incurred and used for ends which, to the knowledge of the creditors, are contrary to the interests of the nation, do not compromise the latter — in the case that the nation succeeds in getting rid of the government which incurs them — except to the extent that real advantages were obtained from these debts. The creditors have committed a hostile act with regard to the people; they can't therefore expect that a nation freed from a despotic power assume the "odious" debts, which are personal debts of that power.

Even when a despotic power is replaced by another, no less despotic or any more responsive to the will of the people, the "odious" debts of the eliminated power are not any less their personal debts and are not obligations for the new power....

One could also include in this category of debts the loans incurred by members of the government or by persons or groups associated with the government to serve interests manifestly personal — interests that are unrelated to the interests of the State.

a cartoon dog :evilgrin:

The ratpublican debt machine of corporate give ways and defense spending is stifling the economy

Self perpetuating debt machine. they spend without limits creating huge burdens upon the American tax payer and then the economy slides downward in response further increasing the problem.

Happened during the Reagen years and is happening again

not only did Bush spend more, thus increasing taxes, he borrowed the shortfall, meaning we have to pay more taxes for interest as well. Tax cut? What tax cut?