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yes, after WW2

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6.5 percent real discount rate. That's the average real return on U.S. national wealth in the postwar.

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Yes, agree, entitlements is not a reasonable term. Won't use it again.

best, Larry

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Oh - and take the cap off Social Security. El Voila - balanced.

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There is no reason to reduce entitlement spending since that spending goes right back into the economy in the forms of purchases of goods and services. The better approach is to reduce spending that does not have a good multiplier effect (like military spending and corporate bail outs and move our medical system to single payer and universal like every nation that spends less on health care than the US and is ranked hire in quality).

Then we can reduce the countless policies that have shifted income from the middle class to the top .01%. Those policies reduce the turn in income through the economy and slow down productivity gains. Shifts in both of those would increase revenue to the treasury to more than offset the deficits. No?

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Ok. Lets get so called "entitlement" programs off the table, please. They are not entitlements. They are a product of a civil society where much of the workforce cannot work unitl 67 or 70... and have worked and earned the right to be able to "retire" with dignity. As it is, ,most people cannot live off Social Security alone and have not earned enough to save. When we have Medicare for All (and tax for it), for starters, we can begin to have that conversation. Let's instead, talk about the bloated defense budget. Raising taxes back to where they were pre-Trump - at the very least - for those in hgiher tax brackets, get rid of corporate (entitlements) tax give-aways - particulalry for obsolete and environmentally dangerous products. I am sooooo very tired of everyone focusing on balncing the budget on the backs and tears of the middle class.

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What do u expect in terms of NPV (and what discount rate, what percent of NPV is terminal value, how far out, everyone knows NPVs are highly manipulated) when corporations get to bring imports manufactured *in their name* with their corporation magically marking up their product price to US standard pricing, in offshore jurisdictions without paying taxes! (A real double stab, only the swamp could conceive of). And then making xenophobic noises around imports to stoke defense spending. Gotta love it!

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Fortunately their attempt to cut SS & Medicare will not survive the senate ... or Biden's VETO. All they want to do is give the already wealthy yet another tax cut. It's what they do; they cut taxes on corps and the obscenely wealthy, crash the economy and then blame the next Democrat who has to clean up their mess.

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