reagan was a bad president

"My point is that we don't need to return it. The national debt in today's society really has no effects. There would be no ramifications if we didn't pay it off. That's my point. We don't need to give it back." First, if that's your response, you should have said so to begin with. Second,,, you don't say.... "let's just run up debt and not worry about it". You might not feel it, but it's there. To make it more concrete, think about the idea that you could just sit on your butt and do nothing, for a fifth of the time you'd other wise be working. That fifth, representgs interest, mere interest, that you have to pay on the debt. Furthermore, what's being paid on mere interest, is not going to other things that are important to society. We're actually hurting the economy by something so large not going to the economy at large. ie, to spell it out better for you.... we may have helped the country a little in teh short term, but given the interest, there's no escaping that we're hurting it in the long term. You're overlooking basic common sense fiscal management, for the sake of politics. "Reagan gave the push it needed from the failures of the Carter Administration. If Reagan did nothing, then he would be a bad president. However, he did do something, which saved the economy from virtual collapse." Paying trillions of dollars then, now, and in the future, is not just a mere push as you're insinuating. It's trillions in debt. SOme of it helped the economy, but given the blanket nature of tax cutes, most probably didn't. He could have gave targeted tax cuts, he could have gave smaller tax cuts. He could have manipulated the interest rates, or let the financial sector of government do it, as they do. The economy would have taken care of itself, and he had many alternatives to doing nothing, other than making trillions then, now, and in the future. I don't think you understand.... thousands of dollars, that you have to pay, that I have to pay, extrapolated as interests rates do. Think about the concrete example of sitting on your butt, and the thousdans you could otherwise have if you don't grasp it. I'tsn ot just numbers. The arguments you gave "he had to do something" are not enough to justify the extent, the huge extent, of the debt. "My Response: I'm using logic. 5. This arms race caused the economy of the USSR to collapse" You're using a syllogism, but that doesn't mean you're being logical, as you're missing many fundamental premises, and thus you're reaching faulty conclusions. you didn't even respond to what I said, and so are illogical. I said prove that it caused the collapse. Simply saying that it costs money, and then showing that they collapsed, does not prove that the spending caused the collapse. Correlation doesn't imply causation. (ie, i could just as easily argue, that their infighting and other debts caused the collapse, and the US competition was meager. and then say... what? it's a logical statement, as you're simply asserting) The presumption should be that the spending didn't cause the collapse, givne that merely helping it collapse, at best, isn't necessarily signfiicant, and given that their fall was inevitable. ie, if there was already fighting going on, and other debts, why would we attribute the collapse to spending on weopons? ie, even if your point were true, that it was the last straw,,,, that means their country must have been very weak to begin with, if something so measley would cause it to collapse. ie, it was bound to fail anyway. their failure was inevitable despite us. ie, Giving your children trillions in debt... for at best... for being a catalyst to something so inevitable is not wise. So. Prove the causation with data and not just rhetoric Or, at least... argue why the presumption should be as you say, that we caused their collapse. especially in this vein, address the inevitability factor Your response is counter intuitive, and Reagan is the one who footed the bill so he has to justify it,,,, so the burden is on you. (It wasn't all military debt, anyways. Military debt is merely teh scapegoat, but a bad one at that. ) this is clearly a pro vote.