[speaker001:] Well, uh, I don't know. I think the budget is really out of hand right now, and especially in this election year, I think that, uh, there ought to be so-, at least some conversation about what
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] we are supposed to do about this.
[speaker002:] Yeah, it kind of seems to me that everyone's offering, you know, their token little tax cut program, you know, when it's
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] when it's just such a bad time for it.
[speaker001:] Right, and, uh, well, as you said, mostly they are token cuts. Uh
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] especially what, for instance, George Bush is offering.
[speaker002:] The ninety-seven cents a week [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah, ninety-seven cents a week. Now what, that's really not going to do a lot of good, it doesn't seem to me, to your average
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] middle income person, you know. Another ninety-seven cents, hell you can buy a coke or something for that.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I mean, mostly it's, it's not actually a, a, a cut, it's just a cut in the withhold, in the amount withheld, you know.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Um, yeah I don't see this changing my lifestyle a whole lot.
[speaker001:] That ninety-seven cents really isn't going to do it for me either.
[speaker002:] Huh-uh.
[speaker001:] Uh, I, I haven't really heard much of what the other people, other candidates have said that have made a lot of sense to me either, especially the Democratic candidates don't seem to be coming up with much that really sparks my interest as far as yeah, maybe that could do something to affect our budget
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] at this point.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I mean, you know, in retrospect, um, was it, was it Mondale or Dukakis that said, you know, I'll, I'll tell you right now I'm going to raise taxes?
[speaker001:] I believe it was Dukakis
[speaker002:] It was Dukakis, yeah.
[speaker001:] but I, I can't.
[speaker002:] I have a lot of respect for him [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah, I mean that's better than George Bush who came out and said, No, I will not
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] read my lips, or whatever *slash error
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and then, you know, ten months later he said, well, sorry, you know, I, I can't follow through on this. *sd^q
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But it seems to me that, uh, that the budget is so out of hand, and especially now that they say, Okay, the cold war is over and we're supposed to be getting a peace dividend of, you know
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] of X number of billion, trillion dollars a year. Well, I'd really like to know where that money is actually going to go, because, in my opinion, I don't think I'm ever going to see any of this peace, so-called peace dividend.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, it's, it's.
[speaker001:] I mean, if they could actually put something together and make, I'm not really in favor of large government social programs, either, because I feel that they waste
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] money, also, but with this peace dividend, it seems like you could set up some kind of like
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] public works projects like they had in the thirties, or whatever.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah, I, uh, I, I think that would be a great idea, you know, like the conservation corps, you know where.
[speaker001:] Right, ex-,
[speaker002:] It wou-, it wou-, it would help unemployment greatly.
[speaker001:] Exactly
[speaker002:] And it.
[speaker001:] and in that way we could really focus on building the infra structure of the country.
[speaker002:] Yeah, infra structure is in, is in, I mean, we, we, we have hurt ourselves incredibly last fifty years in the
[speaker001:] Yeah, and
[speaker002:] cold war.
[speaker001:] and there's no way that we can ever really recover from, from the state that we're in right now, unless, at least I feel, unless we focus on the infra structure, and I surely don't hear anybody saying that right now.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Um, yeah, I, I agree totally [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Um, I mean, this, this, it just seems so, you know, so ridiculous that it was allowed to happen. Um, I, I'm in college right now, and.
[speaker001:] So am I.
[speaker002:] Oh really, where do you go?
[speaker001:] Uh, I U.
[speaker002:] Right, I go to Georgia Tech, um.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, in, what, I had pol-, you know, the required political science class
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] a couple of years ago. And one of the things we discussed was, you know, where our, where the budget situate-, how the budget situation just got so out of hand.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] And essentially what happened was, I think it was like in the, um, tax year of eighty-one, um, Ronald Reagan basically said, you know, I'm going to give this much of a tax cut to the tax payers and, and, created this, this ludicrous budget that he knew, that, that, um, that the Congress would not in their right mind pass
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and Con-, Congress, realizing that they were going to lose a, the Democratic Congress realized that they were going to lose a propaganda war, you know, bye-bye, {D you know, bye-bye removing the tax cut }
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] further cut the taxes and created, you know, that, that, that, you know, created the huge deficit that year which moved us into the trillion dollar deficit.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] And you just,.
[speaker001:] You, you just have to wonder what they're thinking in Washington.
[speaker002:] I mean, it's just like they're playing chicken with a loaded gun.
[speaker001:] Yeah, uh, well, it's, it's more than a loaded, it's a loaded cannon. I mean
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] they've got trillions of dollars to spend every year, and they, in my opinion, don't do a very responsible job
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] of spending that money.
[speaker002:] Well, yeah, um, what really bothers me is it just seems like if, if anyone were to say, you know, well I'm going to raise taxes and cut the budget and we're, we're going to have to do some unpopular things, I mean, he wouldn't have a chance of getting elected.
[speaker001:] Oh, no. *slash error
[speaker002:] I mean, it's kind of like Rome and the bread and circuses thing, you know
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. *b
[speaker002:] where people just want, want to have, you know, whatever will make them feel good, right now, you know.
[speaker001:] For, for the moment, and that's what really is getting me about what George Bush's stand on the budget is right now
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] is that he is saying, I am going to give you this ludicrous little tax cut so that you'll be happy come November, and you'll elect me again
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and then I'm going to go on and just forget everything that I said
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] or you know, it doesn't seem that it's going to make much of a difference.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. It, I mean, I don't know, I [LAUGHTER] I don't, I don't think George Bush will make the American people happy with [LAUGHTER] ninety-seven cents a week.
[speaker001:] No, no, not at all.
[speaker002:] I just don't think it was a well thought out [LAUGHTER] incentive.
[speaker001:] No.