Bonner and Wiggin(BW)present a great deal of old,well known information ,in their "new" book about the current budget deficit (huge tax cuts ,combined with large increases in government spending,leading to massive increases in the national debt),trade deficit,and current account deficit problems, that should be common knowledge to any informed citizen in America who has,for instance,read a) any of the literature disseminated by the Concord Coalition,b)read any of the books written by Ross Perot during the 1992 presidential campaign,or c)read any of the books written by Peter Peterson(for instance,"Runing on Empty...",July,2004).The problem started in the mid-1960's with the liberal Kennedy -Johnson tax cuts,which were combined with increased spending to fight the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty.The problem was exacerbated when Presidents Reagan and George H.W.Bush bought into the libertarian-supplyside nonsense that massive income tax cuts would lead to such tremendous increases in Government tax revenue that the end result would be a balanced budget and a decreased national debt.These fantasy policies led to an increase in the national debt of 3.5 trillion dollars and 12 consecutive budget deficits.The problem has again been severely exacerbated by President George W Bush.The same supplyside-libertarian policy of massive tax cuts combined with huge increases in spending have added 2 trillion to the national debt.Peterson's book has already covered this fiscal mess.BW offer a libertarian type of solution(the United States should go back to a gold standard and individual investors should start buying up all the gold that they can get their hands on.)A better solution is the conservative approach used by President D.Eisenhower that led to 8 consecutive balanced budgets and a zero increase in the national debt.It is also the approach used by Ronald Reagan in 1968 when he was the governor of the state of California.Its implementation would require some combination of tax increases and cuts in spending.Unfortunately,the American voter is given a choice between a non-conservative Republican party ,that combines deep tax cuts with massive spending increases financed by huge increases in borrowed money,i.e.,from abroad(the trade deficit and the current accounts deficit),as well as from home(the national debt),and a Democratic Party that supports increased taxation and increased spending.America had its chance in 1992 to solve the problem with mild repercussions.Thirteen years later the repercussions will be severe.BW add nothing new in this book.
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