Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | davidu's commentslogin

Because raising taxes has only resulted in more spending, not balancing the budget.

That's not true. Bill Clinton both slightly raised taxes and significantly lowered spending in relative terms, balancing the budget in the process.

Obama also cut the deficit by more than half. It didn't get all the way to a balanced budget because of how bad of a mess Bush left to clean up, but it was moving in the right direction.

And as a sibling post noted, Bush senior also both raised taxes and lowered spending on a relative basis. So the original assertion is decisively disproven -- half of our modern era presidents (along with the Congress they presided over) did not behave the way they said "only happens".

Incentives are key. If Congress does not present a balanced budget then there has to be consequences. Many other countries work this way. No balanced budget forthcoming? Then there is an immediate collapse of the current government or ruling party and run-off elections to replace them.

The issue with requiring balanced budgets at the federal level is there are a number of situations where, by any economic theory, you want to run deficits.

So what you really need is an impartial Fed-budgetary-counterpart arbiter that declares when balanced budget rules are and aren't in effect.

And probably toss in what target percent of debt needs to be paid down too.


The impartial arbiter is the voting public.

The voting public doesn't know shit about economics or budgets.

To give credit though it was a largely republican congress that did it. You just need a democrat in the White House to motivate them.

Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich.

Perhaps the best left/right cooperative government of our lifetime.

Skeptical? Review the famous Contract with America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America


Contract with America convinced enough rubes in America that Republicans actually had a plan (which netted them Congress!) It was a giant failure in terms of actually accomplishing a fraction of the goals it set out, though.

One result was the small surplus in the budget.

Does Clinton deserve a. Ok the credit, for signing off on it? No, of course not. He deserves some of the credit. The rest goes to the Republican congress, which did the budgeting.

Credit where credit is due.


This ignores history. We did raise taxes in the 90s and were paying off our debt. Bush senior made the big boy decision and it left us in amazing shape. Clinton handed over a government to W that was paying off debts and had surplus from 1998-2001.

Slight note that Bush Senior also got tossed out of office in part for being fiscally responsible.

We probably want to fix that quirk, if we want politicians more reliably doing the fiscally sound thing.


Absolutely. One note though - it wasn’t just the raised tax, it was that he very explicitly promised to not raise taxes. Maybe doesn’t get elected without that promise but I really don’t know enough about politics before Clinton/Newt Gingrich.

The US had a balanced budget in 2001, after decades of most people claiming that was impossible. The problem with a balanced budget is we all have to live in the real world. The actual real world that you can measure, not each individual's theoretical world of choice.

But stories are much more fun than data, and we put everything on the credit card, and here we are.


But cutting taxes has also resulted in more spending.

All sibling comments are untrue, because it is the legislative branch that has the "power of the purse", including the ability to raise/lower taxes and pass budgets for spending.

So whether an executive makes campaign promises, takes credit for signing the bills into law, or championing the bills and advocating that Congress pass them, it is ultimately Congress--the House with the Senate--that has done these things with taxes and the budget.


It's common practice to refer to terms by the president of the period even if they're much less responsible for the effects than is implied.

Taxes went up and relative spending went down during the period when Bush Sr was president and Democrats controlled the House & Senate.

Taxes went up and relative spending went down during the period when Clinton was president and Republicans controlled the House & Senate.

This was not true when they had a trifecta. There are reasons many Americans prefer the parties split power.


This helps define some of the challenges with making very very small turbine engines. We have electrical (lithium) powered drones but they are heavy and have low energy density compared to what a liquid fuel + turbine could provide. But could we make a 2 inch diameter turbine engine reliably? Maybe!


> could we make a 2 inch diameter turbine engine reliably?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capstone_Green_Energy



A group at MIT tried, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have gone anywhere https://news.mit.edu/2006/microengines


>could we make a 2 inch diameter turbine engine reliably

I mean, technically yes, but in practical terms, no - turbines run on the Brayton cycle, where the are under curve efficiency is determined by the peak pressures it can withstand. if you scale down the turbine proportionally, it gets structurally weaker, meaning its efficiency drops. thrust/weight decreases

If you then thickened its walls you would then be able to handle higher pressures, but weight would increase - thrust/weight decreases again.

So the correct answer is if you really wanted to make a small turbine, you could certainly make one, but your design would be less optimal than a bigger one, so unless your goal is to go small, you would make one as big as you can get away with it.


It turns out, you can build new high speed railways. Take note California!


Eh, not really.


"Historically, elites could shape support only through limited instruments like schooling and mass media"

Well, I think the author needs to understand a LOT more about history.


It's not AI slop, it's probably not even AI. You simply are unable to parse the description, or the map, or both.


Here’s a breakdown of the networks present, what they mean, and how they relate to the map’s context ...

The first red flags.

Conclusion

The map is a diagram of networks—pipelines, oilfields, terminals, company concessions, and shipping routes—depicting the Middle East’s oil as a vast, interdependent system. These networks are both physical (infrastructure) and abstract (ownership, contracts), making the map a powerful tool for understanding the strategic importance and international entanglement of oil in the mid-20th century. AI analysis.

And now the last paragraph literally says "AI analysis".

> It's not AI slop, it's probably not even AI. You simply are unable to parse the description, or the map, or both.

Yeah, right.


Palantir, the incredible American technology company run by one of the most successful Black Americans? That's great.


Sam Hyde is running Palantir? Did not know that, wow!


jesus, how does he keep getting away with it?


link?


joking


Congrats to the Census team and the Fivetran team!


Thanks DU! You've had our back since the early days, thanks for taking a chance on us!


Tom who is stepping in is an awesome executive. He was OG Pandora and Snap before Quibi and was on the Sonos board. He's a true product person. I'm sure he was enjoying semi-retirement and see him dropping in as CEO is a huge upgrade. :-)


So what are people using instead of Sonos AMP for home sound control?


Chromecasts + HDMI stereos + Speaker Groups: https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/7174267?hl=en

Works from Apple and Google mobile devices with Spotify


Apple airplay works flawlessly. Or you can buy an old Amazon fire and connect them to your own hardware.

Both of these solutions allow you to use any speaker/amp setup you choose. And if you truly care about sound quality, this is the only path.


In my experience AirPlay 2 isn’t flawless, pretty much every time I try to use it there are stutters.

This is using an iPhone 16 Pro to AirPlay to a stereo pair of Sonos Five’s that are connected using Ethernet.

AirPlay isn’t a great choice if you are concerned about audio quality anyways - if you’re using AirPlay 2 you’re using 256kbps AAC, so it should sound the same as Bluetooth (or worse if you are comparing something like LDAC).

See here for more information.

https://darko.audio/2023/10/apple-airplay-isnt-always-lossle...


I'd wager it's the Sonos that is the problem. I have 0 issues with my Yamaha receivers and AirPlay, or my various branded soundbars.

Sonos never wanted to work with Apple, so I can understand why they'd never make it work.


What’s a good way to Airplay to your own speakers?


Buy an older Apple TV, or an Amazon Fire. Connect them to your receiver and you're good to go. Or buy a newer Yamaha or Denon receiver and they'll be ready to go out of the box.


Sonos Amp / Port act as airplay receiver to analog out (with amplifier in the case of Amp). They're meant to act as an input for existing ‘dumb’ speakers/amplifiers/home audio systems, and is extraordinarily fit for that purpose.

How do else could one Airplay to a ‘dumb’ stereo without something to act as an airplay receiver?


AirPlay is as about as good as it gets I think. It’s been thoroughly reverse engineered so there’s lots of open source tools for it and it’s cheap to add speakers since used AirPort Expresses are still supported AirPlay targets.


Do you need an Apple product to use AirPlay?


That makes it easier, but no. Many implementations of both servers and clients (both closed and FOSS) exist, for example AirMusic adds AirPlay casting support to Android and I’ve heard of people using rPi’s as receivers. The protocol is entirely local, there’s no remote server component at all.


AirPlay and multiroom is still a struggle though


Agreed but it has better sync tech than most others that I have tried. Yamaha's is buggy, Denon's buggy, but Apple TVs sync well in my multi level, multi system set up.


Wiim for one option.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: