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Author Topic:   National Budgets and Budget Deficits
nator
Member (Idle past 2170 days)
Posts: 12961
From: Ann Arbor
Joined: 12-09-2001


Message 16 of 19 (455636)
02-13-2008 8:15 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by GDR
02-12-2008 7:42 PM


Americans are dumb. There are still people who think that supply side economics is a good idea.
quote:
Well as a Canadian let me say I disagree with the first part of your statement
As an American, let me tell you that they are dumb. Poor, sloppy, biased thinkers for the most part. Lazy and selfish and shortsighted when it comes to who they vote for, too, or if they vote at all. Oh, and too easily let by style and rather blind to substance, as well.
I mean, come on. GWB got a second term.
The American people got the president they deserve if they are so retarded as to do that.
quote:
and as for the second part I can't see where supply side economics has anything to do with it. It doesn't matter what economic philosophy you believe in. Spending more than you earn is just not a good thing whether it be in your household or your country.
The thing is, those are the same people who completely villify and froth at the mouth when the name Clinton is mentioned, even though he presided over one of the best and longest periods of economic prosperity in our country's history, AND gave us a balanced budget.
Why they continue to vote for the party that consistently, historically sends us into economic crisis (Reagan did it, Bush Sr. did it, now Bush Jr. has done it) and continue to reject Democrats simply becasue they are Democrats is beyond all reason or sense.
What has happened in the rightward swing of the country over the last several decades is that the mainstream Democrats have taken the place that used to be held by the moderate Republicans like Nixon and Goldwater. The NeoCons are really advocates of extremely liberal policies in a sense, in that they have created an enormously powerful, huge federal government, spend far more than they have, and enact laws which restrict individual freedom and seek to legislate morality.
But anyway, it isn't true that supply side economics has nothing to do with it.
Cutting taxes without reducing expenditures are supply-side economic policies.
Edited by nator, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 7 by GDR, posted 02-12-2008 7:42 PM GDR has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 17 by GDR, posted 02-13-2008 1:19 PM nator has not replied

  
GDR
Member
Posts: 6202
From: Sidney, BC, Canada
Joined: 05-22-2005
Member Rating: 1.9


Message 17 of 19 (455707)
02-13-2008 1:19 PM
Reply to: Message 16 by nator
02-13-2008 8:15 AM


nator writes:
What has happened in the rightward swing of the country over the last several decades is that the mainstream Democrats have taken the place that used to be held by the moderate Republicans like Nixon and Goldwater. The NeoCons are really advocates of extremely liberal policies in a sense, in that they have created an enormously powerful, huge federal government, spend far more than they have, and enact laws which restrict individual freedom and seek to legislate morality.
I'm not at all sure that I agree with the statement about restricting freedom and legislating morality, but I agree that they have been very liberal when it comes to increasing the size and cost of government.
The point though is I as I stated in the OP there isn't one major candidate that is prepared to make a balanced budget a priority. We want to learn from the past but it is the future that matters now.
McCain and Huckabee want to increase military expenditures in Iraq and Clinton and Obama talk about increasing spending domesticaly in areas like health care. There are only proposals about how to spend money that in one sense doesn't even exist. They just want to print more of it. Ron Paul talked about it but he was ignored.

Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 16 by nator, posted 02-13-2008 8:15 AM nator has not replied

  
GDR
Member
Posts: 6202
From: Sidney, BC, Canada
Joined: 05-22-2005
Member Rating: 1.9


Message 18 of 19 (457782)
02-25-2008 2:41 PM


Why isn't this an issue
Look at this list from a CIA site of the current account balances of countries around the world satrting with China as number 1 and ending with the US at number 163.
https://www.cia.gov:443/...-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
Something is going to have to give at some point.

Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

  
GDR
Member
Posts: 6202
From: Sidney, BC, Canada
Joined: 05-22-2005
Member Rating: 1.9


Message 19 of 19 (461739)
03-27-2008 1:53 PM


Glenn Beck on Debt
I realize that Glenn Beck is a right wing commentator but I think that this comment of his is not a left vs right issue at all. It is a common sense issue and once again I don't hear any of the 3 remaining candidates dealing with this issue.
quote:
Glenn Beck: The $53 trillion asteroid
Story Highlights
Medicare trust fund will become insolvent in the year 2019, report says
Paulson: "Rising costs will ... threaten America's future prosperity"
Expert: Unfunded debt is "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household"
Beck: Our financial deficit is only dwarfed by "deficit of trust" we have in our leaders
By Glenn Beck
CNN
Editor's note: "Glenn Beck" is on Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 p.m. ET.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Let's say a giant asteroid was headed toward Earth right now and experts say it has a good chance of ending civilization as we know it. Let's also say that we've known about this asteroid for years but even as it gets closer and closer our leaders do nothing.
"Don't worry," they tell us, "The next administration will figure something out."
With the future of our country at stake, would Americans really sit back and tolerate that kind of inaction? Of course not -- we'd be sharpening our pitchforks and demanding answers.
Well there may not be a space asteroid heading toward us, but there is an economic one -- and the threat to our future is just as severe.
You might think that I'm talking about the recession (sorry: potential recession) or credit crisis, but I'm thinking bigger. Much, much bigger.
Let me give you three numbers that will put this economic asteroid into perspective: $200 billion, $14.1 trillion, and $53 trillion.
$200 billion is the approximate total amount of write-downs announced so far as a result of the current credit crisis.
$14.1 trillion is the size of the entire U.S. economy
And $53 trillion is (drum roll please) the approximate size of this country's bill for the Social Security and Medicare promises we've made.
While no one will ever mistake me for Alan Greenspan, it seems to me that the third number is quite a bit larger than the other two. It also seems very few people care.
According to the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees report (and I use that term loosely since it has the word "trust" in it) released earlier this week, the economic asteroid will first make impact in the year 2019 when the Medicaid trust fund becomes insolvent.
Only an immediate 122 percent increase in Medicare taxes and a 26 percent increase in Social Security taxes can prevent (or more likely, delay) its impact.
Realizing that Americans have become pretty much numb to these kinds of ridiculous sounding proposals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tried to up the ante this week. "Without change," he said, "Rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity."
Now, I know we're all worried about important sounding things that none of us understand, like CDO's, SIV's, and Credit Default Swaps, but did you hear what our Treasury Secretary just said?
"Rising costs will ... consume nearly all projected federal revenues ..."
Translation: Every single tax dollar that is sent to Washington will be used to pay for just these two programs.
That means no money is left for anything else. Nothing. No Department of Defense or Homeland Security, no Department of Energy, no Department of Justice, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Internal Revenue Service. Actually, knowing our government, they'd probably keep the IRS going somehow.
Of course, none of this is exactly breaking news. Our leaders have known about this rapidly approaching asteroid for years now and they've done nothing but debate it. At the same time, I'm a realist. I understand that this stuff is "the third rail of politics," but our leaders' negligence on this issue is damn near criminal. No, correction, it is criminal.
Americans aren't afraid of the truth. In fact, we crave the truth only slightly more than we crave a leader who will actually give it to us. But part of the problem with this issue is that numbers followed by 12 zeroes aren't very relatable to the average American. Instead, try this on for size.
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. And 53 trillion seconds? 1.7 million years.
In an article that will appear in an upcoming issue of my magazine, Fusion, former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker tries a different tactic. He writes that our unfunded promises translate into "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household."
Wow. Does the size of our debt hit home now?
The America that I know doesn't sit around waiting for someone to rescue it from disaster. Besides, who do we expect to swoop in and save the day? Congress? The president? Please -- they're not only the ones who put the asteroid into space, they've also been making it bigger with irresponsible spending on everything from prescription drugs to billions in rebate checks and bailouts.
Bruce Willis and Tommy Lee Jones? They're more likely to be on Social Security than to save it.
And that leaves only us: We the People. Like every other crisis we face, it's up to us to save ourselves.
But how?
Be honest, no matter what side of the political aisle you're on, it's obvious that our financial deficit is dwarfed only by the deficit of trust we have in our leaders.
I'm willing to do the right thing for our future, I'm willing to sacrifice, but not when I believe that our leaders will do nothing but make the asteroid even larger.
Edited by GDR, : No reason given.

Everybody is entitled to my opinion.

  
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