Yeah I should have saved my dig on another anti-liberal thread. The reality is pretty simple, regardless of which wing you sit. If you make 20k, have 100k in debt, and borrow 30k per year to help pay the debt and more spending; something will eventually give. When money was backed by precious metals; it was much easier to get a handle of true value. This revolving debt and backing by "loans or investments" will eventually fail. And when that time comes, shit is really going to hit the fan.
Ah, so you were trolling. Gotcha. Anyway, like Denny said, it isn't like we haven't already been doing this by printing our own money. This is just a little more extreme example.
no shit If you thought that the housing bubble and the dot com bubble was bad..when you realize that your retirement of X has a value of 10% of what you projected...
Before its over, Obama's going to run up the debt to over $20 TRILLION. The Fed has artificially driven down interest rates... They print money and buy TBills with the money. Less TBills drives up the price, which lowers the yield. I don't see how they can keep it up for the long term. Historical rates are closer to 5% than the almost 0% we are paying on the debt now. At 5% of $20T, the interest alone will cost $1T. To put that in perspective, $1T is roughly what the sum of all personal and corporate income tax receipts last year. Every dollar of taxes would go to paying interest payments on the debt that Krugman and Reich and other left wing economists propose we increase even more. The government gets income from FICA type taxes as well. Medicare is running at massive deficits. The prescription drug benefit added by Bush and Republicans make the situation even worse. If we repealed the program, Medicare would still be running massive deficits. The deficits are covered by borrowing $trillions from China and anyone else willing to buy TBills. Social Security has run a surplus since the 1980s. The surplus funds responsibly invested in the safest investment in the world, you guessed it, TBills. The funds went into the treasury each year and got spent. As more boomers retire, SS was expected to start taking in less than it needs to pay out in 2016. But it's been spending more than it takes in since 2010. The govt. owes itself interest on the TBills owned by the SS trust fund, so the program is "technically" growing, tho not for long. On a cash flow basis, the shortfall was borrowed from China and anyone else who would buy a TBill. That SS tax cut Obama forced on us was effectively a $120B raid on the trust fund; it's going to run out that much sooner than it otherwise would. Krugman is downright dangerous. At $16T of debt, we would have to TRIPLE everyone's income tax to pay it down to $6T over 10 years. Taxes are about $1T now, including corporate. At 3x, we'd have $1T to cover the red ink govt. insists on, and another $1T to pay down the actual debt. Tax the rich? They're already paying 43%, including the recent tax hike and the one in ObamaCare. 3x that is more than a 100% tax rate, or not possible. Elections have consequences. Taking Krugman's advice will hasten our demise.
I think we may look back at this administration on what not to do. Well that is of course if we don't have a complete economic collapse. Eventually the administration must increase taxes on all economic fronts because you can't tax the rich any more. I suspect Feds will have 10% increases across the board. But it won't stop there. The value of the dollar will deplete to a dismal amount, leaving Americans with a dollar worth much less than it was 6 years ago. When the administration is up, it maybe even worse. This revolving debt is spinning out of control. Eventually the snow ball will build enough momentum to be unstoppable.
Man you sound like Maris! Here I thought the Bush administration was what not to do. I mean Osama Bin Laden basically won. He completely forced us to give up so many civil liberties for "safety" against terrorism. We racked up massive debt for the military, and our country is not safer than it was before 9-11.
And to think. The Obama administration matched 8 years of bush spending in just 4 years. I think we all can agree that bush was a joke. Now that we all agree, we should all agree Obama is much worse, and that's really bad!
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. Bush's spending did not help us. Obama's spending could be debated, but I think it has helped us.
Helped us in what way? I don't get it? Our unemployment is more than it ever was pre-bush, we have no budget and our spending far exceeds the amount of return. This is a recipe for disaster. We may not see the recourse until a few years after his second term, but I suspect we will see a big one. 4.)
Bush spent money on a war..oboma was to be able to "save" money by ending that war..instead he blew past all record spending...dude..20T..just unreal..and what kills me is that people still give the fool a pass..
Yeah that's what gets me. If we stopped at Afganistan; Bush would have come out like a champ. Instead Bush wanted some type of revenge and wanted the head of Sadaam. But even with the 6+ years of war; Obama trumped Bush's entire adminstration with over the top spending; without WAR! FUCKING INSANE MAN!
I don't see how you can argue that Bush's spending was somehow bad and Obama's is somehow good. Bush inherited about $2T in revenues and $1.75T in spending ($250B surplus). By the time he was done, there was about $2.5T in revenues and $3T in spending. So the spending increased by $1.25T a year; both wars and increased defense spending cost about $300B of that $1.25T, leaving over $900B in spending on the exact kind of crap Obama's spending on. Republicans passed the biggest spending bill in history prior to Obama - a HIGHWAY (INFRASTRUCTURE) bill. $300B in increased spending on Medicare drug program. Spending on everything but the wars and defense went up by 75% or so.
You mean all those civil liberties that magically reappeared after The Messiah was elected? George Bush never wanted to limit the Second Amendment. As for being safer, the evidence shows we're significantly safer today than we were on Sept 11th.
I'm sorry there is no Messiah. But If you are referring to Obama, then yes, he has been as big of an asshole on some issues!
