I find it very interesting that most of the folks here who say that the above is BS state no facts to back up their claims. BTW, the deficit and the national debt are not the same thing. “You have the right to your own opinions, but you don’t have the right to your own facts.” - Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - President John Adams
I said "most people" Denny and purposefully was not talking about you. You always have legit facts; not everybody does though.
Only a fool would take a Photoshopped picture of the Blazers to make the grand generalization that there are no such things as facts. At long last sir, have you no decency?
Thanks. Something to think about is the deficits that congress ran up in the Reagan era are part of the debt that we're still paying interest on today. Barfo's current/constant dollars reasoning doesn't wash.
He also made the GOP dig their own grave: *Bayners ought to stay in Mexico. *Fuck the environment. *Jesus is Lord. Lord is Jesus. Allah is the devil. All praise be to ...Jaysus! *I know it's not 1960 but can we re-establish segregation? *Women are inferior creatures. You don't need to vote - Dont'cha have some dishes that need washing?
Ah, but we are not paying on Regan's debt any longer. When Slick Willy left office the Nation had a "Surplus". No debt. George W. then decided to give every one a check! Married or single we all got a surplus check. That is the only way he won the election. You know, the election that he won by not getting the popular vote. The only president ever elected without it. Florida certainly came in handy right Jeb? I don't need to post links or facts. I lived it and know all to well.
The debt and deficit/surplus are different animals. We were charging lots on the national credit card; what we borrow because we can't afford to live on what we take in (in taxes) is the deficit. Clinton stopped charging lots, but the balance actually went up.
Uh... I was talking about deficit, not debt. As a wise man once said, they are different animals Also, I'm not sure you are really right about the debt, either. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that a lot if not all of the debt from the Reagan era has been paid off and simultaneously replaced with new debt. Isn't the 30-year bond the longest typical debt instrument? barfo
So it looks to me like we've been doing better deficit-wise than either the White House or the CBO predicted back in 2009, based on your graph here and MarAzul's link earlier in the thread. barfo
I know you were talking about the deficit, but it doesn't matter about constant or current dollars as you reasoned. In 20 years, our kids will still be paying interest on the ~$500B amount, which is part of the overall debt your kind is foisting on them.
I'm not following you here. You really think inflation is irrelevant when talking about long-term debt? barfo
I think we're paying $450B in interest payments, regardless of the inflation rate when any bit of that debt was accrued. Think of the green energy black hole we could be pouring that money into instead of giving it to the rich people who can afford to by T-Bills. In 20 years, our kids will be paying several times that amount because what matters is the interest rate and that will almost certainly rise from near zero to several times near zero.
If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of the conversation we have to go back to the very first posted comment. The original statement was about the "Deficit" not "The Debt". The only way you can even begin to pay down the debt is to get the deficit under control. That is exactly what is happening. Any time in history the US made strides in getting the Debt under control the administration had to have a budget that was under control. This has happened and in time (albeit quite a bit) this will begin to pay off the debt. This is basic economics 101. If you listen to all the naysayers all they want to look at is the problems. You have to accentuate the positives also. Right now things are getting better. Of course they had to because it could not have got much worse without total and complete collapse. Did Obama make all the right decisions? Absolutely not! Did he do a lot of thing right? Yes he did. Now lets look at George W. Did he make all the right decisions? Absolutely not! But he did stand strong during this country's time of need. He was up against one of the toughest things any president ever had to deal with. The same goes for our current commander in chief. Maybe we should all try to support him?
The lower deficits is a smoke screen for the massive increases in spending that started year 1. The bailouts were done before obama took office. He did blow through half the TARP money that didn't need to be spent. The reasons for the deficit decreasing year over year are the republicans refused to pass massive spending increases obama requested and there are a slew of new taxes in effect that are slowing the economy at the expense of more govt. spending than is needed.
Not going to argue about the problems that he inherited. Those are well known and a huge club Democrats have bludgeoned the former president with over and over again. Time to work on the present. If i really wanted to go back i would go much further to the Carter administration. Heck even Nixon had a hand in the way things are being handled right now. If Jimmy Carter had used 4 gunships instead of 2 to rescue the hostages they would have been successful. If that happens Reagan never wins the election and of course i don't become a double combat veteran fighting to save a bunch of oil fields that we eventually set on fire anyway. Don't try to tell me it was for the Kuwait people. I was there i know better. The point is Carter knew the country was "war weary" and did not do enough to end the situation. We had all had enough in Vietnam. Kind of sounds like the same thing we are doing now huh? Can Obama end the Isis situation without boots on the ground? Nope. Will it cost the US millions or even Billions to end the situation? Trillions you say? Now lets get back to the whole deficit/debt thing shall we? This becomes a much different equation now huh? If you have easy answers for all of this i am sure willing to listen as i am sure all of America is. My overall view is this administration should have been working on the real problems abroad and with the economy instead of healthcare for the first 2 years. Fix the biggest problems instead of the ones they felt were only fixable with a majority vote. If they had done what needed to be done first then they would have had the ability to do what they wanted to do later. Unfortunately that is simply not the way things seem to work in Washington nowadays. Like i said. Many mistakes have been made on both sides of the isle. It's time to get our country working together again. Wish i had all the answers....
