USA Budget Deficit Hits Record High

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  1. leeberttea profile image56
    leebertteaposted 13 years ago

    http://disinfo.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/PalinWink.jpg

    How's that hope-y change-y thing working out for ya?

    3% growth is better than what we've had the past 2 years but will we actually be able to achieve it once the new taxes kick in? What about the debt crisis in Europe? It seems they have made the same mistake we made approving a trillion dollar bail out for Greece and other EU members that have mismanaged their economies. The oil spill also threatens to have an effect of increasing energy prices. It seems to me there are plenty of risks in the economy to thwart any real recovery and we could see a continued loos of jobs as well as higher taxes and anemic growth putting further pressure on incumbents in 2012.


    1. DdraigX profile image61
      DdraigXposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you President Bush

      1. leeberttea profile image56
        leebertteaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        At some point isn't President Obama going to have to take some responsibility for where we are going? I don't think it's fair to blame Bush forever. Consider this:

        http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/11/o … nable-debt

        Something needs to be done now. This is a crisis that this administration shouldn't let go to waste.

    2. Ralph Deeds profile image64
      Ralph Deedsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The "new taxes kicking in" won't be new. They'll mostly be the budget-busting Bush tax cuts for the rich kicking back in after they expire next year.

  2. aka-dj profile image64
    aka-djposted 13 years ago

    Who's gonna bail y'all out?
    China?  sad

    1. BDazzler profile image79
      BDazzlerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Australia, right? C'mon DJ ... please..... pretty please ....

      1. aka-dj profile image64
        aka-djposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        Selling the whole of Auz, would not be enough!

        We are in a better position than most countries though.

  3. BDazzler profile image79
    BDazzlerposted 13 years ago

    I say we blame Bill Clinton, No Wait ... Ronald Reagan ... hold it I know .... let's go all the way back ... blame George Washington!  Wait, let's blame Samuel Huntington .... silly, silly people.  Blame, blame, blame ... Republicans blame Democrats. Liberals blame conservatives.  Atheists blame religionists.  Christians blame Muslims.  Muslims blame Jews.

    Everybody blames, but nobody is responsible.

    *sigh*

  4. profile image57
    foreignpressposted 13 years ago

    The solution is very simple. Countries have to be run as corporations anymore. Each subsidiary, or state, must be self-sufficient. Countless bailouts are counterproductive and will bring down the entire unit. So the EU is going to cut Greece loose and possibly Spain. There isn't enough money in the world to indefinitely sustain governments that cater to a whining, self-entitled public. The recent trillion dollar bailout of the Euro is insanity. Without a plan to fix uncontrolled spending, the 16 nations will tear through that money overnight.
       Here in the U.S., it appears that California will be cut loose from the republic. California will become a political nonentity, or a satellite state of Mexico, which is what the Mexicans want anyway. If Sacramento can get its finances in order it can petition to rejoin the U.S.
       It's getting to a point where the Obama Administration is synonymous with chronic bailouts. Or, as my dad said: "You take the risk, you take the fall." It's time we got back to being responsible.

    1. Sufidreamer profile image77
      Sufidreamerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Easy with the generalisations there, foreignpress.

      Perhaps you could come over to Greece and tell my friends that they are whining and self-entitled. Spiro might be able to find a few minutes out of his 16 hour day at the gas station to speak with you. Aris and Flori could probably find a couple of minutes to sit down and talk when their taverna is closed, between 3am and 11am. Panagiotis could surely find time for a beer after he has finished work at his supermarket, although he spends his spare time picking olives or growing vegetables to sell.

      Greeks understand that they voted in the politicians who gave out cushy, public jobs for votes, so must shoulder the blame. Apart from a few leftists and idle civil servants, they understand that cuts must be made.

      However, 'Whining, self-entitled' public - that is very offensive to the 80% of Greeks who work very long hours to put food on the table.

      'Whining, self-entitled' civil servants - yes, most of them are smile

  5. Doug Hughes profile image60
    Doug Hughesposted 13 years ago

    [ img ] http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/National-Debt-GDP.gif [ /img ]

    If this graph came up you can see that the national debt - as a % of Gross Domestic Product was MUCH higher at the end of WWII. It went down over the next 2 decades - two of the MOST prosperous decades for the middle class in all recorded history. How did we solve the debt problem mid 40s to mid 60s? Check the tax rates - for the top tier - the richest folks - was over 65%.

    ohhh noez!! You can't tax the rich and have prosperity!!! We been there - we done that - and we solved the problem. We know how.  Make the rich pay their share - Problem solved.

    1. JON EWALL profile image59
      JON EWALLposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Doug

      The deficit for this year is $1.99 billion  , last year $1.33 billion, let's face it and stand up for the truth.
      2007 the Democrats took over control of Congress, 2008 Dems still in charge with Bush on the way out.
      The Democrats take full control of the government in 2009 and 2010, well I guess the people need to give Obama and  the Democrat congress more time. The ''no '' Republicans were not let in the door ,no blame there.

      Your input on the scenario for some dumb hubbers.

      1. Ralph Deeds profile image64
        Ralph Deedsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        The deficit is mainly due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush tax cuts coupled with wild spending. The TARP and other anti-recession spending was started by Bush with Obama's concurrence and has been supported by both parties as essential to avoid a depression.

        1. JON EWALL profile image59
          JON EWALLposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          85Ralph

          Bush left with a $ 600 billion plus $ 700 billion tarp deficit . The tarp money has been paid back plus interest.
          So there is no comparison to Bush's final $ 600 billion deficit to Obama's $1.33 and 1.99 in just two years.
          Doug hughes
          Seems like I heard ( but the debt as a percent of GDP is not even close to the highest we've ever been.  ) THAT RATIO STORY BEFORE.
          Try to be fair,  bush's was lower even with the 2 wars.

      2. Doug Hughes profile image60
        Doug Hughesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        Actually Jon -  I don't think hubbers are dumb. Even those without a background in economics can see that comparing the national debt to the national output is comparing apples to apples in any time period. The graph I linked to is VERY revealing. The dollar value is the highest number it's been, but the debt as a percent of GDP is not even close to the highest we've ever been. And we got it under control - and we can again by the method that worked before.

        So you want to distract people from the graph I put a link to - for good reason. The picture is worth 1.99 Billion words.

    2. leeberttea profile image56
      leebertteaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Fine, raising taxes is a possible solution and they should be raised, but I think you also have to cut spending. I don't think it's fair for the government to be spending the sums it does on defense education and social programs. The pain needs to be shared by all Americans and this problem can't be ignored any longer.

      1. Ralph Deeds profile image64
        Ralph Deedsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        We should be worrying about the deficit and growing national debt. Obama appointed a bi-partisan commission which is working on recommendations to deal with the issue. No doubt their recommendations will include both spending cuts and tax increases. The three biggest items are the military spending and Medicare. Closing bases and cutting back on un-needed military contracts is not easy. Neither is dealing with escalating medical care entitlements. And the GOP opposes just about all tax increases on principle.

        1. JON EWALL profile image59
          JON EWALLposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Ralph Deeds

          We should be worrying about the next move form president Obama and the Democrat Congress.
          The 2011 federal budget was supposed to be presented by April 15th. the '' no'' Republicans have been locked out of the budget process '' Obama's open government and his way of bipartisanship ''
          Today is May 14 and no budget to see, guess it's all behind locked doors while the president is in Buffalo telling the people that the Republicans caused the recession and its the Republicans fault that  unemployment hasn't bounced back.

          Obama on the campaign trail, Congress looking for a 2011 budget, another untruth about the recession and just plain BS by the highest office in the land.

          If you missed Beck today check him out the expose is getting better. the videos of the past are enlightening.

          1. Ralph Deeds profile image64
            Ralph Deedsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I prefer Nobel Prize economist, Paul Krugman, to Glenn Beck for perspective on the U.S. debt and deficit and on other economic matters:

            WE'RE NOT GREECE

            It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the crisis in Greece is making some people — people who opposed health care reform and are itching for an excuse to dismantle Social Security — very, very happy. Everywhere you look there are editorials and commentaries, some posing as objective reporting, asserting that Greece today will be America tomorrow unless we abandon all that nonsense about taking care of those in need.

            The truth, however, is that America isn’t Greece — and, in any case, the message from Greece isn’t what these people would have you believe.

            So, how do America and Greece compare?

            Both nations have lately been running large budget deficits, roughly comparable as a percentage of G.D.P. Markets, however, treat them very differently: The interest rate on Greek government bonds is more than twice the rate on U.S. bonds, because investors see a high risk that Greece will eventually default on its debt, while seeing virtually no risk that America will do the same. Why?

            One answer is that we have a much lower level of debt — the amount we already owe, as opposed to new borrowing — relative to G.D.P. True, our debt should have been even lower. We’d be better positioned to deal with the current emergency if so much money hadn’t been squandered on tax cuts for the rich and an unfunded war. But we still entered the crisis in much better shape than the Greeks.

            Even more important, however, is the fact that we have a clear path to economic recovery, while Greece doesn’t.

            The U.S. economy has been growing since last summer, thanks to fiscal stimulus and expansionary policies by the Federal Reserve. I wish that growth were faster; still, it’s finally producing job gains — and it’s also showing up in revenues. Right now we’re on track to match Congressional Budget Office projections of a substantial rise in tax receipts. Put those projections together with the Obama administration’s policies, and they imply a sharp fall in the budget deficit over the next few years.

            Greece, on the other hand, is caught in a trap. During the good years, when capital was flooding in, Greek costs and prices got far out of line with the rest of Europe. If Greece still had its own currency, it could restore competitiveness through devaluation. But since it doesn’t, and since leaving the euro is still considered unthinkable, Greece faces years of grinding deflation and low or zero economic growth. So the only way to reduce deficits is through savage budget cuts, and investors are skeptical about whether those cuts will actually happen.

            It’s worth noting, by the way, that Britain — which is in worse fiscal shape than we are, but which, unlike Greece, hasn’t adopted the euro — remains able to borrow at fairly low interest rates. Having your own currency, it seems, makes a big difference.

            In short, we’re not Greece. We may currently be running deficits of comparable size, but our economic position — and, as a result, our fiscal outlook — is vastly better.

            That said, we do have a long-run budget problem. But what’s the root of that problem? “We demand more than we’re willing to pay for,” is the usual line. Yet that line is deeply misleading.

            First of all, who is this “we” of whom people speak? Bear in mind that the drive to cut taxes largely benefited a small minority of Americans: 39 percent of the benefits of making the Bush tax cuts permanent would go to the richest 1 percent of the population.

            And bear in mind, also, that taxes have lagged behind spending partly thanks to a deliberate political strategy, that of “starve the beast”: conservatives have deliberately deprived the government of revenue in an attempt to force the spending cuts they now insist are necessary.

            Meanwhile, when you look under the hood of those troubling long-run budget projections, you discover that they’re not driven by some generalized problem of overspending. Instead, they largely reflect just one thing: the assumption that health care costs will rise in the future as they have in the past. This tells us that the key to our fiscal future is improving the efficiency of our health care system — which is, you may recall, something the Obama administration has been trying to do, even as many of the same people now warning about the evils of deficits cried “Death panels!”

            So here’s the reality: America’s fiscal outlook over the next few years isn’t bad. We do have a serious long-run budget problem, which will have to be resolved with a combination of health care reform and other measures, probably including a moderate rise in taxes. But we should ignore those who pretend to be concerned with fiscal responsibility, but whose real goal is to dismantle the welfare state — and are trying to use crises elsewhere to frighten us into giving them what they want.

            http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/opini … amp;st=cse

  6. habee profile image91
    habeeposted 13 years ago

    Do we have enough trees left for all the paper we'll need for new money??

  7. MikeNV profile image67
    MikeNVposted 13 years ago

    Deficits are created year to year.  Bush created them.  Obama is creating them.

    Obama is spending and borrowing at a record pace.  If you are blind and ignorant you can blame Bush.

    But Obama didn't have to increase the troops to Afghanistan by an additional 70,000.  Obama didn't have to sign off on the Bank Bailout.  Obama burdens the blame for the deficits created under his administration.

    It's just that simple.  To continue to blame Bush for Deficit spending is ridiculous.

    Team Obama has no plan for economic recovery. All they have done is borrow and spend. Now the taxing will ensue.  And the real problem - which is fractional reserve banking which allows inflation through the creation of money from nothing is about to kick in.

    Blame whomever you like... nothing is being fixed.

    And 97% of our currency doesn't exist in paper form... it's just numbers on computer screens.

    1. BDazzler profile image79
      BDazzlerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      No offense intended, MikeNV, but to me, you are nothing but words on a computer screen, just as I am nothing but words on a computer screen to you.

  8. MikeNV profile image67
    MikeNVposted 13 years ago

    Obama is going to save the country by borrowing more and spending more.  Then he'll impose a VAT Tax.

    Greece is the perfect Model for the Obama Recovery.

    I guess it really does take a rocket scientist to figure out that Debt is not Capitol and is not infinitely sustainable.

  9. earnestshub profile image82
    earnestshubposted 13 years ago

    You recommend we look to Glen Beck for the truth about what?
    Glen beck is a money grubbing sensation seeking radio shock jock!
    I have grass in my garden smarter than that shrill. lol

    1. leeberttea profile image56
      leebertteaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Really? Do you know him? Have you read any of his books? Have you seen any of his shows? Or are you like AG Holder, outraged by the AZ immigration bill are ready to sue the state based on what other people say about it rather than reading it?

      1. Doug Hughes profile image60
        Doug Hughesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        On what basis do you assume Holder hasn't read the bill>

        Oh, Glenn Beck knows all and told you. Ya can't just make stuff up.

        1. leeberttea profile image56
          leebertteaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          By his admission to that question in congress yesterday.

          Here it is in his own words.

          http://www.wikio.com/video/eric-holder- … ll-3248216


          Anyway, my question was to earnest. Too often, too many people form opinions without having all the facts. Your response to me is a perfect example. You took the side of the AG without even having known that he did indeed not read the law. Why? Why would you do that?

        2. Sab Oh profile image56
          Sab Ohposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          "On what basis do you assume Holder hasn't read the bill>

          Oh, Glenn Beck knows all and told you. Ya can't just make stuff up."


          How does your foot taste, comrade?

        3. BDazzler profile image79
          BDazzlerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          How about the fact that he was televised on hearings SAYING he hadn't read the bill ... oh ... wait, I can't trust my own eyes I have to wait for the politicians  to tell me what to think.

  10. habee profile image91
    habeeposted 13 years ago

    I'm shocked that some high-ranking official would be for or against a law without actually reading it! NOT!

  11. TMMason profile image59
    TMMasonposted 13 years ago

    Thats the plan. Break us so we can never afford to fix anything. Then China can come in and forcloseon us.

    Ready for the auction?

    And I don't believe after over a year. You people can sit here and not think your logic is a joke. When all you can parrot is... "Damn Bush... it is all his fault."

    Any originality left in the world.

  12. rhamson profile image71
    rhamsonposted 13 years ago

    I think everybody puts too much faith in the government to fix the economy. It looks more like a trade off to me.  If we allowed the top financial institutions in our economy to fail there would be severe consequences resulting in a pill too bitter to swallow.  A depression the likes that have never been experienced before would have taken place. 

    Why did two presidents so diametrically opposed come to the same conclusion if there was not some sort of worth to the fears? 

    The question is not whether or not it has been fixed but did we just pass over it till another day?

    The US is the biggest consumer market in the world.  Why is that? Because even with our asses held to the fire with debt we are continuing to spend more than anyone else.  We have a need to spend ourselves silly into debt.  Why should our government act any differentlt than the electorate putting them in office?

  13. TMMason profile image59
    TMMasonposted 13 years ago

    There is no such thing as too big to fail in a capitalist economy. It is antithetical to the system itself.

    1. rhamson profile image71
      rhamsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Maybe you answer the economic dilemma easily with your answer but what of the social repercussions that a capitalist solution doesn't account for?

  14. TMMason profile image59
    TMMasonposted 13 years ago

    If you couldn't afford it, you shouldn't have bought it. Move in with your mom. Don't borrow money you cannot pay back on credit. Pay the piper man.

    Too bad.

    You know. Our economy will never correct as long as we keep dumping Govt. money into it. All we are doing is pissing into a leaking water balloon. Sonner or latter we are going to blow a kidney and, crashin down we come.

    We need to suck it up and take the hit. Allow the markets to crash out and self-correct.

    1. Misha profile image62
      Mishaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I rarely agree to you, and here is this rare occurrence smile

      1. TMMason profile image59
        TMMasonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

        how you been mish?

        1. Misha profile image62
          Mishaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Good thank you - hope you, too smile

    2. rhamson profile image71
      rhamsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      TMMason,

      Again I don't think any of us can understand the magnitude of what you propose.

      It's just a wee bit worse than move in with your mom.  The jobs you need to pay back the bill collector would not exist.  Pay the piper is easy enough if you have the resources to pay it. 

      I agree we should all take a sobering look at our resources and spending habits and pay what we owe while we have the opportunity.  Removing the opportunity with a full blown depression is not conducive to it happening.

  15. TMMason profile image59
    TMMasonposted 13 years ago

    Either we self impose it. Or it will crush us when it  all falls apart.

    And it is coming.

    We cannot support the trillions neccessary to prop the global structure up. It will crash if we do not let it down. Maybe if we deflate it on our own we can stop it from free falling.

    But. We can in no way continue down this path long.

    1. rhamson profile image71
      rhamsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I can behind that point with you.  The crisis was diverted with the bailouts but that in no way means that the problem has gone away.  I think the government did what it had to do and now it has to finish it.

      The regulators were asleep at the wheel and unless there is some creditable oversight this thing will creep up and bite us in the ass.

  16. TMMason profile image59
    TMMasonposted 13 years ago

    Yeah, man. It is gonna hurt.

 
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