Posted on 07/19/2014 5:47:48 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Not so long ago the federal deficit was projected to destroy the country, our children’s future and just about everything else. Budget battles shut down the entire government for a couple weeks.
How times change.
A count by our colleague Alice Crites illustrates how the issue gained media traction – - especially after the Bush/Obama stimulus packages to mitigate Bush’s Great Recession – and how much it’s faded from the front pages.
So what happened? Simple answer, of course, is that the deficit is way down and, for now, no longer a big problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.washingtonpost.com ...
Oh, whatever.
So we are going to have a “Republican” president in 2022 then?
Shhhhhhhhhh! Speak vewy vewy quietly so nobody notices. Lookest thou over there. I see a unicorn.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
The line graph of the three “news”papers shows me that mainstream media seems to take its orders from one source. A deficicit that is “way down” to only a half trillion dollars a year seems like a big problem to me. This is especially true hen you consider that most of the decrease comes from reduced funding of the military after Obama surrendered in all of our wars.
If the GOPe wins in 2014 and 2016, you’ll see it skyrocket because the Progressive GOPe are bigger Keynesians than the Socialist Democrats.
Who the hell is Al Kamen? Paul Krugman’s star student? He acts like half a trillion dollars is nothing.
Our dishonest government accounting system does not take into account accruing liabilities that are many times larger than the cash deficit. If those are taken into account, as businesses must do, the USA’s fiscal gap is more like $200 Trillion... But let’s not allow reality to interfere with the ongoing economic fantasy of our feel-good consumption orgy.
It just amazes me
This dumbass snarks away at those of us who criticize deficits, then crows about how the deficits are lowered under the Wizard of Ozbama (mostly via effed-up accounting, but I digress). He says it’s despite budget battles, etc, failing to mention the sequestrations. The latter is THE primordial factor in any deficit reduction we’re experiencing. The Wizard’s hands were tied by the dug-in House conservatives.
The annual deficits may be declining ($400 billion per year is still irresponsible) but the cumulative deficit is what matters and it is reaching the point the feds will have to confiscate the retirement savings (401K’s and IRA’s) of the population to restore faith in the currency. The retirement savings of the American people in IRA’s and 401K’s totals about $16 trillion and the national debt totals about $17 trillion. Watch for a move to appropriate this money the next time there is a stock market meltdown. The government will take the money and put it in “safe” social security type accounts invested in government bonds.
Commodities of all kinds that have a worldwide market are skyrocketing in terms of the declining value of the US dollar. Those prices do not reflect any actual shortages. Those deficits buy more stuff for the government than than those inflated dollars buy later for you and me.
The CBO last week said if nothing changes the deficit would 106% of GDP by 2039. No worries mate
Rand Paul's immigration speech...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.
Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.
Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...
This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.
Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reformLatinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]
Rand Paul On Shutdown: "Even Though It Appeared I Was Participating In It, It Was A Dumb Idea"I said throughout the whole battle that shutting down the government was a dumb idea. Even though it did appear as if I was participating in it, I said it was a dumb idea. And the reason I voted for it, though, is that it's a conundrum. Here's the conundrum. We have a $17 trillion debt and people at home tell me you can't give the president a blank check. We just can't keep raising the debt ceiling without conditions. So unconditionally raising the debt ceiling, nobody at home wants me to vote for that and I can't vote for that. But the conundrum is if I don't we do approach these deadlines. So there is an impasse. In 2011, though, we had this impasse and the president did negotiate. We got the sequester. If we were to extend the sequester from discretionary spending to all the entitlements we would actually fix our problem within a few years.[Posted on 11/19/2013 12:16:51 PM by Third Person]
...stimulus packages to mitigate Bush’s Great Recession... Simple answer, of course, is that the deficit is way down and, for now, no longer a big problem.Washington Compost Partisan Media Shills ping.
I’m not buying that the deficit is going to increase beginning in 2016.
The reason I’m not buying this is because while the CBO likely got the spending increases right—they underestimated the revenues coming in.
The fracking revolution for example is adding about 400 billion to the economy currently but in only 2-3 years that number will rise to one Trillion.
Revenues to the government from oil related enterprise will rise to 300 billion or so.
The USA is headed for the much country that preceded 1970 when oil peaked
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