Posted on 01/03/2012 6:51:02 AM PST by Hojczyk
The entity responsible for publishing the financial statements of the U.S. government, the General Accounting Office, has released its fiscal 2011 annual report.
When companies and governments have bad news to release, they try to release it at the moment when journalists and the public are paying the least amount of attention — thus, hopefully, generating the least possible amount of grumbling and complaints.
So it's no surprise that the GAO released its 2011 report on the Friday before Christmas, possibly the day of the year on which the country was paying the least amount of attention.
As you might expect, the GAO's annual report on the financial condition of the United States contains tons of bad news.
The country can print its own money, so it's not "broke" in the classic sense of the word (can't pay its debts, can't fund its operations).
But the country is also clearly on an unsustainable course.
We will highlight sections of the report over the coming days.
For now, here are the highlights:
The U.S. ran a $1.3 trillion budget deficit in 2011, flat with 2010 and the third year in a row of deficits over $1.3 trillion
The U.S. federal debt load continues to climb as a percentage of GDP and is expected to explode over the next few decades
The big problem in our current and future finances is NOT spending on Defense, Education, the Environment, and the other government programs that Democrats and Republicans love to fight about.
The big problem in our budget is a combination of:
Taxes that are currently off their peak as a percentage of GDP
Future unfunded commitments to Medicare and Social Security
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
How can we be broke?!?! Congress is still spending money...we can’t be broke!
Well....in any event....Barack will save us.
Or Mitt.
and getting broker faster. That’s the nature of an exponential curve. It seems to me that this should be our biggest issue now, not the reams of political babble that we’re hearing and reading about today.
From 2009 to 2011:Total discretionary spending soared from $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion, an increase of over 16 percent.Total mandatory spending jumped from $2.1 trillion to $2.2 trillion, an increase of almost 4 percent.
Looks to me like we don't have to wait for entitlements to bankrupt us. Our discretionary spending is doing it now.
“getting broker faster. That’s the nature of an exponential curve. It seems to me that this should be our biggest issue now, not the reams of political babble that we’re hearing and reading about today.”
Only the Ron Paul people really care about too much spending and too big deficits.
I have the solution. I call it THE TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY TAX. Every government employee (and I do mean federal, state, county , city and welfare) will have to pay an additional 2% tax that is refunded back to taxpayers in the private sector. It’s only 2%. Two measly pennies on the dollar. Of course, we could raise the percentage next year. It’s only fair. Think of the jobs this could create! The people receiving this money would spend it on stuff and services. We’d make it tax free so that none went back to government employees. Turnabout is fair play.
Why don’t we make government ‘revenue-neutral’? We estimate what they consume and tax them that amount? They own most of western U.S. anyway.
Then we’re in trouble, because RP people are retards.
Thankfully, you’re wrong about the “only” part.
Eight Hundred Days Without A Budget-A new milestone in Democrat Party governance is reached.
human events | 7-8-11 | John Hayward
Democrats have controlled the Senate and the White House since the election of 2008, and the House of Representatives up until this year. Certainly they could have passed any budget they desired, including one with tax increases and spending increases. But they chose to ignore the 800-day gorilla in the room because they don’t want to be on record supporting a budget that actually does what they want. Then the public could hold them accountable for their cowardly and irresponsible behavior in the face of national fiscal calamity.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44718
IMHO,with Newt Romney, we can look forward to another GW Bush, who increased spending faster than LBJ.
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