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| 2008/10/16-20 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:51555 Activity:low |
10/16 You think the deficit is bad? Look at the debt side.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081016/ts_csm/adebt
'"At the end of the last fiscal year, that (the national debt) came to
$53 trillion or about $550,000 per household," he says. "We may well
have passed the point where the federal government's total financial
hole exceeds the net worth of all Americans."'
\_ $53T is a bullshit number, made up by a bunch of chicken little's
who don't know how to do economic analysis.
\_ A number from The United States Comptroller General for the past
10 years is a bullshit number?
\_ Sorry Republicans, no one is buying your BS anymore.
\_ Actually, for the past three decades, all those presidents
who brought up the debt w.r.t. GDP were Republicans, and
all those who brought it down were Democrats.
http://zfacts.com/p/461.html
\_ But the first GBush's Read My Lips tax raise
was the cause of Clinton era's surplus. Don't
take credit without giving credit.
\_ http://preview.tinyurl.com/2zfhkg
"The problem with Medicare, Walker says, is people keep living
longer, and medical costs keep rising at twice the rate of
inflation. But instead of dealing with the problem, he says, the
president and the Congress made things much worse in Dec. 2003,
when they expanded the Medicare program to include prescription
drug coverage."
The real problem is that medical costs cannot continue to grow
at 7%/yr without consuming the entire economy. Something that
cannot happen will eventually stop growing, I am sure of that.
cannot happen will not, I am sure of that. |
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| news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081016/ts_csm/adebt Christian Science Monitor US stares at a $1 trillion deficit. By Ron Scherer Thu Oct 16, 4:00 AM ET NEW YORK - The US government's extraordinary effort to rescue the banking system may have pulled America's economy back from the brink, but it comes at a cost - helping to push an already bloated deficit up to an estimated $1 trillion for this fiscal year. WnmfDxJJQCOe8UF/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1224206167/L=v5o1MUWTVvr8 3xETQI4VvwiGRTfow0j3yzcADVTg/B=V3eyGNj8els-/J=1224198967893444/A=54068 09/R=0/* That would be a record in today's dollars - and would represent the highest level of federal red ink as a share of the overall economy of any US budget since the 1940s. For each household, this year's deficit would pile on an extra $8,620 of federal debt. As a result, future presidents may have to rein in spending and raise taxes to pay down that debt. If they don't, foreign lenders at some point could scale back their purchases of US debt, sending interest rates soaring. "There are times when you need to run up the deficit and this is one of them," says Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group in Washington that came up with the $1 trillion estimate. "But we ran them up when we did not need to, and we have no plan to stop running them up. The rising estimates of the deficit are based in part on the calculation that tax revenues will shrink as the economy contracts and unemployment rises. If the recession is less severe because of the bank rescue, then the deficit will be smaller. If Congress enacts a new economic stimulus package, the deficit could go up. Another unknown is the actual costs of the $700 billion financial rescue bill. In the first year of the three-year program, the US Treasury might spend $400 billion, estimates Stanley Collender, managing director at Qorvis in Washington and a budget expert. But the Congressional Budget Office is not likely to count it as a direct expense since it might be considered a loan or an investment. "As long as you treat it as a loan or capital transaction, then you have to look at the difference between the initial expenditure and the amount you would expect to get back," says Barry Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Maybe it will be scored at a cost of $100 billion or higher. Otherwise, the budget deficit would be way over $1 trillion." If the deficit does reach $1 trillion this year, it would represent 75 percent of the gross domestic product, the highest percentage since World War II when it skyrocketed to 30 percent of GDP. "The big difference is back then we owed it to ourselves, to Americans," says David Walker, head of the Peter G Peterson Foundation and former US comptroller general. Mr Walker is part of an effort called the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, which is traveling around the nation meeting with editorial boards and holding town-hall gatherings to explain the budget situation. Next year, the group, sponsored by the Concord Coalition, will focus on solutions. Walker's focus is not just the national debt, which will grow to more than $10 trillion this year. Instead, he is looking at the national debt plus all the unfunded promises such as Social Security and Medicare, which have no future tax revenues to cover them. "At the end of the last fiscal year, that came to $53 trillion or about $550,000 per household," he says. "We may well have passed the point where the federal government's total financial hole exceeds the net worth of all Americans." Walker estimates the US has about five years to show fiscal responsibility: "We will have to send a strong signal we can get our house in order." Congress is expected to pile on new spending, such as an $80 billion reduction in taxes for individuals who would otherwise fall under the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and $8 billion in hurricane Ike relief funds. So far, Congress has only appropriated $70 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan effort, despite the fact that the wars have been costing about $150 billion per year. And revenues are likely to be considerably lower than anticipated. "We have fewer people working, lower corporate profits, and losses in the markets," says Mr Collender, who says one of the implications of the huge deficit will be that any of the plans by the presidential candidates for tax cuts or new spending programs will be put on hold. "It also makes a tax increase in the future much more likely," he says. But by the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010, that could be a consideration, especially if there is a threat of higher interest rates." Higher interest rates could be in the mix if some of the world's lenders were to start to diversify their assets. "We don't look like such a great bet anymore," says Ms MacGuineas, who worries that the next "bubble" will be government debt. However, not everyone sees the picture in such bleak terms. "We put our emphasis on the fundamentals over the medium term and continue to be bullish on Treasuries," he writes. US 100-dollar bills are piled up after being counted at the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) in Seoul October 13, 2008. South Korea's bruised currency perked up on Monday on nervous hopes the global financial turmoil might calm down, with the government saying its economy can weather the storm. ckj6Oe8UF/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1224206167/L=v5o1MUWTVvr8 3xETQI4VvwiGRTfow0j3yzcADVTg/B=XXeyGNj8els-/J=1224198967893444/A=54068 10/R=0/* Add headlines to your personalized My Yahoo! |
| zfacts.com/p/461.html National Debt Graph: Bush Sets 50-Year Record Click image below to enlarge. The gross national debt compared to GDP (how rich we are) reached its lowest level since 1931 as Reagan took office. It skyrocketed for 12 years through Bush I Clinton reversed it at a peak of 67%. As it happens, McCain backed all three policies: He backed Bush's tax cuts for the rich and now wants to give them bigger tax cuts. When Katie Couric asked Sarah Palin to name one time McCain suggested regulating Wall Street, she couldn'tbecause he never did. He crowed in the Wall Street Journal how he was always against regulation. o Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Carter wiped out most of the World War II debt. o Two parts of the federal government are running big surpluses. o We hit a 53-year high for debt as a percent of the economy (GDP). The eye-popping $10 trillion gross national debt is owed by the "General Fund." Half of that goes for the military and to pay interest on the debt. Social Security and Medicare, are running huge surpluses. Borrowed by the General Fund $ #* $ # Income: Income taxes. Saved by the Social Security Trust + $ error $ error Income: FICA Payroll taxes. Debt Clock Source Data How Do the General and Trust Funds Get their Money? For The General Fund: All personal and corporate income tax. For Social Security Trust Fund: Payroll taxes on wages up to $102,000 (2008). Amazon Secretary of Commerce under Nixon, Peterson explains the national debt by the Republicans' pursuit of reckless supply-side economics and the Democrats' unwillingness to consider limits on entitlements. |
| preview.tinyurl.com/2zfhkg -> www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226_page2.shtml Photos David Walker US Comptroller General David Walker (CBS) Play Video PlayVideo US Headed For Fiscal Crisis? In Full: David Walker, comptroller general of the US, totaled up our government's income, liabilities and future obligations. Only On The Web: Steve Kroft talks about his "60 Minutes" report on America\'s financial future. He talked to Comptroller General David Walker, who says we may be heading for a financial crisis. com (CBS) Beginning next year, and for 20 years thereafter, 78 million Americans will become pensioners and medical dependents of the US taxpayer. "The first baby boomer will reach 62 and be eligible for early retirement of Social Security January 1, 2008. They'll be eligible for Medicare just three years later. And when those boomers start retiring in mass, then that will be a tsunami of spending that could swamp our ship of state if we don't get serious," Walker explains. To illustrate their impact, he uses a power point presentation to show what would happen in 30 years if the US maintains its current course and fulfills all of the promises politicians have made to the public on things like Social Security and Medicare. "If nothing changes, the federal government's not gonna be able to do much more than pay interest on the mounting debt and some entitlement benefits. It won't have money left for anything else national defense, homeland security, education, you name it," Walker warns. Walker says you could eliminate all waste and fraud and the entire Pentagon budget and the long-range financial problem still wouldn't go away, in what's shaping up as an actuarial nightmare. Part of the problem, Walker acknowledges, is that there won't be enough wage earners to support the benefits of the baby boomers. Our health care problem is much more significant than Social Security," he says. Asked what he means by that, Walker tells Kroft, "By that I mean that the Medicare problem is five times greater than the Social Security problem." The problem with Medicare, Walker says, is people keep living longer, and medical costs keep rising at twice the rate of inflation. But instead of dealing with the problem, he says, the president and the Congress made things much worse in Dec. "The prescription drug bill was probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s," Walker argues. Asked why, Walker says, "Well, because we promise way more than we can afford to keep. Eight trillion dollars added to what was already a 15 to $20 trillion under-funding. We can't afford the promises we've already made, much less to be able, piling on top of 'em." With one stroke of the pen, Walker says, the federal government increased existing Medicare obligations nearly 40 percent over the next 75 years. "Wed have to have eight trillion dollars today, invested in treasury rates, to deliver on that promise," Walker explains. "Well it's gonna come from additional taxes, or it's gonna come from restructuring these promises, or it's gonna come from cutting other spending," Walker says. He is not suggesting that the nation do away with Medicare or prescription drug benefits. He does believe the current health care system is way too expensive, and overrated. We spend 50 percent more of our economy on health care than any nation on earth," he says. "We have the largest uninsured population of any major industrialized nation. We have above average infant mortality, below average life expectancy, and much higher than average medical error rates for an industrialized nation," Walker points out. Joe: Obama Would Lower Taxes (2:21) Joe Wurzelbacher was launched into the national spotlight after being used as an example in a debate. Wyatt Andrews does a Reality Check on how each candidate would affect Joe "The Plumber." |