“We’re very heavily leveraged in debt,” Dodaro said. “The historical average post-World War II of how much debt we held as a percent of gross domestic product was 43 percent on average; right now we’re at 74 percent.”
Dodaro says that under current law, debt held by the public will hit a historic high.
41 comments:
Tell me something we didn't know.
Question: Will McConnell and Ryan do something about it?
Question: If Cruz were the outsider he claims to be, could he do something about it?
Nobody bribes government officials to get them to spend less.
Who has been paying them off, and who has been taking those payoffs.
Solution: smaller government = less of both.
I doubt McConnell or Ryan would do anything. No idea on Cruz leading a cut federal spending program. I don't think he has talked much about it.
Cruz forced McConnell to shut down the government, but it didn't cut any money.
He voted for the Ocare omnibus spending bill after filibustering 21 hours against it.
He's written 100 bills. Only one, condemning Iran, passed.
But we should not be looking to the President, Congress is supposed to control the purse strings, or did we give up on this divided government concept and just jumped right into an elected constitutional monarchy that changes every four to eight years.
I admit I know next to nothing of high finance, and can only look to the smart money men to see what they are doing.
What about all these Goldman Sacs Treasury secretaries we have had lately, and all the other big wall street money people, and large too big to fail banks. They are not warning of a crash or a default. I don’t see those rich guys panicking and buying ammo or MREs or having a bugg-out bag in their beemer. Do I really think those genius money men are actually idiots sitting in the Titanic first class smoking lounge and only a few of us are smart enough to see the iceberg?
You bet your sweet ass I do.
Jim in St Louis said...
But we should not be looking to the President, Congress is supposed to control the purse strings, or did we give up on this divided government concept and just jumped right into an elected constitutional monarchy that changes every four to eight years.
Excellent point. Problem is, when you have people more interested in power, it's tough to get things moving.
Harry Reid has fought any kind of a budget as both Senate Majority and Minority Leader and McConnell lets him get away with it. One thing to keep in mind is that the President does send a budget proposal up to the hill and that's been the way things work as long as I can remember.
I admit I know next to nothing of high finance, and can only look to the smart money men to see what they are doing. What about all these Goldman Sacs Treasury secretaries we have had lately, and all the other big wall street money people, and large too big to fail banks. They are not warning of a crash or a default
A lot of the big recommendation for these guys is they're well-connected and have the confidence of the banks and the markets.
Which is fine if they know what they're doing. The number of market crashes we've had in the last 25 years or so says they don't.
Do I really think those genius money men are actually idiots sitting in the Titanic first class smoking lounge and only a few of us are smart enough to see the iceberg?
Were they in 1929?
Scary part was the only one who saw it coming was a guy in Germany with a Charlie Chaplin mustache.
They think it ca
As will checks and balances.
I believe the govt. needs to be cut in half. Allow a year to adjust, and then cut it in half again. Then we have a good start on taking back our govt.
The best way to cut govt. is to defeat EVERY incumbent. Turn over the House and Senate. If the new member serves the people, then re-elect them. If they don't serve the people, vote the fucker out. All this emphasis on prez is mostly wasted energy. Congress is what we need to take back.
On the money, Nick.
Do I really think those genius money men are actually idiots sitting in the Titanic first class smoking lounge and only a few of us are smart enough to see the iceberg?
I've read that Old Joe Kennedy, on hearing some shoeshine boy giving stock tips, knew it was time to get out of the market.
I knew the housing market was going to be in big trouble when I read about an illegal alien, who's only income was scrounging for scraps and recyclables got a $300,000 house loan.
I worked on a bank project during the nineties. I knew that banking was going to be a major problem when every few weeks one of my clients informed me their bank was bought out by a larger one.
I agreed that crappy trade bills were going to decimate this country and voted for Perot.
And I'm no genius.
It's a nonsense statistic. Debt is in dollars and the GDP is in dollars per year. They can't be compared.
If it's five miles to town and I drive 40 miles an hour, which is bigger?
In case anybody wants to help out -
"How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?
There are two ways for you to make a contribution to reduce the debt:
At Pay.gov, you can contribute online by credit card, debit card, PayPal, checking account, or savings account.
You can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and, in the memo section, notate that it's a gift to reduce the debt held by the public. Mail your check to:
Attn Dept G
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188"
"Cruz forced McConnell to shut down the government, but it didn't cut any money.
He voted for the Ocare omnibus spending bill after filibustering 21 hours against it.
He's written 100 bills. Only one, condemning Iran, passed."
What you are admitting is that he writes bills that the establishment is strongly against. He's been a junior Senator badly outnumbered by RINOs and Dems. He was doing exactly what real conservatives say they wanted, but he didn't have the political power to make it happen. Sounds like someone we might want to give more clout. He took serious political risks while others hid in the herd. Some others weren't even close to the fight, opting to play businessman on TV with KISS and B-list celebrities.
I agreed that crappy trade deals were going to decimate this country and voted for Perot.
And I'm no genius.
Don't sell yourself short. Most people - myself included - not only don't see several moves ahead, they're oblivious till checkmate comes down like doom.
"AP Poll: Negative view of Trump nears 70 percent"
http://bigstory.ap.org/a636c58b5e9d4da4bb77dcce87148132
No worries.
Our government under Obama is full-on corrupt now. Democrats are the most corrupt.
Panama Papers Reveal Clinton’s Kremlin Connection
The further you go into the past the more honest the language was. What we call taxes the ancients called tribute, because that's what it was and is, a sacrifice of a tenth or a fifth or even half your income to ARMED FORCE.
"How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?"
1) Vote out spenders.
2) Make lots of money and pay your taxes.
Unless you do #1 the second will never help reduce the debt, no matter how well you do it.
A guy who works for one of my vendors, was very good at what he did. The owner of the business sold it to a competitor last year and did pretty well in the transaction. He rewarded this employee with a check for $2 million for growing the business through many years of hard work. He had to pay the majority ($1.1 million) in taxes.
I don't know how anyone could possibly think this kind of theft is necessary, or moral. Most of this money he earned over years of work was confiscated by strangers to give to other strangers.
What's the first thing Paul Ryan does as House Speaker? Pushes forward a $1.1 trillion Omnibus bill and then says his hands were tied? Really? Not one bit of resistance, not one bit of agitation over it, not a single iota of reflection, just ramrod it through then onto the next cocktail party. There are 536 people in congress, one president, and now 8 sitting SCOTUS judges all working against you. That's 545 men and women, you basically go to work on your behalf on a daily basis and trying to figure out how to fuck you at every opportunity with more regulation, more taxes, more expenditures, and more of that giant sucking sound of seeing all of your hard earned labor utterly wasted for their benefit without you knowing about it. You want to see what $4.1 trillion looks like being concentrated in one place? Then go to D.C. and you'll see and smell the corruption oozing out of every single street crack of that place.
Every single one of these people who have actively been stabbing you in the back should be dragged out into the street, beaten to within an inch of their miserable lives, shot, then hung, then shot some more, then flayed, dipped into a pool of alcohol, then hydrogen peroxide, then rehung, and burned. Fuck each and every one of them. They did this. It's on them.
Americans spend more on taxes than housing, clothing and food combined.
Any candidates talking about that? Any have a plan? Any media hacks asking about it?
Bag, it is offensively unconscionable theft isn't it? That one man's reward for years of hard work is to have government step in and take half of it for doing essentially nothing except existing. The competitor that bought that vendors business did so with post tax money to the seller, who then gave $2 million of that post tax money to his long tenured worker, only to have that worker see $1.1 million evaporate in taxes on post taxed money because the tax laws as they are written claim that post taxed income is worthy of being taxed.
It's a scam from top to bottom. A child could recognize it for what it is when it happens to them. Things like a gift tax, death tax, capital gains tax are so outrageous in their concept that I'm really surprised that it is allowed to continue. The current taxable event for a gift tax is anything over $14k, I think. Think about it. If I choose to give my kids something over $14k, long held post tax money, then government can come in and tax it. Think about that. The Death Tax is over 55%. Think about that. Years of hard work, saving, etc. and if you are successful and have amassed a sizeable fortune, when you die over half of that wealth goes to government. Seriously. How is this not worthy of getting people pissed. How is this tax law even moral much less ethical? Capital gains taxes. Post taxed money is invested and through good luck, good fortune, and a combination of a lot of other factors that post taxed money makes more money for you and when you decide to capitalize on it, government steps in for doing no work at all, and takes 15%. Just like that. You did all the leg work, they get a 15% cut for doing nothing.
I'm incensed just typing this out. I'm angry at hearing a story like the one you told. What this government has become and what it is going to turn into is even worse than I could imagine. To see my country turn into a soft collectivist state is very disheartening. Conservativism is frankly a dead ideology walking. Especially against Radical Marxist Progressive Collectivism. It can never win against it.
Your work is taxed when you do it.
When you get the remainder home, and spend it, they tax it again
They tax the car you drive it home in, and the house you bring it to, and the services you get there.
When you die, they tax what's left.
I don't know for sure, but I assume they tax the box and the hole they put you in.
Coming soon is a ghost tax on the estate for refusing to take your spirit with you.
By "they", I mean the voters who think the government is going to solve their problems even though they never do.
"Cruz voted for the Ocare omnibus spending bill after filibustering 21 hours against it."
Why did he then vote for it? Did he get some concessions, or something?
It was a 100-0 vote. Obamacare funding was only a part of the bill. His failed filibuster was an attempt to get enough support to get the Obamacare funding removed from it. In the end, he didn't get that support, obviously. I assume he supported the rest of the bill enough to vote for it. I think his vote was also an attempt to heal a lot of the wounds he opened up in the attempt. Regardless, his vote made no difference, but the effort did accomplish making it clear that he was at least gonna put up a fight about Obamacare when most of the rest of the Republicans were rolling over on it.
There's no good way out of the debt problem. Somewhere down the road is a financial disaster that will last for a generation. An honest politician would tell us that. From what I've heard, there are no honest politicians.
We could conquer Canada then sell it to China. That would work but I wouldn't necessarily call it good. I'm just spitballin'.
Thanks, bago. The filibuster seems like a publicity stunt, really. It was no skin off his nose to make a stink.
The GAO report doesn't even mention unfunded liabilities to the tune of over $120 trillion. I don't think the entire earth is even worth that much. Maybe if you throw the moon, then sun, venus and Mercury and that might be stretching it.
What if we throw in Uranus?
The filibuster seems like a publicity stunt..."
That's politics, and it seems to have worked. He got name recognition, and Tea Party type appreciation.
bagoh20 said...
What if we throw in Uranus?
Too much gas.
But the debt will have to be paid, and government only has one source of revenue*- you and me. And of course it will be unfair- no way something like that could be fair.
In the olden days the king would tell his mint to call in all the coins that were made from 10 grams of gold and issue new coins that were made from only 9 grams of gold. Presto! 10% profit for the king.
So I worry that I'm bustin' my hump to save for retirement and saving in 2015 dollars, but come 2035 those dollars will be worth much less than today.
*the government also could sell off all the land they own in the western US and Alaska.
"Cruz voted for the Ocare omnibus spending bill..."
"Why did he then vote for it? Did he get some concessions, or something?"
As I understand Senate rules, if you vote against a spending bill then you are forbidden to offer any amendments to the conference bill when it gets reconciled to the house version.
Thanks Jim. That also explains the 100-0 vote.
Methedras, there are unfunded liabilities and then there are lies.
If your food budget is $100/week and you expect to live 30 more years, your unfunded liability for food is $156,000 minus whatever cash you have on hand.
I'm not saying that Gov't Pensions, SSDI, SSI, and SS are the same as my example, but be careful quoting values of "unfunded liabilities".
Thanks, Jim!
Some Seppo said...
Methedras, there are unfunded liabilities and then there are lies.
If your food budget is $100/week and you expect to live 30 more years, your unfunded liability for food is $156,000 minus whatever cash you have on hand.
I'm not saying that Gov't Pensions, SSDI, SSI, and SS are the same as my example, but be careful quoting values of "unfunded liabilities".
How are unfunded liabilities lies since they are a promise made by contract, whether they are state pensions, federal entitlements, etc. that required a payout for X amount of dollar for Y amount of time. To exclude the idea that unfunded liabilities shouldn't be accounted for is not only piss poor planning, but a detrimental short sighted view of financial and economic malfeasance. Yeah, if my food budget is $100 a week, then I should be expecting to pay $156k in food for the next 30 years and I need to find a way to fund that, right? And if I can't and borrow against funding it, then what? I have a liability that I have to repay in some way, that I can't fund since I borrowed against it.
So while in one sentence you can use an example of an unfunded liability and in the next sentence proclaim that your first sentence isn't the same as your second one with respect to government entitlement, makes me question if you should be careful in how you should make apples to apples comparisons.
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