[poo hits fan]Agreement from the hard Left and Right

No need to fret and worry b/c the House of Rothschild and their minions (Greenspan, Bernanke next year, and whosoever follows them in the coming decades) have the perfect remedy to melt all this debt away: Hyperinflation.

 

So what if I need to bring a truckload full of money to buy groceries.

 

That is the telling quote. We, as a whole, have voted for lower taxes and higher spending. No one to blame but ourselves.

Maybe in the far future - historians will look back and use these fiscal crises as "proof" of the failures of democracy - politicians will do anything to get elected even if that means running the govt. into bankruptcy.

 

As opposed to a dictatorship? No thanks. Or as opposed to socialism? Great...equal opportunity for nobody. I pass.

 

Well we could cut back on a bloated "defense" (that's a laugh) budget that will soon exceed that of the rest of the world combined. In a year and a half. (Maybe Mango can track that figure/story down).

Sadly this colossal waste of money with the adventurism it makes possible, makes us hated more and more daily throughout the world. The hundreds of billions spent ultimately won't protect us against guys with box cuttters who hate us. I think the Roman empire fell apart in much the same scenario, more and more spent on miiitary budget as more and more conquered folks hated them..

Don't forget the drive to end estate taxes on only those estates over $7,000,000 starting in 2009.

As an aside, the timid moderate/ liberals at the Brooking Institute can only be considered "hard" left by Fox News types.

 

Don't get me wrong.

I'm a pretty diehard capitalist. Capitalism and representative republicans don't have to go hand-in-hand. On the contrary - I think democracies tend to devolve into Socialist states.

Politicians appeal to voting masses with entitlements, public works, and massive military expenditures that are apparently "free" (ie. taxpayer-funded). Politicians also appeal to the voting masses who want lower taxes. What we get is reported in the posted article.

It just seems that this looming budget crisis is a reflection of the poor quality of our politicians - who are voted into power by us.

I suppose what will happen is hyperinflation (as mentioned by someone else) or massive tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy which will have a debilitating effect on the economy. A GOP majority in the House, Senate, and White House has not done anything to reign in spending. Isn't non-military spending increasing at higher rates than during the Clinton years?

Who knows - one day Communist China may be the last bastion of capitalism on the planet.

 

Bushie and his crew have accelerated govt spending since taking office out of necessity. Since the bubble burst in 2000, they have been spending like madmen, as witnessed by the hundreds of billions spent on war efforts, the tax cuts, and recently the $295B highway fund (which the WH will eventually pass). They have also brought short rates down to historic levels so that the economy, and its housing speculators in particular, have been floating on cheap money and loans like never before.

So Bushie et al have in essence been successful in reflating the economy. They have fought off the forces of deflation (or as they like to call it, disinflation) at least temporarily. But they have done so at the expense of building up massive debt in every nook and cranny of both America's public and private sectors. This imbalance can only be corrected thru the devaluation of the US dollar. It's not a matter of if, but when.

 

The problem is that Republicans want lower taxes more than they want less spending, and Democrats want more spending more than they want higher taxes. The result is that the Republican legislators will compromise on spending to get tax cuts and the Dems will compromise on taxes to get spending increases. The result is lower taxes and increased spending, which you don't need a think tank to tell you is eventually going to cause problems.

The stabilty of our economy is based on limitless and rapid growth, instead of being able to function as a constant. While it is nice to say that we should cut spending AND raise taxes, that is not likely to happen, because people are still trying to get elected. What we need to do is go with one party's plan or the other (I would of course prefer MY party's plan) to get things under control. The key is not to spend money you don't have. It is gonna hurt either way, but the sooner we get it under control, the less painful it is going to be.

 

You know what's the most depressing thing about this? You ask the average Joe or Jane today and they just assume the government has infinite money and doesn't have the credit/debt problems that everyone deals with. This will become more of an immediate issue and priority (with media attention) the day that the average American decides it's more important than whatever flavor-of-the-month legislation is being pushed down their throats at that time.

 

well said. unfortunately by then it might be too late. talking economics isn't nearly as interesting or emotionally-inticing as say abortion rights or gay marriages; hence the lack of coverage/care in this country.

 

In the country and on the BBS.....In just a couple days now the Abortion thread has already racked up 200+ replies. This one will prob get less than 20.

 

The problem is that Republicans want lower taxes more than they want less spending, and Democrats want more spending more than they want higher taxes.

Sounds good. Sounds blalanced. Problem is it's just false and GOP spin. The two biggest budget busts by far have been created by Republicans. Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes primarily on the $100k per year crowd and keeping spending modest. Reagan and now Bush II destroyed the budget. Now Reagan and Bush went nutso on military spending , as the conservatives like to do. This is still govenment spending. Reagan and Bush II also had massive tax cuts. Increased military plus massive tax cuts lead to deficits. No amount of spin gets around the simple arithmetic.

The GOP are not just dummies when it comes to budgets. As we know, the Republicans did this on purpose to bust the budget, so they can claim things like lowering social security benefits, defunding public housing, mental health programs for the indigent and raising college tuitions, due to busted state budgets, are necessary.

They count on flag waving and scaring people about foreign bogeymen to keep the profits rolling in from large military spending. By running huge deficits they hope that when they inevitably lose at the polls, future Demcorats will be strapped with hughe deficits making it impossible to increase service for the poor and middle classes.

 

Reading these articles are too depressing. There are no true leaders in this country, not in congress and not in White house.

 

Somehow this seems relevant-




What in God’s Name is Going On?


......

Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which we ran, has lost 8.8 billion dollars. By lost, I mean it’s totally unaccounted for. Not only has Congress not "looked into" this $8.8 billion and who might have it now, but it seems that some members are completely unaware that this staggering sum, which was supposed to go toward rebuilding Iraq, is missing. The Sunday morning after the White House Correspondents dinner, I ran into Senator George Allen at a brunch thrown by John McLaughlin and his wife. Allen had never heard of the missing $8.8 billion, or at least that's what he told me. And he's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Stunned, I went up to Susan Page of USA Today and her husband Carl Lubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News, two veteran Washington political reporters, and told them about Allen’s ignorance of this huge scandal, which has no doubt contributed to hatred for America and the deaths of our troops. There’s less electricity in Iraq now than there was before we invaded Iraq.

Turns out that Page and Lubsdorf had also never heard of the unaccounted-for $8.8 billion. For a moment I thought that maybe I had been imagining things.

Then I spotted my friend Norm Ornstein, scholar from the American Enterprise Institute. "Would you believe it if Norm Ornstein told you about the $8.8 billion?" I asked Susan and Carl.

"Sure."

I brought Norm over, and indeed I had not been imagining things. "It was a huge story," Norm told them.

"Was it in the New York Times?" Carl asked Norm.

"Yes," Norm assured him.

What in God’s name is going on?

Al Franken

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/al-franken/what-in-godas-name-is-g_1221.html

 

I have no problem believing this Bush administration is one of the most corrupt administration in US history.

 

The figures we are talking about here are staggering--I mean, I can't even UNDERSTAND a sum of 7 trillion dollas. There are so many zeros behind it that one has to laugh...it might as well be monopoly money.

If this crisis does boil down to the haves and have nots, America better start thinking about the "no republic has lasted for more than 300 years" bit. The richies/corporations might be in for a whole HEAP of trouble if the tax burden is continually shifted down to the middle and lower class.

Maybe I am being an alramist, as I said, these numbers do NOT make sense to me.

Dunno about you guys, but my ammunition will be dry and well stocked!

 

the republicans are in complete control of the government right now. how can the dems be blamed for spending?

when it comes to spending and fiscal irresponsibility, bush is the biggest liberal there is.

 

Couldn't agree more about the importance of this issue. Everything pales compared.

It's not a matter of if, but when-- TRUTH SPOKEN

Do the gobal elite who own all the financial sector care about America. Well they care about our military superiority because they use it to their advantage.

They care about how they are going to profit from the dollar collapse.

But they don't care one bit how many of us fare in hyperinflation or deflation or depression or super recession or whatever other course they are planning.

Let's look at how the Russian economy crashed in 2000. There is a good pattern for us, Argentina may be too simplistic for our base of GDP.

Well I say we write off the federal debt, bring the troops home, find a General who is loyal to the Constitution guard Washington, do away with the IRS and income tax, abolish the federal reserves and start rebuilding the greatest country the world has ever seen.

Let all those Rothschilds, Rockafellers, Bundys, Collins, Duponts, Kennedys, Van Duyns and the rest of the global superiors cry over all the money we ripped them off for.

Never gonna happen. Just kidding. I was only joking. Don't know anything. Just a wacko spouting off.

(Let's all get old before it is too late.)