How Big Is The US Debt?
- Thread starter wkmac
- Start date
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
This video certainly puts things in to perspective. How do we as a nation even begin to reverse this trend? Is this trend even reversible? Kind of makes the $800B Fiscal Cliff seem almost comical.
bluehdmc
Well-Known Member
The US debt was tremendous after WWII and the country steadily was paying it off. The country was on pace to pay off the debt by 1992. The Ronald Reagan was elected with his "supply side" and "trickledown" economics. Their theory was "debt doesn't matter" and has been escalating ever since.
During WWII the debt to GNP reached 114% but was paid down to under 50% before Reagan was elected. It's gone up steadly since then crossing the 100% threshold with the bank bailouts in the aftermath of the crash of 2008.
I feel if there was cooperation in Washington and a real effort made, instead of trying to protect the "pork barrel" in someones district the debt could be reduced. It was reduced down to under 50% once........
During WWII the debt to GNP reached 114% but was paid down to under 50% before Reagan was elected. It's gone up steadly since then crossing the 100% threshold with the bank bailouts in the aftermath of the crash of 2008.
I feel if there was cooperation in Washington and a real effort made, instead of trying to protect the "pork barrel" in someones district the debt could be reduced. It was reduced down to under 50% once........
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texan
Well-Known Member
Excellent post sir.
This really concerns me, and I feel that you and I are among the few on this board that see this as
the real problem facing this country.
The math does not add up how we will get out of this, no matter who is in power.
I was questioned in other thread have I loss faith in this country?
We are in much trouble, and many just do not see it. 17 Trillion or something close to that number.
Now we have two to four more years of the same thing.
I ache, I cry out for America, but it seems that we have gone too far.
I can handle it "possibly" but my children, my grandchildren.
The America I loved, is now so up to it's eyeballs in debt it is so sad.
What will occur in the next two to eight years will not be good.
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wkmac
Well-Known Member
Glad you liked it. If you go to the YouTube Channel, you may find many more vids worth watching. The 7 part series on Classical Liberalism you might find of value.
As to we being the few here who understand this, I'm not willing to accept that. I think many and maybe even everyone understands this as a problem at some level but the dispute is over the mechanism to solve it.
And here is another you might find of interest.
How Raising Taxes Will Not Balance the Budget: More Evidence - YouTube
I've been noticing something that the president has been saying lately. When talking about debt reduction, he always approaches it as, "If we a serious about debt reduction...." And he has a point. In 2010 when the Tea Party Caucus found their foothold, the came to Washington touting "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs". Remember that? They did nothing along those lines, of course. So I think Obama believes strides can be made along those lines but is skeptical that there is real desire to do so. Fact is though, time is on his side and he, the democrats, and the republican leadership all know it. Bill Kristol for the second week in a row shrugging off tax increases for the top 2%? As Michael Steele astutely put it, "Where was this brother a year and a half ago?"
wkmac
Well-Known Member
Kristol also saying the tax increase for the wealthy not a big deal for Tea Party too.
Bill Kristol: A lot of Tea Party Members Don't Care If We Raise Taxes on Rich - YouTube
av8torntn
Well-Known Member
To be fair they came to Washington on an anti government spending wave. They've also passed many bills in Congress that would cut government spending only to be killed by the Senate.
So they weren't parading around with the "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" mantra? To be fair, I think they were and I bet most people wouldn't have minded if the jobs they got were government jobs. And if all a caucus does is pass bills they know won't go anywhere, what good are they doing?
moreluck
golden ticket member
So let's do lunch and talk about it.........Kobe beef burgers???
av8torntn
Well-Known Member
No
Most claim the tea party movement started as a tax day protest. It gained steam as people opposed the government mortgage subsidies, bailouts, and other government promotion of bad behavior. It kinda reached a peak with the anti government takeover of the health care markets. The common theme was always the rising national debt and you'd be hard pressed to find someone at one of those rallies holding a jobs, jobs, jobs sign in 2010. The jobs thing came during this election cycle based on the failed Obama record and the perceived strength of Romney.
Then again I suppose you can claim it was about jobs if you want even though there is no real evidence aside from a few candidates trying to coattail the tea party movement but we all know who the actual tea party candidates were. Here is a link with pictures of many of the signs at the big 2010 tea party rally if you want the truth.
texan
Well-Known Member
Here is the guidance. I am very concerned now.
The Secretary of Treasury
Treasury Secretary Geithner: Lift Debt Limit to Infinity (huh?)
(CNSNews.com) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that Congress should stop placing legal
limits on the amount of money the government can borrow and effectively lift the debt limit to infinity.
On Bloomberg TV, “Political Capital” host Al Hunt asked Geithner if he
believes “we ought to just eliminate the debt ceiling.”
Mr. Geithner is woefully uninformed. Sen. Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn and most of
the Congressional Democrats voted against raising the debt limit back in March 2006.
Of course, Harry Reid pretended that he was just worried about owing money to foreigners. “Why is it right to increase our nation’s
dependence on foreign creditors?” Reid said on March 16, 2006. “Democrats won’t be making an argument to support this
legalization, which will weaken our country.”
Just_another_day_at_work
Well-Known Member
Not one human including congressmen can fix a ponzi scheme...
Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
I will give u all some info that I'm sure no one will believe and call me crazy but its from a very reliable source. There are government studies being done right now as to what cities to protect when china quits issuing bonds and the people that now depend on the government will begin to riot all over and take what they need to survive. There simply is not enough cops military personnel and such to protect us all. They are going to pick a few cities to protect and the rest of us will have to band together. The government fully expects this to happen in the next 60 years.
Who's the very reliable source?
wkmac
Well-Known Member
I'll give you something else to consider. The way things are starting to develop around the country at local levels, in 60 years we may not even need gov't as we know it now. Even in the greek crisis, they are working beyond the state. Don't buy into the fear of the future because I got another little ditty for you, the present system is coming down (and they know it) and the beauty is, we don't have to lift a finger for it to happen.
Besides, these abandoned cities may be better off with the major cause of their poverty and hard times out of the way. You might even begin to see The Voluntary City.
But you can always avoid actually thinking anything out and just resort to the talking points followed by collapsing in utter fear. Your cage overseers will appreciate it!
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