Sobering thoughts on the national debt

[Bailey Guns]

If Congress were to cut $6 billion every three weeks for the next 36 weeks, it would manage to save between now and late November as much money as the Treasury added to the nation’s net debt during just the business hours of Tuesday, March 15.


You can read the rest of the (very short) article HERE (http://cnsnews.com/news/article/debt-jumped-72-billion-same-day-house-vo). We will NEVER be able to repay $14+ Trillion dollars. I think few people can even comprehend how much that is...I know I can't.

[Mazin]

Yep we're screwed. Thanks for the hope and leaving us with a lil change.

[patrick0685]

ya i cant comprehend that number

[Mtn.man]

We have thrust our grandchildren in to peonage.

[Hoosier]

Dramatically cut spending (including military) and raise taxes. Or, just deflate the dollar to the point where $1T tomorrow = $1B today. Weee!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms

Also note the value for inflation keeps increasing. We can keep blaming the President or politicians in congress, but in reality we (and by that I mean people who were old enough to vote since the 80's) haven't had the balls to really elect leaders who were serious about the debt.

I remember seeing a Google Video posted here a while back, which was Reagan before his Presidential bid waxing on about the horror of national debt. Seems ironic, given the facts.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/US_Federal_Debt_as_Percent_of_GDP_by_President.jpg

H.

[Bailey Guns]

I'm past the point of playing the blame game. I don't care who did it...I want it stopped and fixed.

And you're absolutely right...no one has the balls to do what it takes. I'm looking at the number of Tea Party backed candidates that voted for this nonsense yesterday...DISAPPOINTED!!!

[Hoosier]

And you're absolutely right...no one has the balls to do what it takes. I'm looking at the number of Tea Party backed candidates that voted for this nonsense yesterday...DISAPPOINTED!!!

I haven't really been convinced the Tea Party is about tax issues since they don't like Ron Paul. He's the only congress critter I've seen that actually walks the walk on budget items.

I'm pretty sure a large portion of Tea Party members are only there to protest the Kenyan born sekret Muslim that scammed his way into the White House.

H.

[Elhuero]

I'm pretty sure a large portion of Tea Party members are only there to protest the Kenyan born sekret Muslim that scammed his way into the White House.

H.


LOL

[tmckay2]

i am in no way making excuses for scum bag politicians, but the simple fact is even if they do honestly want fiscal responsibility and to fix the debt, its impossible. you need to have both the president and congress in complete control and have enough people agree on the severity of the issue. thats impossible for people who are rich and are paid by the tax payers. they don't live in reality. when you have a mixed bag of power like now and during part of reagan's term, its not possible to get SERIOUS changes done because you have to compromise on everything. compromise usually means failure for everyone in my opinion. with two parties you simply can't get enough big time things done to turn this ship around. we are seriously 100% f'ed.

[mcantar18c]

you need to have both the president and congress in complete control

So in other words George Soros is the only one that can save us now.
When ya put it like that ya may as well just give up here and now.

[Marlin]

I haven't really been convinced the Tea Party is about tax issues since they don't like Ron Paul. He's the only congress critter I've seen that actually walks the walk on budget items.

H.


On more than one occasion, the good Dr. has been known to stuff pork for his district into dem spending bills that have no chance at failure. But, He can take the high ground, vote against it and then, act all outraged at the "uncontrolled spending".

From the research I have done on him, He is the living definition of hypocrite

[tmckay2]

So in other words George Soros is the only one that can save us now.
When ya put it like that ya may as well just give up here and now.

oh i have given up. i have zero faith enough people will get their act together to do anything about.

lest we forget, we aren't talking about balancing the budget so that we don't have a deficit. we are talking about needing to PRODUCE gains so we can pay down on the debt. do you really think that will ever happen? we will have to slash so many programs and money so many politicians have promised so many people, that there is NO WAY you can ever get enough politicians to agree on it. ever.

i mean having no deficit sounds all nice and good but its like being in mjaor debt yourself and then being super happy when for once in your life you don't spend more than you make. nevermind that you still have the debt and all the interest.

[nogaroheli]

Dramatically cut spending (including military) and raise taxes.

I'm all for DRAMATICALLY cutting spending, all about it- but you lost me with raising taxes. Raising taxes stifles economic growth, MAYBE you get a short spike in revenue but that's short lived. That revenue doesn't come close to matching what you'd see if you cut taxes and actually leave money in the hands of job and revenue creating businesses (they even us taught that in a hippie state college...)

[sniper7]

basically we need another world war, and china needs to be involved. far as I know, they own most of our debt.
I really don't see, and I don't want taxes to be raised. I also don't see politicians, the fed, states, and local .gov bringing spending down into limits.

[ChunkyMonkey]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/GAO_Slide.png

We simply cannot sustain borrowing to spend. The interest payment alone will over take the fed income. God forbid, we will follow EU foot step where personal income tax is double of the US rate and 'everything' is provided by the govt.

IMHO, forbidding the Federal Reserve from purchasing the Federal Debt will put some sense into everyone in this country from bottom up in a hurry - well we would go into hyper inflation first [Tooth]

[Bitter Clinger]

For those that don't know, our country was entirely funded by tarrifs for a very long time. Can you imagine no income taxes or fees whatsoever? Yup.[/quote]

You just made every politician shit their collective pants.[ROFL1]

[Mtn.man]

What we are heading for is a complete collapse of the country.

For example look at Britain in the 70's when no one would take their money because they were broke. They rationed electricity, food etc. 10 years of that shit.

We have printed so much $$ that other countries are going to stop taking the American dollar, they will require some other form of payment.

Another example is Yugoslavia, pure pandamonium when the country went broke.
If you think it can't happen here you live under a rock, as it has already started.

Tim Gietner was just on TV saying the US currency will not be devalued, HA that is a huge lie, and that was the warning to the people to wake up. China has already started getting out of the dollar, it holds more of it than we do, they are dumping US currency.
Several other countries are posting signs in their store fronts saying NO US DOLLARS.

All the scenarios on the SHTF are coming to fruition.

Some of the smarter companies in NY are accepting Euros, or gold only, Hmm wonder why... The FED reserve ain't FED, and private banking will bring us to our knees.
A so called rumor which isn't really a rumor is that the world powers want to have 1 currency the Bancor, and 1 central bank to manage this currency.

It takes a little studying and some research but you can find all of this yourself.

Just because you say It hasn't happened it won't happen here is sign you are no smarter than the jews that stayed behind in Germany believing Hitler was the supreme leader.

[mr_dove]

I'm curious what a full financial collapse in the US would be like. How would one go about preparing for such an event to minimize the damage to my family?

[Bailey Guns]

Invest in precious metals...copper, lead, brass.

[Mtn.man]

I'm curious what a full financial collapse in the US would be like. How would one go about preparing for such an event to minimize the damage to my family?


Expert finacial advisers say...Gold, Silver.
stock up on staples as they will be expensive or non existant (see Katrina)
Ammo is probably going to be non existant, so buy when you can.
Doesn't so much matter about the weapon as long as you can do the job.
Start a garden in boxes or small area if you live in urban areas.

Hey there has to be a reason Soros and other millionaire/billionaire SOB's are hording precious metals, and converting to solar on almost all ther homes.

[Coltdriver]

Expert financial advisors have some gold and silver they want to sell ya.

There are two forces at odds with each other right now.

Bernanke is printing money like a mad man. This is inflationary.

The market wants to correct. This would be deflationary.

Bernanke can only shovel sand against the tide for so long. All the kings horses and all the kings men........

The market will crash big sometime in the next twelve months and it will continue to drift on downward through 2012. Its ready to go right now. Did you see the Yen head right for 70 to a dollar with the earthquake? This does the same thing to the Japanese (they hold close to a trillion in US Treasurys) as it will to the Chinese (they hold over a trillion in US Treasurys). They bought at say 100 yen to the dollar and they get paid back at a major discount, same with the Chinese and every other foreign currency holder of US Treasurys. Between the crash, another round of housing corrections, major defaults on bonds by cities and states and the devaluation of the dollar there is one major result.

A whole lot of debt gets destroyed. It is way over due and has to happen soon. The Obama regime has delayed the day of reckoning so the event will be a little more dramatic.

When it does we will go into a deflationary period. Not a bad deal if you have a job. Course for those who don't it always sucks.

The bigger problem that we face in the US is the overall aging of the population. 10,000 new Social Security recipients a day and this will go on for the next 18 years. I don't personally expect to see a dime of it.

The criminal class has purchased the vote of my parents with my social security money and now the till is dry. Last year the US had to print money to pay Social Security Checks because the amount collected was not enough to cover the outlay.

And I agree with the general sentiment of the posters here. Stop printing money we don't have. It is theft plain and simple.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I remember seeing a Google Video posted here a while back, which was Reagan before his Presidential bid waxing on about the horror of national debt. Seems ironic, given the facts.

Reagan's willingness to live with the federal debt problem is probably the one big hit I have against his administration but put it in context. When Reagan took office, he faced the horror of a Paper Tiger Army. Massive expenditures were needed to fix the problem he inherited from Carter and reinforce our conventional forces so the nuclear option wasn't our only available option to Soviet aggression.

Fact: Reagan's tax rate decreases actually resulted in increases in federal tax collections. The problem was that Tip O'Neill's Congress submitted omnibus budgets that spent $1.87 for every new dollar taken in. Reagan fought those omnibus spending bills but essentially had Hobson's Choice of accepting O'Neill's budgets or shutting down the government and stopping the military rebuild he saw as essential to bringing down Communism worldwide.

Truth to tell, Reagan's submitted budgets weren't balanced either but O'Neill declared Reagan's budgets DOA and they weren't the monstrousities that O'Neill sent back either. Reagan meant what he said about the horror of the national debt but he felt Communism was an even larger threat to the US in the 80s and I would tend to agree given the level of debt in the 80s versus what the Soviets, Warsaw Pact, Cuba et al were doing from '76 onward.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Expert finacial advisers say...Gold, Silver.
stock up on staples as they will be expensive or non existant (see Katrina)
Ammo is probably going to be non existant, so buy when you can.
Doesn't so much matter about the weapon as long as you can do the job.
Start a garden in boxes or small area if you live in urban areas.

Hey there has to be a reason Soros and other millionaire/billionaire SOB's are hording precious metals, and converting to solar on almost all ther homes.

Precious metals I'm investing in are steel, lead, copper and brass. ;)

Learn to garden -- it's a healthy way to supplement your diet and cut down on your food bills -- but solar is generally a poor investment with roughly 20 year ROI whenever I've looked at it (and that assumes the system won't suffer any major malfunctions over those 20 years).

If you believe in Weimar Republic-level deflation due to increased printing of money then you'll want to stock up on tangibles that hold their value through any kind of inflation (remember the Carter administration?). I personally don't believe we'll get to that level but there are some 14 trillion reasons I could be wrong.

[sniper7]

For those that don't know, our country was entirely funded by tarrifs for a very long time. Can you imagine no income taxes or fees whatsoever? Yup.

You just made every politician shit their collective pants.[ROFL1][/quote]


yeah, but people had to work for a living and not get everything handed to them back then you silly goose.

[tmckay2]

Precious metals I'm investing in are steel, lead, copper and brass. ;)

Learn to garden -- it's a healthy way to supplement your diet and cut down on your food bills -- but solar is generally a poor investment with roughly 20 year ROI whenever I've looked at it (and that assumes the system won't suffer any major malfunctions over those 20 years).

If you believe in Weimar Republic-level deflation due to increased printing of money then you'll want to stock up on tangibles that hold their value through any kind of inflation (remember the Carter administration?). I personally don't believe we'll get to that level but there are some 14 trillion reasons I could be wrong.

im not a solar fan, but frankly in this instance we aren't talking about return on investment. we are talking about having power when no one else does. return on investment really isn't the major concern

[arz]

Sobering thoughts on the national debt I'd much rather think about the national debt with a stiff drink in hand

[Byte Stryke]

I find it amusing that "the Price of Gold is skyrocketing!"

when in actuality the value of the dollar is in a friggin free-fall.


all about the spin

[cebeu]

Unsustainable budget threatens nation (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51864.html)



By 10 EX-CHAIRS OF THE PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS | 3/24/11



No "new news" here but I like the message and I like the messengers.



Divided government is no excuse for inaction.



Watching this unfold historically, no partisanship here, I'm embarrassed by my country, I am. We're just too good for this.