Deficit/Debt Discussion Thread

[Riesstiu IV]

At least he went smiling.

Sadly his organs were harvested by baby boomers before the funeral.

[Drake Tungsten]

U.S. National Debt Tops Debt Limit

The latest calculation of the National Debt as posted by the Treasury Department has - at least numerically - exceeded the statutory Debt Limit approved by Congress last February as part of the Recovery Act stimulus bill.

The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt at nearly $12.135 trillion.

A senior Treasury official told CBS News that the department has some "extraordinary accounting tools" it can use to give the government breathing room in the range of $150-billion when the Debt exceeds the Debt Ceiling.

Were it not for those "tools," the U.S. Government would not have the statutory authority to borrow any more money. It might block issuance of Social Security checks and require a shutdown of some parts of the federal government.

Pending in Congress is a measure to increase the Debt Limit by $290 billion, which amounts to six more weeks of routine borrowing for the federal government. (The House just passed the increase, though the Senate has yet to act. It is expected to approve the measure.)

Republicans and conservative Democrats blocked moves by House leaders to pass a $1.8 trillion dollar increase in the Debt Limit so the Democratic majority would not have to face the embarrassment of raising the Debt Limit yet again before next November's midterm elections.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/12/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5987341.shtml

[Drake Tungsten]

White House to paint grim fiscal picture

The White House will predict a record budget deficit in the current fiscal year and more big shortfalls for the next decade in its upcoming budget proposal, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday.

In its budget proposal to be released on Monday, the White House predicts a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends September 30, the Capitol Hill source said.

According to the estimate, deficits will narrow to $700 billion by fiscal 2013 before gradually rising back to $1.0 trillion by the end of the decade, the source said.

President Barack Obama will seek to strike a balance between reducing the deficit over the long term and stimulating the economy in the short term to ease the pain of double-digit unemployment.

Criticized by Republicans as a big spender, Obama used his State of the Union address last week to tell Americans he would dig the country out of a "massive fiscal hole."

That hole is even deeper than previously believed, according to the estimate by the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

The estimate for the current fiscal year is significantly higher than the $1.35 trillion figure forecast by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last week.

Despite the difference, both estimates indicate that the deficit will continue to hover at a level not seen since World War Two, when measured as a percentage of the economy. Last year the government posted a $1.4 trillion deficit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U1PZ20100131

Have I mentioned that we're totally ****ed?

[Theben]

The answer is located in the article. Let me c&p it for you:

both estimates indicate that the deficit will continue to hover at a level not seen since World War Two, when measured as a percentage of the economy.

I think we know what needs to be done.

[Theben]

[Thoth]

[DanS]

The spending picture is distressing. We should be cutting spending next fiscal year quite a bit, such that the Fed won't feel it necessary to tighten monetary policy quite as much.

I feel like Obama does not have it in himself to cut spending. It's opposite of the way that he thinks.

[Ben Kenobi]

He's undoing decades of fiscal responsibility.

[Jon Miller]

He's undoing decades of fiscal responsibility.

JM

[MRT144]

He's undoing decades of fiscal responsibility.

Nice try Ben.

[Ben Kenobi]

Apparently dry humour is not a part of American culture. Who knew?

[MRT144]

Apparently dry humour is not a part of American culture. Who knew?

Your trolls are not dry humor.

[Kidlicious]

np

[Riesstiu IV]

He's undoing decades of fiscal responsibility.

Ben in a nutshell:

[MRT144]

Ben in a nutshell:

Wait for ben to claim he's being ironic by pretending to be a patriotic ******.