Deficit/Debt Discussion Thread

[Darius871]

Ben in a nutshell:

[Ben Kenobi]

The guy who caught an STD from an amateur pornstar is saying I ride the short bus?

Pot, meet kettle.

[MRT144]

The guy who caught an STD from an amateur pornstar is saying I ride the short bus?

Pot, meet kettle.

The sad thing is, I'm happily engaged to a wonderful woman and you're not. Despite my flaws in character and judgment, I'm better at accomplishing your life goals than you are.

[Spaced Cowboy]

I'm not sure I quite understand why the white line on Drake's linked graph is rising so high based on projections. I read the article and it did not explain that line (or maybe I skimmed that part).

Clinton actually had surpluses, but likely due to the economy (aka more tax revenues).



I'm pretty sure that being mired in Afghanistan and Iraq is going to put us on the same path as Russia.

I can't find the graph I saw the other day, but Great Britain has a larger debt to GDP ratio than the US does.

With all the people out of work, tax revenues have to be down.

[Drake Tungsten]

The CBO has now reestimated the budget effects of the President's proposed policies, and indeed the CBO forecasts larger budget deficits. The CBO's total deficit projected over the decade-long budget window is $1.2 trillion larger than the administration's estimate.

The administration projects that the federal government debt held by the public would rise to 77 percent of GDP in 2020 (from 53 percent in 2009). The CBO forecasts a debt-GDP ratio in 2020 of 90 percent.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/03/cbo-on-presidents-budget.html

Yep, we're boned.

[Ben Kenobi]

Clinton actually had surpluses, but likely due to the economy (aka more tax revenues).

That's a strange graph. The national debt increased every year under Clinton.

[Drake Tungsten]

Why am I not surprised that Ben doesn't know the difference between the federal budget deficit and the national debt?

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm happily engaged to a wonderful woman and you're not. Despite my flaws in character and judgment, I'm better at accomplishing your life goals than you are.

Oh, I see. Well I'm happy for you then and congrats. I don't believe I've seen you announce this elsewhere, so apologies. I just saw this now.

[Ben Kenobi]

Why am I not surprised that Ben doesn't know the difference between the federal budget deficit and the national debt?

Or perhaps it's because I do understand the difference?

If the national debt increases every year, that means that each year of the Clinton presidency ran under a true deficit, regardless of his accounting.

[Drake Tungsten]

You're such a ****.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben Kenobi >>> Drake.

[Kidlicious]

If the national debt increases every year, that means that each year of the Clinton presidency ran under a true deficit, regardless of his accounting.

He used the same accounting.

[Flubber]

Why are you guys having so much trouble doing what every other western country has managed to accomplish decades ago?

Weird huh??

On the US budget I am constantly shocked how such massive deficets seem accepted. In Canada, despite our current minority government often spending like a drunken sailor to appease the minority parties and keep the government afloat, we have recently had government surpluses and can realistically hope to see them again.

Americans need to figure out what you want government to be doing and start funding it appropriately (and yes that probably means more taxes). Because as it stands, Americans already cannot afford the level of government they have.

Economic hard times are obviously not the time when you want to be raising taxes but longer term doesn't it have to be part of the discussion, regardless of what you folks do on health care??

[DanS]

Not necessarily. Much of the pre-crisis stress on the budgets was from military expenditures. Eventually, those will go away or we will restructure our military to spend less money.

[HalfLotus]

Military spending isn't going down any time soon. Obama's 'spending freeze' was a hint at third-world style austerity measures. We're seeing 'benefits' decrease and taxes go up long before significant military cuts.

My guess is we're in the military thing for the long haul. A couple more conflicts in the Middle East and it'll be WW3 when Russia and/or China move in to defend their interests in the region. That'll put US out of our misery, as we invite Wiemar style inflation to fight a half dozen concurrent wars, and likely one very large one.

USA will go down one way or another, Zbig and his ilk have foreseen it.