http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/15/news/economy/treasury_fy2010_deficit/index.htm?hpt=T1 Indeed, the Government Accountability Office projects that by the end of this decade, the vast majority of all federal tax revenue will be swallowed up by just four things: Interest payments on the country's debt, and the payment of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits. So basically, we will relatively soon have to borrow the money to do almost everything else the government does...every agency, every program, every government salary (including the politicians), every dollar spent. Defense, education, transportation, housing, border control, homeland security, foreign aid, unemployment, everything. The only thing I can really relate it to in my mind is if a family spent all their income on their mortgage, car and just the interest on their credit card. Everything else they bought...food, electricity, clothing, etc would all have to go on the credit card. How do we fix this when one party won't accept tax increases and the other won't accept budget cuts?
Trash the whole system and replace it with one that represents the majority of the populous rather than two groups of elitists and their immorality and greed, thus advancing and promoting a society based on the needs of the many, rather than the few.
It's been worse and we recovered. Our largest corporations will have to start actually paying taxes for a change instead bribing our elected officials into carving them out loopholes big enough to drive this country into the financial grave yard. I don't really worry about the debt. I remember similar arguments in the past when it was also said that our children would be paying for it for the rest of their lives and Clinton managed a surplus shortly thereafter. Our corporations are as rich as they've ever been and our people are as broke as they been in a long time. We simply have to make off-shoring of our jobs unprofitable and jobs will return. We used to be 6% of the world's population and produced 90% of the good the world consumed. Greed coupled with "globalization" changed that. We have the power in this country but we have to chose to use it. We are so divided that the few control the many. We have been sold a bill of goods and borrowed and borrowed to pay for it. Americans need to start being less stupid with money and stop letting themselves be manipulated by the next shiny thing and smooth line of BS. Social programs will take care of themselves once prosperity returns and people will wonder why they even concerned themselves about them in the first place.
I thnk the dynamic in the world has changed and it will be near impossible to get it back. I am not saying we will be a third world economy but getting back to making anywhere near 90% of the market? I just don't see it in this day and age. We are no longer a 'monopoly'. Regardless of whether we hav become better or worse, the competition has certainly become better. As far as surpluses, the Clinton surpluses are confusing to me. From looking at annual debt numbers, it looks like the actual debt increased by about a trillion dollars the 8 years he was in office. However, I do read about his budget surpluses so I will accept that. But the numbers still aren't good. Even if you say he had a budget surplus, the highest number I have found was 230 billion in a year. It would take about 50 years of doing that each and every year to get us back to what the debt was just in 2000 as Bush came into office. And at current deficit levels? It would take 5 or 6 years of doing that just to erase this year's deficit. And another 5 or 6 years of doing that to erase next year's projections. Maybe only 4 or 5 years of doing that to erase the following years projections. Corporate taxes are another idea but the numbers I see are not good there either. Best as I can tell, after tax corporate profits for 2010 were 1.2 trillion. So, we could tax 100% of corporate profits every year and still only break even on the yearly deficit (and not reduce the debt at all). Maybe it is all hogwash but it sure seems to me that the numbers have become different than they once were.
Interesting. If you 2 agree on it then it is no wonder neither major party cares about it and ignores the deficits and overall debt. That is basically both sides of the aisle agreeing on the topic. And another good reason I can't come up with 3 people in the other thread...because I totally disagree. lol
Money is simply concentrating at the top of the ladder now more than ever. It isn't that these people at the top are so much better capitalist than the rest of us but they have managed to skew the playing field in their direction to the point that all money flows their way. The idea that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, whether you agree with it or not, has been equated with Socialism to the benefit of the few. All Americans built this country but the elite few at the top claim exclusive ownership for themselves. You can try and deny that this country is sinking under the weight of its own greed but the evidence to the contrary is just too overwhelming. If the wealthiest people in this country don't even support this country, then how long will it be before those at the bottom have nothing to lose by seeing this country fall? I'm sure that the winners will write the history again. If those at the bottom win, it was greed and indifference by the elite that caused the downfall. If the those at the top win, it will be written that the demise of the country was the fault of the lazy socialists in society. The fact that vigilance was nonexistent and indifference and selfishness ran free will never be considered. We all have a stake in this great country and we all need to do our part. Once we are completely divided into "us" and "them" and blame is the only discourse, our fate as a country is sealed. The debt is just a symptom of our national dysfunction.
I am not advocating against social programs in any way shape or form. I personally believe it is self-evident that you have to have some kind of support in place for the poor, elderly, etc in order to maintain a stable country and a stable economy and a stable democracy. What I do say is that we are quite possibly unable to do that in the way we are doing it in the long term. Looking at the numbers, things are not the same as they were a decade ago when it comes to our budgets and debt. I really believe we are reaching a tipping point. The numbers are accelerating and, if you look at families and businesses that get themselves into trouble, that kind of acceleration is the end game. I have a hard time believing that does not apply to a governments economy. Sure, the scale is different, but I don't think the result is different. Without major change we will reach a point where we cannot do what we have promised to do. And quite possibly worse. For an example of how I think we do things totally wrong in our fiscal and social responsibility, the 'Bush Tax Cuts' are the perfect example. With our current budget issues, extending them to everyone is insanity and extending them to everyone under $250K is stupidity. I think my reasoning against extending them to everyone is probably self-explanatory considering my posts in this thread (not to mention elsewhere). But, my reasoning against the less than 250K is that it is a total shotgun approach to helping those who need it. Social programs need to be a targeted approach. Not just setting some arbitrary income and saying everyone under this gets a tax cut. It actually hurts those who really do need help and is counterproductive to what we should be doing and what we can realistically do. And that kind of thinking, I believe, is what is really driving the debt crisis that I believe will come.
