Topic: The Truth About Budgets, For Both Left and Right

[rickl]

The lies are flying fast and furious this weekend (and all last week for that matter) related to the "debt ceiling" and partisan wrangling has reached a fever pitch, with some representatives now claiming that the Republicans are "racist" for refusing to raise it.

Let's look at the facts, and deal with them - because we really have no other choice here.  I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but there's simply no way to make it shorter.

I recognize that the short-term pain involved in addressing these issues will be considerable.  There is no way to avoid that outcome - there wasn't in 2007 and there wasn't in 2001.  The economic pain required is significantly worse now than it would have been in 2007, but that doesn't matter.  We either do it or we go off the cliff - that's indisputable and is easily proved.  Those who argue otherwise have the burden of proof upon them to show how, given the relentless reality of basic mathematics, they're going to avoid what is before us.  The "Ryan Plan" originally put forward was bereft of this ability, as have been President Obama's claims - both relied on utterly unreasonable assumptions for GDP growth in the future along with doing nothing to address the underlying debt ponzi that has been accumulated over the previous 30 years.

I understand fully that partisan political bickering and deadlock are first and foremost how Washington DC scores "points."  But today we can no longer pretend that we have time, nor that phony-baloney "solutions" will work.  Three years into the alleged "solutions" that were put forward by both Republican and Democrat administrations nothing has been resolved, employment has not come back and deficits have not stabilized.  The claims made over these previous years, in short, have been shown to be false.

Read the whole thing.  There's too much to excerpt.

[Pandora]

Depressing and yet infuriating.

None in DC GAS, really.  If any actually do, they are afraid to act.

[charlesoakwood]

We were going implode during Nixon, collapse under Carter, and today there is no way to ever recover; no sale. We are three steps away from dynamic expansion.  Cut spending, eliminate regulative agencies, and get the hell out of the way.  The problem with this model is that it eliminates the grafters and they won't have it.

 

[Pandora]

We were going implode during Nixon, collapse under Carter, and today there is no way to ever recover; no sale. We are three steps away from dynamic expansion.  Cut spending, eliminate regulative agencies, and get the hell out of the way.  The problem with this model is that it eliminates the grafters and they won't have it.

They're going to get it anyway, good and hard, but not until they've blown us all up.

From what I think I absorbed from the posted piece was if the right thing is done ~~ RIGHT NOW ~~ it may be only 9 months of severe pain, do I have that right?

If so, it can be done; we can do that, we must.  It's that or a horror show.  And we might have to endure the show anyway.

[rickl]

We were going implode during Nixon, collapse under Carter, and today there is no way to ever recover; no sale.

The big difference is that in those days we didn't have the enormous debt burden that we do now.  The danger is that once interest rates start to rise, a larger and larger portion of the budget will be used just to pay the interest.

We are three steps away from dynamic expansion.  Cut spending, eliminate regulative agencies, and get the hell out of the way.  The problem with this model is that it eliminates the grafters and they won't have it.

No argument there.

[rickl]

The way I read it is that we are in a depression right now and have been for 3-4 years.  Refusal to raise the debt limit will force recognition of that fact, and nobody in Washington wants to do that.  We're always in an election year or on the verge of one.

If we hadn't done TARP and the bailouts in 2008, it would have happened then.  Major banks would have failed and we would have plunged into a short, severe depression.  But today we would be well on the way to genuine recovery, not the sham recovery they keep talking about.

[Libertas]

This economy, like the Emperor overseeing it, are naked, but too many are willing to imagine both are fully clothed, especially the former!

Reality when it hits will be like a sledgehammer to the face.  And at that point the blame game is useless and people won't care what little letter was after your name, and saying "I told you so" is just going to be ignored as the rabble does what the rabble does best.