It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => General Board => Topic started by: trapeze on March 03, 2011, 12:01:27 PM
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LINK (http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2440734)
Best summation I've seen yet about the mess we are in:
[blockquote]Here's the numbers. Show me what we're going to do about it.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment and Welfare comprise 56.7% of the federal budget ($2.1 trillion.)
Defense comprises another 18.7% (about $700 billion.)
And interest, today, is a paltry 4.6% (primarily due to ZIRP).
Interest expense will double even if we don't add one more dollar of debt to the Federal side.
Not might double, will double.
Tell me how we're going to address the deficit, when those five programs above (note, not including the interest) comprise all of the $2 trillion we collect in taxes.
That's the beginning and end of the discussion folks. We have to set the ground rules against what is possible, not what people like. We get to "likes" after we get beyond "mathematical facts."
America refuses to deal with mathematical facts, in no small part because our leaders repeatedly and maliciously lie about those mathematical facts.[/blockquote]
There is more at the link. A good, if depressing, read that is entitled, "The Idiocy of the American Public."
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I think what's eventually coming is talk of "canceling" the debt to foreign treasuries holders, like something a Latin American banana republic would do. They may not outright call it that, but I could see it being couched in language like "temporary suspensions", tacking on extra years to the maturation, or something like that. I think this is a possibility because the overarching theme is a deliberate weakening of American power, trustworthiness, wealth, prestige, influence, etc. This would fit nicely into that equation.
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The people left to their own resources and a government operating within its constitutional mandate would have prevented this catastrophe. If America falls, it will be the fault of decades of progressive policy from both parties, with the vast majority of blame of course falling on the Democrats.
The American people can either look at the entitlement black hole and deal with it proactively - as in eliminating entitlements for all those not currently covered by them - or they ignore it until the country collapses. Polls show that the American people want to play pretend.
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Hmmm...
What do the MFM and other Leftist trash always say?
Follow the money? No, that's not it.
If the shoe fits? No, not that.
Big is bad? Yeah, that's the ticket!
What's the big bad evil thing in this list?
Nothing bigger & badder than Entitlements!
Bring the big bad entitlements down! Down with entitlements! Yeaaaahhh! Who's with me?!
::USA::
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Unfortunately, there is no political will for doing anything with entitlements.
And it's political suicide.
I suspect we'll just inflate our way out of it
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Unfortunately, there is no political will for doing anything with entitlements.
And it's political suicide.
I suspect we'll just inflate our way out of it
They may try, but that's a dead end road.
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My bet's on inflation, also.
Let's face it. That hurts savers and other haves, not those living on the edge, mortgaged up to their eyeballs and other have nots.
Our backwards ass 3rd world leadership will do what any other backwards ass 3rd world leadership will do. Print money. Oh wait, we already are...
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And if that's the case then gold and cheap real estate look like good investments.
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I have been saying this and saying it. THERE IS NO MONEY. There is no money to give away one more penny to anybody for anything; there is NO MONEY for which to pay for the 18 duties and responsibilities assigned the Federal government by the Constitution, and there is NO MONEY for any State to carry on its assigned duties.
The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion. That's well over $300,000 for every man, woman and child in America ...
... (and exceeds the combined value of every U.S. bank account, stock certificate, building and piece of personal or public property).
WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288304576170974226083178.html)
There's no money for "free and reduced" lunches; there is no money for "Earned Income Tax Credit"; there is no money for home heating oil "assistance", food stamps, AFDC, Medicaid, WIC, Section 8 Housing, prescription plan assistance, foreign "aid", research grants, scholarships, "non-profits", farm subsidies, corporate subsidies, "green" subsidies - NO. MONEY. NONE.
What is there about THERE IS NO MONEY that people do not understand? There's no stashed-away, humongous pile of money deliberately being withheld by the greedy selfish. THERE IS NO. MONEY.
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But Pan, haven't you heard?
Really Rich Michael Moore Says All Wealthy Americans' Money is Not Theirs It's 'Ours' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzfd_sNw2-Y#)
"To me, the solution is quite simple. First of all, we're not broke. This country is not broke. The state of Wisconsin is not broke. There's a ton o' cash in this country. Trillions of dollars of it."
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What is there about THERE IS NO MONEY that people do not understand?
What they "understand" is that they can have all their feel-goods and freebies, and it will be left to someone else to pay the tab after they're dead and gone.
The looming wakeup call from Reality is long, long overdue.
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But Pan, haven't you heard?
Really Rich Michael Moore Says All Wealthy Americans' Money is Not Theirs It's 'Ours' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzfd_sNw2-Y#)
"To me, the solution is quite simple. First of all, we're not broke. This country is not broke. The state of Wisconsin is not broke. There's a ton o' cash in this country. Trillions of dollars of it."
I put up that really good rant, with a link and everything, and this is your response? A video of the Mouthy Marxist Meat-Mountain? ::gaah::
/sarc
Seriously, though, he's not the only one to put voice to that obviously stupid, ignorant opinion, but is whom I was thinking of.
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What is there about THERE IS NO MONEY that people do not understand?
What they "understand" is that they can have all their feel-goods and freebies, and it will be left to someone else to pay the tab after they're dead and gone.
The looming wakeup call from Reality is long, long overdue.
Unless they kick the bucket sometime this year, the bill is coming due while they're still breathing. That's my prediction; as always, glass half empty.
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Glass half empty? More like, glass cracked, leaking and almost dried out. Ace had this attached to the link for his essay on the sidebar:
[blockquote]"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
-authorship disputed[/blockquote]
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With Republicans in Congress threatening to cut foreign aid budgets in a determined attack on government spending, Geithner told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it was a matter of US national interest to keep supporting the World Bank and other multilateral development institutions. (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.0ba1c2217af7fea4855cf2133828ae3b.c41&show_article=1)
::gaah::
Everybody repeat after me: THERE. IS. NO. MONEY!!
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WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288304576170974226083178.html)
There's no money for "free and reduced" lunches; there is no money for "Earned Income Tax Credit"; there is no money for home heating oil "assistance", food stamps, AFDC, Medicaid, WIC, Section 8 Housing, prescription plan assistance, foreign "aid", research grants, scholarships, "non-profits", farm subsidies, corporate subsidies, "green" subsidies - NO. MONEY. NONE.
What is there about THERE IS NO MONEY that people do not understand? There's no stashed-away, humongous pile of money deliberately being withheld by the greedy selfish. THERE IS NO. MONEY.
OK, there are children, almost pubescent, and all their lives the have been told "there is no money" and all their lives at that moment they pout, (most of the time that's all they need to do because they belong to a privileged class -it's codified) then escalating they bleat, squeal and sometimes throw terrible temper tantrums tearing up and breaking things.
When things are said and done the children have always gotten their way. What on earth is there to make them think feel it is any different now?
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You're referring to the "adult" children? This isn't enough for them?
"The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion ....and exceeds the combined value of every U.S. bank account, stock certificate, building and piece of personal or public property.
As far as the children-children go, they need to be told to STFD and STFU.
My father used to say, "keep it up; I'll give you something to cry about". Applicable in both cases.
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Correct, the children are a metaphor for the privileged class.
Your statement is complex and requires a level of comprehension
exceeding that of this particular group.
The problem is that our politicians are unable act responsibly and deal with the dual problem of cutting spending and the unrest it will create.
ETA Incompetent is the term, I believe. see you in the rice paddy
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Correct, the children are a metaphor for the privileged class.
Your statement is complex and requires a level of comprehension
exceeding that of this particular group.
The problem is that our politicians are unable act responsibly and deal with the dual problem of cutting spending and the unrest it will create.
*sigh* I do know that. I also know they will have to get their poop in a group and deal, one way or the other. No matter what they do at this point - cut spending or not - the crash is coming and so is the unrest.
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Here ya go; I'm adding this bullsht to my list of things we can no longer afford because THERE IS NO MONEY:
Oakwood has been a landing spot for displaced U.S. diplomats since at least 1998, when about a dozen arrived after the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was bombed. The relationship was formalized in 2006 when the State Department contracted with Oakwood to house diplomats passing through Washington. They pay $5,400 per month for a two-bedroom apartment, and that fee is covered by the government's housing allowance.
H/T mom of girls (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/02/AR2011030205716.html?hpid=artslot)
From the sound of this article - keeping in mind it is, after all, the WaPo - these career diplomats are not raising American children; what they've parked in the provincial Falls Church schools are soi disant sophisticates, proud global citizens at the ripe old ages of 16/17.
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They need to wipe the slate.
If today they whacked EPA, OSHA, CAFE standards, and all these restrictive work and production related regulators. The government would be relieved of Billions in debt - because paying for that mess is debt and immediately all fabrication and production would be relieved of regulation. There would be an incalculable boom, money would be in circulation, people would be working and $$$$ would be pouring into the treasury without being spilled to the vampires.
We would be awash in jobs, cheap energy, and multiples of goodies to buy and sell here and abroad. The retentives must be separated from control.
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You're referring to the "adult" children? This isn't enough for them?
"The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion ....and exceeds the combined value of every U.S. bank account, stock certificate, building and piece of personal or public property.
As far as the children-children go, they need to be told to STFD and STFU.
My father used to say, "keep it up; I'll give you something to cry about". Applicable in both cases.
I think our pappy's may have been separated at birth!
But this nation is in dire need of tough love, that's for damn sure! We can't inflate our way out, we can't spend our way out, we can't hope our way out, we can't tax or confiscate our way out...slashed tax rates for growth, higher interest rates for investment and draconian cuts in government are the only thing that can save this nation. everything else is purre fantasy and will only lead to certain collapse!