Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Where Did the Debt Come From?

11 comments:

  1. Brilliant!!!! Not one word about the Fed printing money or Congress raising the debt limit.

    orlin sellers

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  2. Heh - no mention of social programs like SS and Medicare ballooning out of control? No mention of the fact that 2001 was not truly in the black because that actually counted spending all of the excess SS payments instead of saving them for future benifit payments?

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  3. Anon: SS has always run a surplus--so to say it's "ballooning out of control" is silly.

    The major causes of the debt were 1. tax cuts--reducing revenues, and 2. increased defense spending on 2 wars.

    The debt limit is an artificial number.

    --JadeGold

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  4. The debt came from republican fiscal policies over the last 30 years. It is Voodoo Economics, that doesn't add up. A third graders arithmetic is better.

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  5. Jade - SS is no longer running a surplus and since all of those surplus years in the past were spent in the past the difference in revenue needed to mainatin SS at its current benifits will have to start coming out of general revenue. Medicare/Medicaid is in even worse shape. You will soon see these programs ballooning out of control unless they are modified in some manner.

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  6. The debt was born and raised in the deserts of the Middle East. $12 Trillion in Overseas folly. Period that's it.

    Social Security has nothing to do with the debt.

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  7. That presenter is deceptive. How is Bush responsible for the spending during Obama's reign? The presenter indicates that Bush spending is responsible for 40% and that is wrong. Bush spent about half of that and Obama spent the other half. Even worse, the trend is accelerating under Obama and Obama spent the same amount in four years as Bush spent in eight years. Plus military spending should have decreased substantially under Obama because he wound down the two wars.

    Given the above, Obama's performance is even worse than Bush's performance which I didn't think was possible.

    And the presenter didn't reflect the hidden "tax" if you will in price increases for consumers. Pretty much all items are more expensive now under Obama than they were under Bush, and yet incomes have at best held steady. For example gasoline is still hovering around $3.70 a gallon in my part of the country. Gasoline prices were in the $2 range (during the winter months) under Bush. And other items such as aluminum tubing for construction projects are at least twice as expensive now as they were under Bush.

    Bush's policies sucked. Obama's policies suck more.

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    Replies
    1. I think you need to listen to it again. He was very clear about what part was Bush's and what part was Obama's. Maybe you just didn't like it.

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    2. The presenter suggests that the war spending from 2008 to 2012 is also attributed to Bush. Obama as commander in chief could have stopped every bit of that spending but instead chose to continue it. Therefore, that portion of the debt should be under Obama.

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  8. The video discusses six trillion dollars of debt, but contrary to its claim, we weren't in the black in 2001. We were finally making more than we spent, but we still had trillions of dollars owed even before Bush came into office.

    The origin of debt is simple to explain. We spend more than we take in. Finding ways to pay for the things that we need and cut those that we don't is the hard part.

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  9. And the biggest elephant that no one really want's to talk about is:

    drumroll please ...


    The surplus, under Clinton, was nothing more than revenue generated by the big dot com bubble. It was NEVER going to last. It had almost nothing to do with his policies (or the republican controlled congress' policies).

    Projecting future growth from the middle of a huge bubble is no different than buying a house hoping for appreciation in the middle of a housing bubble. Does that sound familiar?

    We will never, and I repeat NEVER, have long lasting budget surpluses without significant spending cuts. period - end of sentance

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