Does the US Have a Fiscal Crisis?

[georgephillip]

Or are we living and reliving "a boom-bust-bailout fiscal damage scenario that the Bank of England refers to routinely as the 'doom loop.'"

Simon Johnson @The Baseline Scenario:

"The United States faces some serious medium-term fiscal issues, but by any standard measure it does not face an immediate fiscal crisis.

"Overindebted countries typically have a hard time financing themselves when the world becomes riskier – yet turmoil in the Middle East is pushing down the interest rates on US government debt.

"We are still seen as a safe haven...

"Our main fiscal issues are three (see my testimony to the Senate Budget Committee earlier this month).

"The most immediate problem is that our largest banks and closely related parts of the financial system blew themselves up in 2007-08.

"The ensuring recession and associated loss of tax revenue will end up pushing up our government debt, as a percent of GDP, by around 40 percent..."

So... do we tax the bankers that caused the Great Recession or continue to borrow from them?

And destroy public unions as a corporate distraction.

 

[washamericom]

for awhile we had a dimocrat crisis. could not tell the difference between real life and monopoly money. now we have paul ryan, thank god

 

[georgephillip]

for awhile we had a dimocrat crisis. could not tell the difference between real life and monopoly money. now we have paul ryan, thank god

What percentage or Ryan's campaign contributions come from the richest 1% of Americans?

"Choosing" between Dims and Thugs changes nothing fundamentally.

 

[liebuster]

Nope. No fiscal crisis here. Just keep on spending like you have unlimited money.

 

[washamericom]

inflation, we''ll see how sanctimonious you prodigals are when milk and gas are 7 $/gallon... we'll be sure to thank you then for your great work

 

[georgephillip]

Nope. No fiscal crisis here. Just keep on spending like you have unlimited money.

"You can’t fight something with nothing.

"But as long as Democrats refuse to talk about the almost unprecedented buildup of income, wealth, and power at the top – and the refusal of the super-rich to pay their fair share of the nation’s bills – Republicans will convince people it’s all about government and unions."

No one is saying there is no fiscal crisis.
Virtually every Republican and many Democrats want you to believe bloated government spending and unions are responsible for that crisis.

Do you believe that government spending is responsible for our current levels of unemployment or declining wages or falling home prices?

"The truth is that while the proximate cause of America’s economic plunge was Wall Street’s excesses leading up to the crash of 2008, its underlying cause — and the reason the economy continues to be lousy for most Americans — is so much income and wealth have been going to the very top that the vast majority no longer has the purchasing power to lift the economy out of its doldrums.

"American’s aren’t buying cars (they bought 17 million new cars in 2005, just 12 million last year).

"They’re not buying homes (7.5 million in 2005, 4.6 million last year). They’re not going to the malls (high-end retailers are booming but Wal-Mart’s sales are down)."

The rich are the problem.
Should we continue to borrow from them?
Or tax them?

The Republican Shakedown

 

[Avorysuds]

for awhile we had a dimocrat crisis. could not tell the difference between real life and monopoly money. now we have paul ryan, thank god

Paul Ryan would sell you out in a second buddy.

 

[georgephillip]

inflation, we''ll see how sanctimonious you prodigals are when milk and gas are 7 $/gallon... we'll be sure to thank you then for your great work

Shouldn't your thanks go to the Federal Reserve?

How many more of us are expected to lose our jobs to insure low rates of inflation for America's creditor class?

If the Fed succeeds in turning every $10 bill in the land into a $5, will you blame Wall Street or Wisconsin?

 

[georgephillip]

for awhile we had a dimocrat crisis. could not tell the difference between real life and monopoly money. now we have paul ryan, thank god

Paul Ryan would sell you out in a second buddy.

Republicans AND Democrats serve the same Master

"The one thing we know from Paul Ryan's 'Roadmap for America' -- his claim to fiscal fame -- is that Ryan is fundamentally unserious about the debt.

"Though few have bothered to look at his plan's details, the CBO analysis Ryan requested shows that the Roadmap does not balance the budget for more than fifty years and incurs, by my small-c conservative estimate, at least $62 trillion in debt between now and then. (I've explained the details elsewhere.)..."

PostPartisan

 

[Avatar4321]

Do pigs like mud?

 

[MaggieMae]

Until both parties stop the political posturing and get down to business over the debt, which WILL mean tax increases as well as major changes to the Big Three (Social Security, Medicare, Defense), they'll just chip away at the problem with ideological fixes which make for great political fodder and headliners designed to prop up their voting bases.

 

[Avatar4321]

Until both parties stop the political posturing and get down to business over the debt, which WILL mean tax increases as well as major changes to the Big Three (Social Security, Medicare, Defense), they'll just chip away at the problem with ideological fixes which make for great political fodder and headliners designed to prop up their voting bases.

Why is it that the left refuses to acknowledge that the problem isnt that taxes arent high enough. Its that we SPEND WAY TOO MUCH?!

We have to work to April to pay off the government. And you want to increase the tax burden even more?!

Just cut the damn budget!

 

[washamericom]

for awhile we had a dimocrat crisis. could not tell the difference between real life and monopoly money. now we have paul ryan, thank god

Paul Ryan would sell you out in a second buddy.

interesting choice of words "sell out". you mean like the 111th congress and the president of obama sold out a whole generation of unborn? i'll bet you miss pelosi.
paul ryan is just as smart and genuine as he seems on tv.
sincere and factually correct, something you DIMS will never know

 

[georgephillip]

Do pigs like mud?

"The United States faces some serious medium-term fiscal issues, but by any standard measure it does not face an immediate fiscal crisis.

"Overindebted countries typically have a hard time financing themselves when the world becomes riskier – yet turmoil in the Middle East is pushing down the interest rates on US government debt.

"We are still seen as a safe haven."

IMHO, the wave of current propaganda trying to deflect attention away from those who actually created the economic crisis that 90% of Americans are suffering through poses a bigger immediate threat than our serious mid-term fiscal issues.

The Baseline Scenario

 

[georgephillip]

Until both parties stop the political posturing and get down to business over the debt, which WILL mean tax increases as well as major changes to the Big Three (Social Security, Medicare, Defense), they'll just chip away at the problem with ideological fixes which make for great political fodder and headliners designed to prop up their voting bases.

One subject both parties avoid like the plague is inequality. Until they are forced to confront the role their principle campaign donors play in our current economic crisis, ideological fixes and propaganda will be all we can expect.

Noam Chomsky:

"And there’s been a wave of propaganda over the last couple of months, which is pretty impressive to watch, trying to deflect attention away from those who actually created the economic crisis, like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, their associates in the government who—Federal Reserve and others—let all this go on and helped it.

"There’s a—to switch attention away from them to the people really responsible for the crisis—teachers, police, firefighters, sanitation workers, their huge pensions, their incredible healthcare benefits, Cadillac healthcare benefits, and their unions, who are the real villains, the ones who are robbing the taxpayer by making sure that policemen may not starve when they retire.

"And this is pretty amazing, like right in the middle of the Madison affair, which is critical."

 

[georgephillip]

Until both parties stop the political posturing and get down to business over the debt, which WILL mean tax increases as well as major changes to the Big Three (Social Security, Medicare, Defense), they'll just chip away at the problem with ideological fixes which make for great political fodder and headliners designed to prop up their voting bases.

Why is it that the left refuses to acknowledge that the problem isnt that taxes arent high enough. Its that we SPEND WAY TOO MUCH?!

We have to work to April to pay off the government. And you want to increase the tax burden even more?!

Just cut the damn budget!

Do you honestly believe taxes on capital gains and corporations are high enough?

The combined budget deficits of all 50 states (minus North Dakota which has a state-owned bank and a current budget surplus) is about $100 billion, almost exactly the same amount as corporations dodge in taxes every years by pretending to do business in the Cayman Islands.

Rich individuals often pay taxes at a 15% rate instead of the 30% to 35% for the less affluent.

Spending will have to be cut, AND those who aren't shouldering their fair share of our tax burden will have to pay more.

 

[georgephillip]

for awhile we had a dimocrat crisis. could not tell the difference between real life and monopoly money. now we have paul ryan, thank god

Paul Ryan would sell you out in a second buddy.

interesting choice of words "sell out". you mean like the 111th congress and the president of obama sold out a whole generation of unborn? i'll bet you miss pelosi.
paul ryan is just as smart and genuine as he seems on tv.
sincere and factually correct, something you DIMS will never know

Have you ever met Paul Ryan?

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Yeah, we're in deep. There's no other way to slice it.

 

[washamericom]

Paul Ryan would sell you out in a second buddy.

interesting choice of words "sell out". you mean like the 111th congress and the president of obama sold out a whole generation of unborn? i'll bet you miss pelosi.
paul ryan is just as smart and genuine as he seems on tv.
sincere and factually correct, something you DIMS will never know

Have you ever met Paul Ryan?

yes

 

[Rozman]

Saw on Hannity tonight a report from the CBO....It turns out the amount of jobs created from the stimulus money spent breaks down like this.It cost $228,000.00 per job.If the government gave everyone a check for $100,000.00 each they would have saved a fortune.

Are we starting to get at least a little tired of hearing how this guy is the greatest President we ever had.