The Question Liberals Can't Answer

[kaz]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

 

[Oddball]

Two words: Cognitive dissonance.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

I suspect this thread will quickly die a "silent" death.......

 

[Steelplate]

It's not just the debt payments... there's this other matter of running the country along with the debt payments. Let me ask... is that $20B interest only, or actually the normal payment.

If it's an interest only deal... let me ask you something. What happens if you only pay interest payments to your creditors? What happens to your Credit Rating? What is the resulting problem with a shitty credit rating... oh yeah.. interest rates go up and that $20B/month turns into $40B/month.

We don't need to do this crap... that's the problem. I think the issue of debt is on the front burner, and no matter how this ends, will be a focal point from here on out.

 

[Richard-H]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

To avoid default the government has to pay all it's obligations, not just a select few.

 

[kaz]

It's not just the debt payments... there's this other matter of running the country along with the debt payments

Agreed, but this thread is specifically about the left's endless lie that we will "default" on our debt payments.

If it's an interest only deal... let me ask you something. What happens if you only pay interest payments to your creditors?

You realize we're not paying back principle now, right? We run a deficit every year. Including the Clinton so called surplus years the national debt went up every year. So if we went to paying interest only, that would be vastly superior to the current situation.

 

[kaz]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

To avoid default the government has to pay all it's obligations, not just a select few.

Ding, ding, ding! This whole thread was for this purpose. To get you to admit that not redistributing money is is failing to pay "debt." It's frankly sick. But at least you're honest. Thank you for that at least.

 

[Oddball]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

To avoid default the government has to pay all it's obligations, not just a select few.

There's no obligation to keep military bases open, where the wars have been over for decades.

There's no obligation to continue funding HUD, HHS, Departments of Energy, Commerce, Labor, Education, CPB/PBS/NPR, NEA, ONDCP, Ad Council, and a jillion other silly-assed domestic bureaucracies.

 

[Patrick2]

The government pays the interest, and defers or better permanently lowers the pay of the vast, vastly over compensated federal workforce to get the money. Easy as pie. (yawwwwwwwwwn)

 

[kaz]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

To avoid default the government has to pay all it's obligations, not just a select few.

There's no obligation to keep military bases open, where the wars have been over for decades.

There's no obligation to continue funding HUD, HHS, Departments of Energy, Commerce, Labor, Education, CPB/PBS/NPR, NEA, ONDCP, Ad Council, and a jillion other silly-assed domestic bureaucracies.

The debt ceiling is in fact the weapon fiscal conservatives refuse to use. We can block borrowing more money to force the government to live within it's means, and that's exactly what we should do.

This is BTW why I'm not sold on the balanced budget amendment as well. Clinton ran a surplus yet borrowed money because the surplus was a lie. The balanced budget amendment can pass and yet the debt can go up for the same reasons. Not allowing the Federal government to borrow more money captures all those gimmicks that allow politicians to lie they balanced the budget when they didn't. That's what gets crooked companies in the end. No matter how much they cook the books, in the end they run out of dough.

 

[Neotrotsky]

The Left could not afford for the American people
see how the economy would still function if useless
gov't agencies were shut down

It could be the end of Statism as we know it

 

[dblack]

It's not just the debt payments... there's this other matter of running the country along with the debt payments...

The point is that the debt payments could be made by redirecting ten percent of what we currently spend to run the country. Does that really seem so impossible?

 

[Richard-H]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

To avoid default the government has to pay all it's obligations, not just a select few.

Ding, ding, ding! This whole thread was for this purpose. To get you to admit that not redistributing money is is failing to pay "debt." It's frankly sick. But at least you're honest. Thank you for that at least.

So you don't think that paying our military personnel, paying of contractual obligations to federal contractors, paying Social Security to people that have contributed to social security their whole adult live, paying medicare payments to people that have payed into medicare there whole lives, paying federal workers salaries, pay federal worker pensions and a whole slew of other debt obligations is neccessary.

You consider this to be wealth 'redistribution'?!?!?

You truly are sick!

I hope that you're not an employer...you'd probably consider paying your workers to be a charitable burden.

 

[Wry Catcher]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

I know it's rude to answer a ? with a ?, but, why are most leaders in both parties, local national & world news sources making this a big deal if your facts are correct and a default would not be catastrophic (in your opinion)?

 

[dblack]

So you don't think that paying our military personnel, paying of contractual obligations to federal contractors, paying Social Security to people that have contributed to social security their whole adult live, paying medicare payments to people that have payed into medicare there whole lives, paying federal workers salaries, pay federal worker pensions and a whole slew of other debt obligations is neccessary.

Sure, those are all important - but they can all be trimmed if necessary. The thing is, we screwed up. We planned to spend more than we can afford. And we've promised ourselves we'll quit tapping the ole credit card every time we over-budget. That's the whole point of the debt ceiling, to set limits on how far we're doing to sink our children into debilitating debt. The whole point of having such a ceiling is to force us to make the hard choices. If we 'reach for the bottle' every time the going gets hard, we're never going to turn things around.

 

[Neotrotsky]

Indeed

the gov't with spending is like an addict

They need some serious intervention

 

[kaz]

To avoid default the government has to pay all it's obligations, not just a select few.

Ding, ding, ding! This whole thread was for this purpose. To get you to admit that not redistributing money is is failing to pay "debt." It's frankly sick. But at least you're honest. Thank you for that at least.

So you don't think that paying our military personnel, paying of contractual obligations to federal contractors, paying Social Security to people that have contributed to social security their whole adult live, paying medicare payments to people that have payed into medicare there whole lives, paying federal workers salaries, pay federal worker pensions and a whole slew of other debt obligations is neccessary.

You consider this to be wealth 'redistribution'?!?!?

You truly are sick!

I hope that you're not an employer...you'd probably consider paying your workers to be a charitable burden.

Bad news, I own two businesses and have roughly 30 employees. I'm there now. It's the lot of a business owner. Breaks arguing politics break up the monotony. My wife runs a restaurant, I do the back office work for her. That one has a lot of turnover, nature of the business. My business is a design company and my employees never quit, so apparently they don't hate me as much as you want them to.

And yes, welfare programs including medicare and social security are "wealth redistribution." And they never saved a dime. They rely on the ignorant to say they did.

 

[kaz]

I keep asking liberals this question every time they use the word "default." They aren't answering it. So let's try a thread for it.

Why would the US default on our debt payments when it would be catastrophic (according to you), debt payments are $20 billion a month and tax revenue is $200 billion a month? Obviously we wouldn't. When you have to endlessly use scare tactic lies to justify your views, maybe at some point you should question your views...

I know it's rude to answer a ? with a ?, but, why are most leaders in both parties, local national & world news sources making this a big deal if your facts are correct and a default would not be catastrophic (in your opinion)?

It's a fair enough question, but you have to be more specific who you want me to address because a lot of people are raising it in different ways for different reasons.

 

[kaz]

Indeed

the gov't with spending is like an addict

They need some serious intervention

Yes, the liberal solution to a spendaholic is to raise the credit limit on their credit cards as long as they promise that in 8 years they will lower the increase in the rate of their shopping bills.

 

[Richard-H]

The thing that amazes me is how little conservatives think things through...

Imagine if S.S. check don't go out...

Tens of millions of people will suddenly not be able to pay their rent. That means millions of landlord will suddenly have a large part of their income cut off. These landlords have financial obligations themselves...millions are likely to default on all sorts of payments...

The same holds true of the HealthCare industry if medicare checks are cut off...it will ripple through our economy...

Those are only a few of the sectors of the economy that will get hit.

This isn't about some credit rating agencies downgrading the U.S. government or about some interest rates going up by a bit.

It's about a massive cutoff of funds in many many sectors of the economy and the ripple effect it will have on the economy as a whole.

You can bet that the DOW will drop about ten thousand points with a month. Businesses and banks are going to close all over the place.

Everything in economics is inter-related.