About that debt ceiling. . .

[kyzr]

Trump's recent lobbying to eliminate the debt ceiling stems from strategic motivations as he prepares for his second term. He aims to shift the responsibility of any potential debt ceiling increase onto President Biden, thereby avoiding early conflicts in his administration. By advocating for its removal, Trump seeks to facilitate his agenda, including proposed tax cuts that would require increased borrowing. This approach also aligns with a broader Republican strategy to avoid being held accountable for future fiscal disputes, particularly as the debt ceiling is expected to be reached soon after he takes office.

Failing to raise the debt ceiling poses significant risks, including:

• Economic Chaos: Defaulting on government obligations could lead to severe economic turmoil, comparable to the 2008 crisis, with estimates of over 7 million job losses and a 20% drop in stock prices[1][6].
• Increased Borrowing Costs: A default would likely result in a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, raising interest rates for future borrowing and increasing costs for consumers and businesses[3][4].
• Disruption of Government Services: Essential services, including Social Security payments and military salaries, could be delayed or halted, affecting millions[1][2].
• Market Panic: Investor confidence would plummet, potentially triggering a financial crisis and significant market instability[2][5].

We can't afford the tax cut extension and the new tax cuts Trump promised.
Democrats and fiscal hawk Republicans will not pass them, unless Elon & Vivek can come up with significant ($2T) spending cuts.
You said that failing to raise the Debt Limit results in chaos. No one disputes that.

Its not a matter of raising the Debt Limit, its a matter of raising it how much, or removing it altogether, and what that does to the bond market. Would the US dollar collapse as the US credit rating becomes junk and interest on the debt consumes the discretionary Budget.

There is a fiscal cliff ahead and Republican lemmings are running full speed toward it. Democrats are cheering them on.

 

[kyzr]

What are the top 5 expenditures in the budget?
The items that would make the biggest dent in the deficit/debt?

I'd say Welfare ($2T?) and Medicaid ($??). They should be sent back to the states where costs and fraud can be minimized.

Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal: Welfare Is What’s Eating the Budget | The U.S. House Committee on the Budget - House Budget Committee

The Official U.S. Congressional website of The Republican Budget Committee

budget.house.gov

"Means-tested social-welfare spending totaled $1.6 trillion in 2023. Welfare spending now absorbs an astonishing 72.6% of unobligated general revenue."

 

[Foolardi]

President Trump and his DOGE co-leaders of Musk and Ramaswamy the GOP Freedom Caucus are committed to eliminate as much as $2 trillion of waste, inefficiency, stupidity, duplication, corruption etc. from the federal budget and do that without cutting essential/necessary services. That won't happen on Day 1 or likely by day 300 as it will require a great deal of research, investigation, and consideration to get it done. But they are committed to do it.

Maybe they won't make the goal. But ANYTHING they can do to rein in an unfathomable, unmanageable monstrosity of federal government and turn it back into an entity that serve the people instead of demanding more and more resources to feed itself will help a great deal.

Does it really make the average American's life better for the federal government to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in a grant for somebody to study whether pigeons follow the same economic principles as people? Millions for transgender studies is Pakistan?

$518,000 to study how cocaine affects the sexual behavior of Japanese quails?
$3 million to study how various substances affect hamster fights?
$1.7 billion to maintain unused and underused federal buildings?
$1 million to print a paper copy of the Federal Register furnished daily to members of Congress every one of which could read it on line?
Over $600,000 to Stanford University to digitize its collection of tickets, photos, T-shirts, and other memorabilia donated by the band, scholars, and fans?
Almost $900,000 spent by the IRS for unused warehouse space?
$500,000 to build an IHOPs in Washington DC to provide jobs for people there.
$2.5 million for the US Census Bureau to run a Super Bowl ad?
$6 million to The National Comedy Center in Jamestown NY?

These are the kinds of 'small potatoes' things that gets tucked into other appropriations bills including the CR bill they are now trying to get passed. That is on top of the many billions of unrelated pork that Congress forces into all legislation these days.

So we have a debt ceiling. And every three to six months we hit that debt ceiling, have this huge fight in Congress that usually results in some kind of compromise but invariably includes billions and billions of unnecessary, unneeded things that have nothing to do with keeping the government going.

And the debt ceiling is ALWAYS raised!!! The debt is real but the debt ceiling is essentially an artificial thing that means nothing.

So is President Trump that much out of line by saying eliminate the debt ceiling entirely to avoid these CR fights in Congress that invariably include additional billions in pork? All he asked is for is to do away with the essentially worthless debt ceiling and thereby eliminate the opportunity for unscrupulous congress persons to stick all that non essential spending into those CR bills that have become necessary every few months.

His request in no way does away with his intention to try to cut $2 trillion of unnecessary and/or inefficient and/or ineffective and/or wasteful and sometimes corrupt spending from the federal budget.

11 Bizarre Things the U.S. Government Actually Spent Money On

Did you know the government wasted $28 million on a bad wardrobe choice? You'll be blown away by these bizarre uses for government money.

www.rd.com

So what's a poor american citizen considered a mere schmuck
by Senate Majority leader { for how long } Schumer to do.
I say write or phone your elected representative in your state
and speak your mind.Because a Minds a Terrible thing to waste
on ongoing Democrat schmucks.

 

[Foolardi]

Since 1960, Congress has raised, extended, or revised the debt limit 78 separate times, of which 49 were under Republican presidents and 29 were under Democratic presidents, according to the Department of Treasury.

Kinda funny since we now know for certain that
under the Democrats Joe Biden was for a time a mere puppet.
The last year he wasn't running anything.Ocassionally his
big lyin' yapper because he tires easily and forgets like no other
potus in american history.He's as infirmed as it gets.
Whereas Trump is about as fit as even the best Fiddle { violin will do }
can deliever.So let the Drat Democrats have their final Hurrah.
One thing is certain however.The Military and those who serve
Enlisted and signed up for duty.They CANNOT quit their jobs like
most those who go off to work.Therefore They must not be denied
a paycheck for even a week.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Did you read the actual proposal?

No. Why should I waste my time on such a downright stupid proposal?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

We can't afford the tax cut extension and the new tax cuts Trump promised.
Democrats and fiscal hawk Republicans will not pass them, unless Elon & Vivek can come up with significant ($2T) spending cuts.
You said that failing to raise the Debt Limit results in chaos. No one disputes that.

Its not a matter of raising the Debt Limit, its a matter of raising it how much, or removing it altogether, and what that does to the bond market. Would the US dollar collapse as the US credit rating becomes junk and interest on the debt consumes the discretionary Budget.

There is a fiscal cliff ahead and Republican lemmings are running full speed toward it. Democrats are cheering them on.

We don't need to raise revenues? When you cut taxes, it spurs economic growth which increases revenues.

How do you think large car dealerships make money, selling their cars at lower prices than smaller dealerships? Their profit per unit is less, but they sell more cars, making more total profit. Less taxes equals more growth which leads to higher revenues.

I hope you learned because we will have a quiz later.

 

[TimFitz]

The thing is that you really can't. It's too far gone. This country's very monetary policy is, by design, fully dependent upon ever-increasing debt.

Every single thing I've read on here about...''balancing the budget'' would be deflationary.

We're Keynesians now.

But it is finite. It will end by default. So let it. Because you're not gonna stop it. The mnetary system is literally designed to fail in this specific way.

Not so long ago, Bill Clinton balanced the budget and generated surpluses. At the time, many predicted that if tax policy stayed the same, that the US could pay off its national debt before 2020.

The GOP and George W Bush blew that up with a massive gift to Wall Street. Trump would do it again in 2017.

Now he has Musk and his imaginary DOGE making noise, while proposing extending his deficcit busting tax cuts, and having the debt ceiling eliminated so he can borrow and spend without political comsequence.

And his disciples are still stupid enough to believe that their beloved cares about debt.

 

[rightwinger]

No. Why should I waste my time on such a downright stupid proposal?

What is stupid about researching the effects of cocaine?
A man named Salk researched mold on bread
Was that stupid?

 

[kyzr]

We don't need to raise revenues? When you cut taxes, it spurs economic growth which increases revenues.
How do you think large car dealerships make money, selling their cars at lower prices than smaller dealerships? Their profit per unit is less, but they sell more cars, making more total profit. Less taxes equals more growth which leads to higher revenues. I hope you learned because we will have a quiz later.

Tax cuts NEVER resulted in a balanced budget, they always result in more borrowing.
Even if tax revenue increases slightly, the deficit ALWAYS results in more borrowing.
Trump and Mnuchin said that the tax cuts would increase GDP to 5%, it never went above 2%, epic fail, the DEBT increased $7T under Trump.

My quiz says that when there is a $2T budget deficit you don't cut taxes, that is moronic.

 

[kyzr]

What is stupid about researching the effects of cocaine?
A man named Salk researched mold on bread
Was that stupid?

That story is actually funny.
Salk was researching viruses, then he said something like "that damn mold is killing my viruses".
It didn't sink in at first, then it did, then he isolated penicillin, the rest is history.
Point being, he didn't start out researching mold.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

What is stupid about researching the effects of cocaine?
A man named Salk researched mold on bread
Was that stupid?

No one should be using cocaine in the first place.

Nice deflection there. I haven't seen a lamer one recently.

 

[Foxfyre]

The TAX CUTS got slightly more revenue, but the deficit increased, and the DEBT increased by $7T.
Tax cuts are NOT the answer when we have a $2T deficit.
We need spending cuts and more revenue.

It is our money which is something Trump understands and Democrats don't.
We need people in Congress willing to spend our money with care and make sure we get our money's worth for every penny they spend. That is Trump's goal.

If the fat, waste, inefficiency, ineffectiveness, unnecessary spending is eliminated we won't need as much revenue will we.

 

[kyzr]

It is our money which is something Trump understands and Democrats don't.
We need people in Congress willing to spend our money with care and make sure we get our money's worth for every penny they spend. That is Trump's goal. If the fat, waste, inefficiency, ineffectiveness, unnecessary spending is eliminated we won't need as much revenue will we.

We are in a $2T hole, with interest on the Debt at $1.1T and climbing fast. It is time for the "break glass" option.

 

[Foxfyre]

We are in a $2T hole, with interest on the Debt at $1.1T and climbing fast. It is time for the "break glass" option.

That is why DOGE was created, Give them a chance to see what they can do.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

That story is actually funny.
Salk was researching viruses, then he said something like "that damn mold is killing my viruses".
It didn't sink in at first, then it did, then he isolated penicillin, the rest is history.
Point being, he didn't start out researching mold.

Wow! You both take the cake! Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin (from mold). Salk discovered the polio vaccine.

My daughter once worked for the Salk institute taking care of their lab rats!

 

[rightwinger]

No one should be using cocaine in the first place.

Nice deflection there. I haven't seen a lamer one recently.

That is your answer?
Why we can’t elect Conservatives

 

[rightwinger]

That story is actually funny.
Salk was researching viruses, then he said something like "that damn mold is killing my viruses".
It didn't sink in at first, then it did, then he isolated penicillin, the rest is history.
Point being, he didn't start out researching mold.

OOps
My bad

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

That is your answer?
Why we can’t elect Conservatives

Now you had to go and beat that last post for the lamest ever!

 

[TimFitz]

It is our money which is something Trump understands and Democrats don't.
We need people in Congress willing to spend our money with care and make sure we get our money's worth for every penny they spend. That is Trump's goal.

If the fat, waste, inefficiency, ineffectiveness, unnecessary spending is eliminated we won't need as much revenue will we.

Do you really believe this ridiculous drivel???????

Seriously?????

Trump’s goal in this stunt was to try and bully Congress into removing any restriction on how much debt he could run up.

Borrow and spend has been standard GOP policy since Reagan. Trump pile up debt last time, and he intends to do so this time,

His only ask in this failed stunt was for the ability to do so unchecked.

 

[Foxfyre]

Do you really believe this ridiculous drivel???????

Seriously?????

Trump’s goal in this stunt was to try and bully Congress into removing any restriction on how much debt he could run up.

Borrow and spend has been standard GOP policy since Reagan. Trump pile up debt last time, and he intends to do so this time,

His only ask in this failed stunt was for the ability to do so unchecked.

Perfect recitation of hateful propaganda and misrepresentation of the facts while ignoring the content of the OP. Congratulations. You did it better than anybody else today.