US Budget BasicsFollow

The lady doth protest too much.

Wait, that was a lecture, not a tantrum?






...Ok.

Number of times I have heard that before a blowup: 27.

This is my favourite Kachi post yet.

1/10

I actually don't know who you are. I'm not sure if that should be attributed to a lack of exposure, or if you're just not humorous enough to warrant attention to your name.

Sure, I'm sure I appreciate your commentary on my posts as much as you appreciate mine.

Hey, a 1970s Brut commercial called, and it wants its life back.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 6:09pm by Deathwysh

Here's something else interesting, from the cbo historical budget stuff (now that 2010 is finished).

Since Obama took office, federal revenues have dropped 363 billion. So that's the economic downturn affecting our debt picture.

During that same time period federal spending has increased 473 Billion. That's the Dems spending affecting our debt picture.

The point? More of our debt problems right now are coming from new spending than from lost revenue because of the economic problems that started in 2008. We can argue that even if we fully recover from that economic downturn, we'll *still* be in trouble.

Of course, when you combine the two, you get a debt held by public as percentage of GDP that has risen from 40% in 2008 to 62% in 2010. Looked at another way, when you examine the tables, you see a clear pattern of sustainable debt levels (very consistently sitting in the 36% range for 4 of the last 5 years of Bush's term. The economy tanks in 2008, and the increased deficit and debt deltas for that year can be accounted for by the lost revenue itself. Everything after that is runaway debt caused by increased spending.

We can't sustain this. The debt ratio is still rising and shows no sign of reversing. When do we decide that we should roll back spending to 2008 levels? Because from where I sit, had we keep spending at those levels instead of increasing it, we wouldn't be facing the same rising debt problem that we are right now.

Edited, Feb 4th 2011 7:23pm by gbaji

You are right, there are no debt issues when there is no economy.

Just think of how much money the Govt would make if they taxed the richest people proportionate to their income. Tax and Spend > Cut and Spend, give the old clinton economists another few years and they will have cleaned up the mess left by the Bush WH. Just like they did in the 90's.

I don't know about US social services spending compared to the rest of the world, but I keep hearing/seeing figures like: The US spends 50% of the entire global military budget; the US spends as much on its military as the next 40 nations combined...blah de blah. Basically, the US outspends the rest of the world military wise so much it is insane.

While there are historical reasons for this, after the fall of the Soviet empire and the end of the Cold War, the US really has been missing an opportunity to wind back on military spending. I think if the US was spending only 30% of the global military budget it would still have a global hegemony, whilst being in a much better fiscal circumstance.

After all, the US doesn't like to go to war without allies, as this looks morally better. So the US shouldn't have to rely solely on its own military budget for its own military interests. Secondly, if the US would just let some more nations run themselves internally how they want to, the US would be making far less ill-will for itself in the world.

Also, how US Healthcare got into it's present state is a puzzlement to foreigners. How the US manages to spend twice the GDP on Healthcare as other first world nations, with only the same or worse healthcare outcomes seems a frustrating, terrible, pressing question. AND you manage to bankrupt many people when they get sick. It's a sick joke to an outsider, who doesn't get why you have all put up with these outcomes for so long. If you just imported the British, Canadian, Australian, or any European health system you'd be the same or better off, and suddenly have 7% more money as a nation.

My federal taxes went up. Apparently the federal income tax withholdings increased with the demise of the Making Work Pay tax credit at the end of 2010. For most this is offset by a decrease in social security withholdings...as planned.

Some of us don't pay into social security though.