Think of your fixed 20 or 30 year mortgage. It looks big and scary when you sign the papers, but as the years go by it shrinks in comparison to your (hopefully) rising income.
But imagine if your debt were growing faster than your income. At some point, total yearly spending will overtake your income, driving you to bankruptcy.
That is what is happening to the US: Debt is Growing Faster than GDP
We've had debt since the 1800's. It's ballooned in war time and gone down in flush times. But over the past decades (yes, it is partially Bush's fault), it's been growing faster than our economy.
Are Liberals Economically Stupid, Purposefully Dishonest or Willfully Ignorant?
Surf over to ultra-lib Salon and you'll quickly see why most liberals are economically ignorant. Michael Lind has written a extremely stupid article, even by liberal standards. He starts with the standard Keynesian argument that you can't cut government spending during a recession, blithely unaware that there is no empirical data to back this up.
He then poo poos those who compare the national budget to a household budget:
This folksy metaphor is repeated so often that its absurdity is rarely noticed. In reality, households and businesses do not balance their budgets every month, or even every year. Both households and businesses take out loans and pay them down over many years.Dishonesty: The favorite liberal tool
Do deficit hawks understand that real households and businesses do not follow the "pay-go" rules that they advocate for the government — on the supposed model of households and businesses? Are deficit hawks really deficit dodos?
This is bald-faced dishonesty. Nobody is advocating "paygo" except blue dog democrats. Americans are not protesting judicious borrowing; almost all households do it. Few of us have the money laying around to pay cash for a car or a house. But we are alarmed by a federal debt that that is increasing much faster than GDP.
Bottom Line: Attacking deficit spending attacks threatens liberalism. The heart of liberalism is bribing people with free stuff stolen from the taxpayer. Take away the money and the liberal agenda collapses like the rotten edifice it is.
He then goes on to denigrate deficit hawks as "deficit dodos," continuing to rail against this fictitious conservative straw man he has created. He is either extremely stupid or a crafty propagandist.
For the antidote to this progressive plouffian poppycock, go read the short and informative article, What Every American Should Know About The National Debt.
There is no easy way out of this fiscal nightmare. More food for thought:
The Budget's a Sham
The Debt Bomb
15 comments:
Deficit of knowledge is right! These guys are intellectually bankrupt and want the country to join them!
Proof: Indeed. It takes a willful suspension of belief to think we can go on forever like this.
Read Salon and watch MSNBC and you understand why our friends on the left hold such incredible beliefs.
Duet. 15-6 (Amp)
When the Lord your God blesses you as He promised you, then you shall lend to many nations, BUT YOU SHALL NOT BORROW; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
Written a long time ago but true wisdom never goes out of style. The current situation does not bode well for this country's future freedoms...
Thanks for letting me borrow your comments section, I do owe you a debt of love.
At least a homebuyer gets to live in his house as he pays down the mortgage. He doesn't have to live in a tent until it is paid in full.
Our poor shmucky grandkids though, will pay their taxes and receive fewer "services" for their money. Much of the tax they pay will go towards paying down these outrageous debts, instead of buying gov't "services." (Whether gov't should even be involved in these actions is a separate debate). Our descendants get to pay for a house they'll never be able to live in.
Having reasonable debt is not that big of a deal, it might even give an extra tax deduction. It helps live a decent lifestyle.
But, our country's debt went beyond reasonable, decades ago.
Everyone cries about leaving our kids with crippling debt, we have already done that also.
It's past time, that we do something about the debt.
The last generation left a reasonable debt (about 1 trillion in 1980).
The debt now is over 12 trillion. We built all that debt in less than 30 years. I believe that does show our selfish ways.
mind numbing aint it!!
"There is no easy way out of this fiscal nightmare."
Sure there is: insurrection.
But that's no viable solution either.
Why is it that we Americans put up with this wastrel behavior? Because so many of us are the beneficiaries of government spending and think of their government checks as 'rights.'
All the old geezers on Social Security feel that their checks are more than covered by the years they have paid into the system, when this is clearly not even close to being correct. It is welfare, but they do not think of it as welfare.
Geezers: once you get up there in years, pills become a way of life, and you geezers think that they should be free, since you paid into the system all these years (wrong again, you paid almost nothing). They think nothing of others paying for their pills, since they are a right (Medicare, Medicaid).
All of this deficit spending is OUR fault, and the chickens will come home to roost eventually, they always do. Remember George Bush trying to partially privatize Social Security in 2005 and was nearly tarred and feathered for his efforts?
Social Security should at least be means tested. Bring it to a true insurance program, not a pension program.
The idea that we help the elderly from early death, starvation, and end of life poverty, is a good one.
Living off the government, is not much of a financial oasis. I'm not convinced that many want to purposely "bum" off the American taxpayer.
There is always waste and abuse. That too, is not a reason to terminate a program that servers millions well, and the way we intended.
Otherwise, we might as well terminate all federal programs, for they all have waste.
There are those who would like to terminate all federal programs. That is an extreme position, I do not agree with.
Tom the Liberal:
You say 'The idea that we help the elderly from early death, starvation, and end of life poverty, is a good one.'
Says who? To fund this 'good idea' requires the federal government confiscate my and millions of others' hard earned money and hand it over to these elderly folks who chose not to take action during their lives to ensure their well being later on in life. That's your 'good idea?' I want no part of your 'good ideas', Tom they have bankrupted our great nation, thanks to you and your ilk.
Remember the story of the grasshopper and the ant? All the country's Toms out there would rewrite this fable so that the ant would be forced by threat of imprisonment to provide the lazy and irresponsible grasshopper a comfortable retirement.
Tom, you liberals should stick to your utopian blogging with your fellow commie pinkos on the Daily Kos, and leave these sites to us who take life seriously and responsibly.
Says multiple generations of100's of millions of Americans.
Easy to see you are on the outside of that group.
Thanks for the extremist rant, but I was talking to the serious people who are trying to find serious solutions to serious problems. That is obviously not you.
Go back to your parents basements and watching Star Trek.
Tom: remember what I said about sticking with the Daily Kos...
I've never been to, or read Daily Kos.
Not even sure if that is a site, a paper, or what.
Your stereotyping is showing. So is your ignorance.
Liberal Pinko tom:
C'mon. You're fooling nobody. I lay out the harm to society of forcibly taking resources from those who produce and giving them to those who are parasites on society, and your response, Liberal Tom? (crickets chirping here...).
...no response, other than to attack me as someone on a rant. No rebuttal as to why those taking my money earn it, or are justified in receiving it, only to vilify me as unreasonable.
You liberals make me sick, Tom. I don't believe you when you say you have never engaged with the Daily Kos, as liberals deceive and lie to make thier point.
Debunk one of my points, show me where I am wrong, just do it. But you can't, because you are too busy watching Star Trek in your parent's basement because you think you are entitled to an existence...think again, Pinko.
I am through with you.
Asshole.
Your response was useless rant and name calling like asshole. NO facts.
My response was to cite millions of Americans over generations who decided to help their fellow Americans, and yet you expect me to believe a selfish pig like you over them. HAHAHAHA
It is selfish pigs like you, that have bankrupted America. Your and your Republican party's belief in a free lunch. No new taxes, just spend into bankruptcy.
Your idiotic philosophy, that there is no need to pay (tax) for anything, just pass it on to future Americans.
It's obvious you do not care about other Americans, but that ideology has never been part of what it means to be American.
Take your false patriotism and crawl back to your fellow America haters.
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