Tag: Budget Deficit

These Tax Cuts Will Pay For Themselves

That is the common lie told whenever someone wants to cut taxes….they never pay for themnselves and in most cases have contributed to the rise in our deficit.

And now Donny and his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill is spreading the same manure always spread when taxes are considered….but is it manure?   Will they truly pay for themselves?

The answer is a resounding ….NO!

An analysis released Thursday by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that the tax cuts at the center of Republicans’ massive reconciliation package would do little to boost economic growth—and would not come anywhere close to paying for themselves.

The JCT report, published hours after Republicans pushed the bill through the House, estimates that the tax cuts would boost the nation’s average annual economic growth by 0.03 percentage points over the next decade—hardly the explosion of growth that GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump have promised.

Economic activity spurred by the tax breaks—which are largely an extension of soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts—would increase federal revenues by roughly $103 billion between 2025 and 2034, according to JCT.

That would barely put a dent in the overall projected cost of the tax cuts, bringing it down to $3.7 trillion from $3.8 trillion.

…

A separate analysis published Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that the benefits of the Republican bill’s tax provisions would flow disproportionately to the wealthiest Americans.

“The $121 billion in net tax cuts going to the richest 1% next year would exceed the amount going to the entire bottom 60% of taxpayers (about $90 billion),” said ITEP, whose analysis did not factor in the impact of the legislation’s unparalleled cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance, which would deliver a major blow to the household resources of lower-income Americans.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jct-republican-tax-cuts

But not to worry…..the GOP has found a way to make this problem more palatable to the more ignorant out there…..the bill that would make tips tax free….what little help that would bring will not offset the bigger deal of massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

Tax cuts does little to help the deficit so they must attack the programs that assist people in trouble….just so people like Bezos gets a free hand.

Stop believing the BS and start looking at the larger picture these tax cuts will do you no good.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Demands From Ukraine

Our man in Ukraine Zelensky has made more demands from the US…..before it was more weapons then a demand for NATO to attack Russia….and now he has one more demand for the US…..to cover his ass.

Ukraine has passed it’s 2023 budget…..

Ukraine’s Rada approved a draft budget for 2023 in a closed session. The spending plan has a $30 billion deficit which Kiev largely expects to be covered by Washington. The White House has sent Ukraine tens of billions in aid since Russia invaded in February.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the first deputy chairman of parliament’s finance, tax and customs policy committee, said the first reading was passed by the legislature on Friday. The spending package will need to be resubmitted before receiving final approval.

Andrii Pyshnyi, the newly appointed head of Ukraine’s central bank, said the budget includes a $30 billion shortfall. Pyshnyi indicated that Kiev’s international partners are willing to cover the deficit.

Last month, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted the government expected a $38 billion deficit. He said the US would provide $18 billion and the European Union and International Monetary Fund would combine to give $12 billion.

Over the past seven months, the White House has spent nearly $70 billion on the war in Ukraine. The US spending on the war includes direct assistance to fund the government in Kiev and weapons transfers.

Western aid to Ukraine is announced almost daily. On Thursday, USAID announced $55 million in assistance for Kiev. On Friday, The IMF approved $1.3 billion in additional emergency funding for Ukraine.

Still, Kiev says aid is now flowing fast enough. On Monday, Oleg Ustenko, an economic advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the EU that they must increase the pace of aid and delays were “not acceptable.”

(antiwar.com)

Demands?

Let’s see Zelensky wants the US to cover his shortfall and extend our deficit even more.

When will the US will say enough is enough….and Zelensky is on his own…..

It is time for the US to tell Zelensky to go f*ck himself.

The US cannot afford to have yet another dependent sucking on our monetary teat.

I mean Israel demands and we comply like dutiful slaves…..the Saudis demand and we wag our tails and do it…..Now Ukraine demands and we seem to be inclined to do as we are told…..where does this sh*t end?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Not Since World War Two

2020 election is around the corner and there are things one should consider before they cast their vote (ever how many times they are told to)……economics should be one of those deciding issues.

The markets are hitting all time highs and yet the deficit just keeps growing….and GDP is not all that good either….now I am waiting for one of those “expert” economists to explain this….probably in graphs that NO ONE understands…..

The federal budget deficit is projected to hit a record $3.3 trillion as huge government expenditures to fight the coronavirus and prop up the economy have added more than $2 trillion to the federal ledger, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The spike in the deficit means that federal debt will exceed annual gross domestic product next year, a milestone that would put the US in the company of countries like Greece whose accumulated debt exceeds the size of their economies, the AP reports. The $3.3 trillion figure is more than double the levels experienced after the market meltdown and Great Recession of 2008-09. Government spending, fueled by four coronavirus response measures, would register at $6.6 trillion, $2 trillion-plus more than 2019.

The shutdown of the economy in the spring led lawmakers and President Trump to pump money into stimulus steps that have helped the economy in the short term. Most economists are untroubled by such huge borrowing when the economy is in such peril, and the debt was barely a concern when a cornerstone $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed almost unanimously in March. But now that lawmakers and the White House are quarreling over the size and scope of a fifth virus relief bill, Republicans are growing skittish at the enormous costs of battling the pandemic. The Democratic-controlled House passed a $3.5 trillion measure in May. Sentiment among top leaders in the GOP-held Senate has been for a bill in the $1 trillion range, with recent party efforts focused on a measure that’s even smaller.

This will take the Congress to screw someone to try and stem this tide…..and that usually means the poor and working people of this country.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Next year could be another historic year…..it is on track for the deficit will out pace GDP……

 

Where Have All The Deficit Hawks Gone

Gone to Trumpland every one.

Closing Thought–23Aug19

Before I go on my rant about the deficit…..I would like to update a post on the deaths of 2 Americans in Afghanistan a few days ago…..

The Department of Defense has released the names of two U.S. service members who were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. They are members of the 7th Special Forces Group based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

Both soldiers died in Faryab province, Afghanistan as a result of wounds sustained from small arms fire while engaged in combat operations.

Master Sergeant Luis DeLeon-Figueroa, 31, of Chicopee, Massachusetts.

Master Sergeant Jose J. Gonzalez, 35, of La Puente, California.

More than half of the U.S. deaths in Afghanistan in 2019 have been Special Forces casualties – sometimes referred to as Green Berets. The two soldiers were assigned to the NATO Special Operations Component Command – Afghanistan (NSOCC-A). The soldiers received a posthumous promotion.

I recall my younger days in the political scene…there were social hawks and deficit hawks….the GOP were traditionally the hawks on the deficit….that is until they sold their souls to Trump.

Who really cares about the budget deficit?  https://lobotero.com/2009/06/13/is-the-deficit-really-of-concern/

And the question is still asked and failed to be answered.

All their rhetoric about the dangers of running a massive deficit were stuff of legend……but came 9/11 and their desire for revenge and allowed the defense budget to explode the deficit…..and then cam Trump and all pretense about caring about the deficit is gone.

The news coming out of the CBO is terrible and yet the GOP is silent thus approving of the massive deficit they have given the nation…..

The deficit will swell by $809 billion more than anticipated over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office announced in new projections Wednesday, per the AP. The Washington Post reports the US was already expected to hit a deficit over the $1 trillion mark in 2020. The change here, which is an update to the CBO’s May report, is due to recently enacted legislation on two fronts: the budget deal signed into law this month and supplemental spending at the border. A grim line from the new CBO report: “To put [debt] on a sustainable course lawmakers will have to make significant changes to tax and spending policies.”

CNBC quotes CBO Director Phillip Swagel as saying in the report that “federal debt … is on an unsustainable course,” and that while it will average $1.2 trillion annually between 2020 and 2029 it’ll jump even higher after that as the population ages and health-care spending rises. A third grim line from the report, per Fox News: “As a result of those deficits, federal debt held by the public is projected to grow steadily, from 79% of GDP in 2019 to 95% in 2029—its highest level since just after World War II.”

Give it time and the deficit hawks will return….probably when there is a Dem president…..and a GOP Congress……funny how all that manure works…..and yet they only care about deficit spending when it applies to social safety net…..

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Debt And Deficit: Who Knew?

When the news broke that the Dems would take back the House I wrote then that with that bit of news we would see a return of the GOP of caring about the national debt and the deficit…….and viola!……I am hearing the rumblings of such a switch.

May I see a show of hands if any of this makes any sense to you?

First, the debt and the deficit are two different problems…..this video can help understand the economics…….

https://youtu.be/3sUCSGVYzI0

The news has broken that the national debt for the US is $22 trillion…yep that is Trillion with a “T”…….most of us cannot wrap our heads around that many zeros….it is difficult to understand and as usual I want to help you understand…..

https://youtu.be/3ugDU2qNcyg

Hopefully those two short videos helped you understand the economics at work here….

Congress does not care about the deficit or the debt (at least for now but that can change over night)…..

Congress has stared into the abyss of debt, and the abyss has stared back. The national debt just topped $22 trillion for the first time ever, yet barely a peep was heard in the halls of the Capitol. The debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled in less than 20 years, rising from 33 percent in 2000 to 78 percent today. Within 10 years, it will reach 93 percent, the highest level since just after World War II.

 

While currently the federal budget deficit is around $900 billion, beginning in 2022, it will exceed $1 trillion per year, every year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over the next decade, deficits are projected to fluctuate between 4.1 percent and 4.7 percent of GDP, well above the average over the past 50 years.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ignoring-americas-abyss-of-debt/

Hopefully this will help when the yelling and the chest thumping begins again…..the GOP needs something they can champion to turn the conversation away from their cowardice in confronting the corruption of the Trump administration.

National Security Crisis

Here we go!

It seems everyone has a national security crisis they want to champion…..and each one helps DoD rape the Treasury of funds.

Just another justification for more money, more money, more money…….

The National Defense Strategy Commission began as a congressional panel to review America’s national defense strategy. It turned into yet another justification for ever-greater military spending. In the panel’s view, America is weak, isolated, beleaguered, and endangered. Unless military spending is greatly increased, Washington will lose its ability to run the world and a new dark age will envelop the earth.

Indeed, the barbarians are already at the gates. Complained the NDSC: “The security and wellbeing of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades.”

That, alas, is to be expected since “America’s military superiority—the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security—has eroded to a dangerous degree.” Foreign conquest may be just one battle away. “Rivals and adversaries are challenging the United States on many fronts and in many domains,” the NDSC says. Not just China and Russia, but Cuba and Venezuela. What is a superpower to do?

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/congress-creates-a-commission-to-justify-military-waste/

NO MORE!

Please….it is time for the Congress to help check the Pentagon budget.

Granted it will be hard especially with so many Congresspeople on the payroll of the defense contractors.

The US can NO longer afford more wars they cannot afford the ones they fight now.

War is good business!

The United States has now been continuously at war for more than seventeen years. It is still fighting an active war in Afghanistan, has yet to fully defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq – much less establish a state of lasting security in either country – and is playing a role in low level conflicts against extremist and terrorists in many other parts of the world.

The U.S. government, however, has never developed a convincing method of reporting on the cost of the wars, and its estimates are a confusing morass of different and conflicting Departmental, Agency, and other government reporting that leave major gaps in key areas during FY2001-FY2019.

It has never provided useful forecasts of future cost, instead providing empty “placeholder” numbers or none. It has failed to find any useful way to tie the cost estimates it does release to its level of military and civil activity in each conflict or found any way to measure the effectiveness of its expenditures or tie them to a credible strategy to achieve some form of victory.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/americas-military-spending-and-uncertain-costs-its-wars-need-transparent-reporting

DoD is looking to ask Congress for even more funds…..”war” funds…….

The U.S. Defense Department is planning to ask Congress for a massive increase to a controversial war account often criticized as a “slush fund” in order to circumvent mandatory spending limits, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions.

The increase would amount to a reversal for President Donald Trump’s White House budget director, former Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who for years campaigned against what he saw as former President Barack Obama’s abuse of the account, calling it a “slush fund.” After he was tapped for the job, Mulvaney told Senate lawmakers that he would seek to eliminate the fund altogether.

https://outline.com/VpU9ga

Like I said…..the price is too damn high!

AMERICANS…….. speak up…..Enough Is Enough!

Entitlement Reform? (The GOP 2019 Song)

Some things never change……with the news of  an ever expanding deficit and the spineless GOP has the lame same idea as in the past….entitlement reform.  Pathetic pack of losers and even more so now with the King Don in the Oval Office.

With all the drama that leaks from the White House…..nothing is being said about the deficit.  Nothing is being said that the worthless tax cuts are expanding the deficit….that is until today when GOPer Sasse of Nebraska told Morning Joe that he wants to work on entitlement reform to help the deficit.

I love this crap!  The GOP will focus on deficit control after blowing it up with their massive tax cuts for rich bastards….this is a continuing story…once they, the GOP, are in the minority the deficit and entitlement reform is primary on their minds but when in majority it means little and is seldom mentioned…..these toads are all too predictable.

Finally a true GOPer…..blame the deficit on entitlements and not on their stupidity with the budget for the Pentagon or those  worthless tax cuts of 2018.

But what are these reforms that the GOP will embrace?

Paul Ryan made the TV rounds giddily hawking his plan, saying, “Do we want to get entitlement reform? Of course we do.

His intentions could hardly be clearer, but there are still people out there worried about stating this fact too openly. Earlier this month, Maya MacGuineas, president of the non-profit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

“Gutting,” of course, is exactly what Republicans mean when they talk about “reforming” “entitlement” programs. But MacGuineas was correct to point out the many politically loaded words partisans throw around when talking about programs that benefit poor Americans (with “reform” being high up on that list.)

https://splinternews.com/what-we-really-mean-when-we-talk-about-entitlement-refo-1821222884

Let’s look at the most recent news about the deficit…….

The federal budget deficit has surged to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, its highest level in six years as President Trump’s tax cuts caused the government to borrow more heavily in order to cover its spending. The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit climbed $113 billion from fiscal 2017, the AP reports. Debt will likely worsen in the coming years with the Trump administration expecting the deficit to top $1 trillion in 2019, nearly matching the $1.1 trillion imbalance from 2012. The deficit worsened because tax revenues are not keeping pace with government spending. The government’s fiscal year runs from October to September, unlike calendar years that begin in January. Tax revenues were essentially flat in fiscal 2018, while spending increased 3.2% as Congress gave more funds for military and domestic programs.

Revenues generally tumbled after December when Trump signed into law $1.5 trillion of tax cuts over the next decade. The tax cuts have caused economic growth to accelerate this year with Federal Reserve officials anticipating gains of 3.1%. But the Trump administration initially promised that the tax cuts would pay for themselves through stronger growth—and there is no sign so far of that happening. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin suggested in a statement that the underlying source of the widening deficit was growth in government spending, rather than the tax cuts. “Going forward the President’s economic policies that have stimulated strong economic growth, combined with proposals to cut wasteful spending, will lead America toward a sustainable financial path,” Mnuchin said. But William Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted that the tax cuts are unlikely to generate a long-term bump in economic growth

The deficit is Ryan’s biggest nightmare….which in itself is a self inflicted wound…..because of the GOPs policies the deficit expands…..

Rep. Paul Ryan said one of the biggest disappointments from his term as House speaker was his inability to address the growing mountain of federal debt.

“On healthcare itself and debt and deficits, it’s the one that got away,” Ryan said at a Washington Post event.

As speaker, Ryan helped oversee a rise in spending that is already adding to the deficit. Under his tenure, the amount of outstanding federal debt grew by just over $2 trillion, and the federal deficit expanded from $438 billion in the 2015 fiscal year to $779 billion in the 2018 fiscal year.

https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-federal-debt-deficit-gop-tax-law-2018-11

2019 will bring the GOP chest thumping about the deficit…..any person that watches our system at work can see just how hypocritical the GOP is…always…..

It gets humorous at the attacks on the people of the US as the cause of the deficit soaring……the truth (no GOPer wants to hear that)….is their massive budget increases for the Pentagon and then those worthless tax cuts of 2018 have done more than any entitlement program.

Of course the GOP will say that Dems hate the Pentagon and the military and that they do not want Americans to have more money……THEY ARE LIES!

The honest approach would be to have all income including bonuses pay into the system….and that taxes be paid according to income…..those are simple fixes that will go NO where.

For those that want to debate entitlement reform……this is a collection of cards that can be printed and used as a reference….

https://www.vox.com/cards/entitlement-reform/what-is-entitlement-reform

Further Reading:

https://mic.com/articles/61613/what-the-debate-over-entitlement-reform-is-really-about#.dUIM5n33I

The People’s Budget

First those tax cuts that the GOP shoved down the throat of Congress….well these do very little for a peon like me about $35 a month and did everything it was suppose to do…make the wealthy more so and explode the deficit (so much for all GOP crap about fiscal responsibility)…..

Well it was so successful for the wealthy that they are planning another round of help for the Fat Cats……

Despite the profound unpopularity of the Republican Party’s tax law, pushed through last December amid loud protests directed at President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers, party leaders on Tuesday unveiled framework for their “tax cuts 2.0” package—signaling that they are doubling down on their plans to benefit the rich at the expense of working Americans.

The framework, which House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) released, claims that it would permanently extend tax cuts for individuals that were set to expire in 2025, help families to save for college, and help small businesses create retirement plans for their workers.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/24/no-evidence-goptaxscam-has-benefited-most-americans-republicans-unveil-plan-double

A subject that gets little attention these days……poverty.  These days it seems the being poor makes one a criminal and most legislation rewards greed and wealth…..

In addition to padding the bottom lines of America’s largest corporations by cutting their taxes and eliminating scores of longstanding regulations, President Donald Trump is also protecting major companies’ profits by refusing to punish them for ripping off consumers and trampling federal rules that safeguard the planet.

That is the central conclusion of a new Public Citizen analysis out Wednesday, which finds that corporate America has largely been exempt from Trump’s so-called “law-and-order” agenda. Titled Corporate Impunity (pdf), the report shows that enforcement actions carried out by major government agencies declined drastically during Trump’s first year in the White House.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/25/poverty-criminalized-wealth-immunized-report-shows-corporate-crime-enforcement-has

I brought up this expansion of the deficit because that Progressive Caucus has released the “People’s Budget”…….

Offering an ambitious alternative to the House GOP’s “morally bankrupt” 2019 budget proposal—which demands over $5 trillion in cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and other life-saving programs—the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) on Tuesday unveiled a budget that calls for massive investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education while proposing significant cuts to the completely “out-of-control” Pentagon budget.

Titled The People‘s Budget: A Progressive Path Forward (pdf), the CPC’s plan also calls for a ban on “any expansion of U.S. combat troops in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and many other countries,” demanding an immediate end to “the policy of funding endless wars.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/24/putting-common-good-over-billionaires-and-war-profiteers-house-progressives-unveil

This addresses the “Common Good” which any legislation should do…..

Now in reality this “Budget” will go nowhere….simply because it does little to benefit those that own the members of Congress.

Come September

American politics has become so damn boring that it is too silly for words…..but that may soon change….

It is now September and the Congress returns to what they call work…..and they are faced with several options for failure….deficit…..taxation….budgetary debate….none of these will bode well for the GOP….they do not have a reliable partner in the White House….

President Trump’s public comments this week have made one thing crystal clear: September is going to be a very big month for the US. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a funding deal to avoid a shutdown, and Trump has thrown a wrench into things by demanding serious money for a border wall. But in a deadline with more serious consequences, Congress also must raise the debt ceiling around the end of September or the US could default on its debt, reports the Wall Street Journal. The issues are separate, but they’re likely to get lumped together, and not much goodwill is circulating at the moment. In addition to his shutdown threat, Trump on Thursday blamed Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell for the debt ceiling “mess.” Related coverage:

  • Chances of a shutdown: Flip a coin. A Goldman Sachs advisory to investors puts the odds at 50-50, but Axios has a GOP source who thinks there’s a 75% chance of a shutdown: “The peculiar part is that almost everyone I talk to on the Hill agrees that it is more likely than not.”
  • Better odds on debt ceiling: “We’re going to get the debt ceiling passed,” said Treasury chief Steven Mnuchin this week, per Bloomberg. (He wants a “clean” increase with no strings attached.) At the same event in Kentucky, McConnell said there is “zero chance—no chance—we won’t raise the debt ceiling. No chance.”
  • Unless: Yes, the budget and the debt ceiling are separate, but because the deadlines are so close together, they could become “entangled” in negotiations, per the New York Times. For example, Bloomberg notes that House conservatives are demanding big spending cuts in return for lifting the ceiling.
  • Consequences: If the ceiling isn’t raised and the US defaults on its debt, it would rock financial markets around the world, explains NBC News. Also, ratings agencies could downgrade the US. At the Wall Street Journal, James Mackintosh writes that he finds “it hard to believe that the US will default,” but he explains that the mere possibility is already making investors nervous.
  • How we got here: The Washington Post notes that, in 2015, President Obama and Congress agreed to suspend the debt ceiling decision until March of this year, and emergency measures have extended it since then. But Mnuchin runs out of tricks next month. The story also points out the contrast in Trump’s tweet about the “mess” and Mnuchin’s public attempt to ease fears and notes that Trump has mocked Congress for raising the ceiling in his pre-presidential days.

In all this drama the country shutdown looms…..

You want humor….then these debates will be the best place to go for a good chuckle…..

Dude, Where Did The Money Go?

How many times have you heard a nose picking, ass scratcher go on and on about those freeloaders (the poor) that are wasting government money?  Or that have string opinions about wasting money on unpopular programs like school lunches or pollution control or other such programs?

But does any of that add up to $8.5 trillion (that is trillion with a “T”)?

$8.5 trillion is the amount of cash that the Defense Department has somehow misplaced……(wink wink)

WTF?

When government is completely dysfunctional and seems not to serve the people’s interests, we have to wonder where our tax dollars are going. Thanks to a Reuters investigation by Scot Paltrow, we have an answer—or, rather, a non-answer. Apparently, the Pentagon has made use of $8.5 trillion of our tax money handed over by Congress since 1996—but don’t ask what was done with the money. The Department of Defense doesn’t have a clue.

Audits of all federal agencies were mandated by law beginning in 1996, but the Pentagon is unique in never having complied. In almost 20 years, the Pentagon has never accounted for trillions it spent, in part because “plugging”—fudging the numbers—is standard operating procedure.

And they worried about the price of a school lunch…..typical ignorant toads.
Think about this….if we add the money that is missing with the amount we have wasted on our wars of adventurism then we would not have a budget deficit…..see how easy economics is once you remove your head from your ass?