Tag: Deficit Spending

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”

Closing Thought–21Aug19

There are questions in life that we ask ourselves…..like whatever happened to the AMC Pacer….or the Pet Rock……but the one mystery is whatever happened to those deficit hawks?

A term for American politicians who emphasize limitation of federal budget. Usually fiscal conservatives, they advocate increased taxes and reduced government spending in order to lessen budget deficits.

Well that sounds like the GOP…… well except for the increased taxes thingy.

They disappear when Repubs control the levers of power in one form or the other.  They only appear when Dems are leading the charge of the country and then it is the so-called entitlements that become the mechanism of control spending….it is the social safety net that causes the problem…not the endless expensive wars or the defense spending for future weapons.

There is a Repub in control first the White House and the Senate….and they, the Hawks, have slinked back into the shadows to await the results in 2020.

I mean now is the best time for them to rear their lying heads with a deficit so large it makes me gag to write the numbers…..

The federal government spent a record $3,727,014,000,000 in the first ten months of fiscal 2019 (October through July), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

While spending that record $3,727,014,000,000, the government ran a deficit of $866,812,000,000.

Before this year, the most that the federal government had ever spent in the first ten months of a fiscal year was in fiscal 2009, when the Treasury spent $3,576,745,930,000 (in constant June 2019 dollars, adjusted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator).

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/3727014000000-federal-spending-sets-record-through-july-treasury-runs

Where oh where have the mindless drones gone?

If I recall just 5 years ago this subject was of great interest….and yet now….nothing…the sound of crickets.

Not to worry it should return to prominence as soon as the present resident of the White House gets kicked to the curb.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Waiting For The Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy now there is a term that our Dear Beloved Supreme Leader should know by heart……but in this case I am talking about the many many wars that this nation is fighting….on just about every continent.

The M-IC has been playing a con, the long con, on the American people…….

Consider it a conundrum. Both parties in Congress and the president simply can’t pour enough money into the Pentagon and the rest of the national security state. As a result, theirs has been a cumulative trillion-dollar budget for years and it’s still on the rise. On the other hand, the domestic basics are increasingly being starved. When the president’s long-delayed infrastructure plan finally made it to Congress, two years late, it disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, the country’s roads, rail networks, dams, schools, and so on are in increasingly poor shape. (In reality, the only infrastructure being built up is the Pentagon’s.) Meanwhile, Medicare is now slated to become insolvent in 2026, three years earlier than previously expected. As for the Social Security system, according to the latest government report, its costs will exceed its income next year and it’s expected to become insolvent in 2035. The result: retirement payments are likely to diminish and healthcare costs for aging Americans rise.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176558/

This country is spending so much taxpayer cash on wars and the so-called defense of the nation that it is slowly bankrupting the treasury….

War spending is bankrupting America.

Our nation is being preyed upon by a military industrial complex that is propped up by war profiteers, corrupt politicians and foreign governments.

America has so much to offer—creativity, ingenuity, vast natural resources, a rich heritage, a beautifully diverse populace, a freedom foundation unrivaled anywhere in the world, and opportunities galore—and yet our birthright is being sold out from under us so that power-hungry politicians, greedy military contractors, and bloodthirsty war hawks can make a hefty profit at our expense.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that your hard-earned tax dollars are being used for national security and urgent military needs.

It’s all a ruse.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/pity-the-nation-war-spending-is-bankrupting-america/5671275
 
Even parts of our military see the dangers we are in with this out of control spending on worthless systems…instead we need a new approach to defense…..

If Congress approves, the Trump administration will spend about $750 billion on defense in fiscal year (FY) 2020. The unanswered question is whether that considerable sum will make America and its friends and allies any safer. I fear not.

One reason for this concern is that 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) sets military objectives that are unobtainable, inexecutable, unnecessary, and unaffordable. The Pentagon’s strategy is “to compete, deter, and win” in an “increasingly complex security environment” with China and Russia atop the list of potential adversaries. But how China and Russia are to be defeated is unstated, a deficiency pointedly noted in the report by the Commission on the NDS.  “. . . the NDS too often rests on questionable assumptions and weak analysis, and it leaves unanswered critical questions regarding howthe United States will meet the challenges of a more dangerous world.” It goes on to say, “. . . it does not articulate clear approaches to succeeding in peacetime competition or wartime conflict against those rivals. Resource shortfalls, unanticipated force demands, unfilled capability gaps, and other risk factors threaten DOD’s ability to fulfill the central goals of the NDS . . .” 

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2019/april/needed-workable-and-affordable-defense-strategy

The key is an “affordable” approach to defense……AFFORDABLE!

As it is now there is NOTHING affordable about the crap the M-IC has this nation spending hard cash on…….again the key is to find an approach that is….AFFORDABLE!

The privatization of war is NOT it!

Thoughts?

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.

America is not broke | The Great Debate

The country is broke!  We have heard for years now that the country has a spending problem….it is true and it has the same problem since the very beginning of the country……

I enjoy a good debate….the problem is there are so few of them…..normally it boils down to one liners and innuendos….and even fantastic lies…….

A prettu good op-ed…makes some good points and leaves some questions unanswered……check it out and let me know what you think…..

 

America is not broke | The Great Debate.

Hey Big Spender!

We all know what some people think about Obama and the Dems….they are all about spending cash….they are Big Spenders….Am I right?

We also know, why because we are beat about the head with it everyday, that the deficit is the highest it has been in centuries….am I right?

I know that the big spender tag and the so-called growing deficit are great campaign slogans and bumper stickers…….but the next time you hear such drivel ask one simple question……

If the prez is such a spender, how can we explain this turn of the screw?

The federal budget deficit for fiscal 2013 has plunged by more than $400 billion, the biggest drop since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department says. It comes in at $680 billion—not exactly pocket change, but a lot better than the trillion-plus deficits of the last five years. The deficit is now at its smallest level since 2008, and while growing tax revenues from the healthier economy account for most of the drops, budget cuts and tax rises also helped, the New York Times reports. Revenue jumped by $324 billion to $2.8 trillion, the Treasury says, while government spending edged up to $3.9 trillion from $3.8 trillion. “Thanks to the tenacity of the American people and the determination of the private sector we are moving in the right direction,” says Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. “The United States has recovered faster than any other advanced economy, and our deficit today is less than half of what it was when President Obama first took office.” The Senate Budget Committee says the outlook for future deficit reduction is good, with an estimated reduction of $3.3 trillion over the next decade because of the cuts and tax rises that came from the fiscal-cliff battles, the Washington Post finds.

I realize the truth hurts….but sometime in history one must let go of BS and return to reality…..but how long will it shrink if we keep giving away billions every time there is a situation that we get nervous about…….throw money at it and it will go away…..just like the surplus we had back in the day……our politicians will find a way to solve that problem…..

The Cut, Cap And Balance Two-Step (Part 2)

Usually I take the weekend for some Zen….but the debt thing is keeping me from clearing my mind of the numbing effect of American politics…….

With the “CUT” section behind us….I will turn to the “CAP” portion of the evening……once again I will let FleetAdmiralJ of Blue Wave News explain this section…..in case you have the patience of a oversexed rabbit you can go to blogroll and get the whole thing at one time…..and if that is too difficult then try this……http://bit.ly/mRYhLS

Title II: “Cap”

Section 201(a), as far as I can tell, removes section (c)(4) from this piece of the US Code, which eliminates certain discretionary budget categories, including “highway category,” “mass transit category,” “conservation spending category,” “Federal and State Land and Water Conservation Fund sub-category,” among others. I don’t think this prohibits funds from being spent for these things, but it appears to eliminate them as distinct budget categories. It then adds to the US Code, this:

“The term ‘GDP’, for any fiscal year, means the gross domestic product during such fiscal year consistent with Department of Commerce definitions.”

Section 201(b) then limits total outlays (both on and off budget) to:

  • 21.7% of GDP in 2013
  • 20.8% of GDP in 2014
  • 20.2% of GDP in 2015
  • 20.1% of GDP in 2016
  • 19.9% of GDP in 2017
  • 19.7% of GDP in 2018
  • 19.9% of GDP in 2019, 2020, and 2021

Just as comparison, federal outlays for the past 40 years have averaged at about 20.6% of GDP, though FY 2009 and FY 2010 averaged at 24.4% of GDP.

Finally 201(b) says that if outlays are over, sequestration measures should be taken, though Medicare, Social Security, military pay, military retirement, veterans benefits, and national debt interest are exempt.

Read the last paragraph!  And then tell me what is left to cap?  Oh, let me guess….such non-essentials as education?  There are only so many programs left and the ones that are will do little to balance anything……

Stick To Your Guns And Screw Up Everything!

The GOP majority in the House of Representatives is sticking to their guns…they are demanding big spending cuts or they will shut down the government….I normally like politicians that stick to their guns whether I agree with them or not ….but there are times in the life of a country that sticking to one’s guns could be more disastrous than compromise and the whole row over spending cuts could be one of those times when the country, especially a weak economy, may NOT benefit from stubbornly standing on owns beliefs….

This may well be one of those times…..a report issued by Goldman-Sachs (who is NOT one of Obama’s biggest supporters) that show something different than the picture painted by the GOP over spending cuts…..the GOP is pushing this myth that if we cut spending we will grow the economy……the HuffPost is reporting on the Goldman report:

A Goldman Sachs economist has warned that the $60 billion package of spending cuts proposed by the Republicans to counter President Obama’s proposal could slow economic growth.Goldman’s warning follows Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner’s recent claims that the Republican plan would cost jobs.

In the confidential report, obtained by ABC News, among other news outlets, Goldman Sachs economic forecaster Alec Phillips said the GOP plan could slow economic growth by up to 2 percent. Even a compromise deal, with $25 billion in cuts could slow growth by 1 percent.

In its latest spending plan, the White House predicted GDP growth of 2.7 percent this year.

(click on the links and read the reports for yourself)

And then there is the idea of a governmental shutdown and the Goldman report had this to say about it:

…….if budget wrangling between the Obama administration and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives led to a shutdown? That, according to Goldman, could cost $8 billion a week, the Financial Times reported.

It appears that the debate on spending cuts has NOTHING to do with growing this economy and definitely does NOT having anything to do with the promise of jobs…then why are we having this debate?  Is it the typical political game?  Where is this debate good for the economy and the country?

Nothing the GOP is doing is good for the working majority or what is best for the country…instead we get theater and not very good theater, at that…….by sticking to their guns they may be dooming the economy with the possibility of a double dip recession….something for thought!