Tag: Deficit

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

Shut This Mother Down!

Now that Syria is put on a back burner and into a slow boil…..all eyes return to the petty arguments of the past……

I know we have been spared all the crap about the budget….that is about to change……will it get messy?  Or possibly moronic?

Well the morons are the loudest……crap holes like Paul, Hill, et al…..that are willing to f*ck the country because they cannot understand that Obamacare is LAW!  These twats are threatening to shut the entire government down if they cannot get a vote on de-funding health care…….is it a brilliant movw?  Or possibly a moronic one!

Several Congress clowns have weighed in on the possibility of shutting the government down…..

House Speak John Boehner is seriously entertaining this stratagem, having recently received a letter from 60 House Republicans urging it on him.

All of which brings us back to a perennial question: What’s the deal with House Republicans? Despite every indication that they’ve simply lost their marbles, the question isn’t so easy to answer. In fact, I see three distinct possibilities: That they’re genuinely crazy; that they’re rational, but with perverse incentives; or that they’re just a little slow.

“Crazy” is pretty much self-explanatory. Whether they do what they do because they believe they’re the second coming of James Madison, or because space aliens told them to, is neither here nor there. “Rational,” by contrast, is a little more complicated. It means they’re acting in their self-interest; it just happens to be in their self-interest to appear crazy. For example, as multiple commentators have pointed out, many House Republicans represent ultra-conservative districts, in which the biggest threat to their survival is a Republican primary challenger, not a general-election opponent. Under these circumstances, it’s perfectly rational to come off as relentlessly conservative as possible.

But not all the whack-a-doodles feel confident with this decision……

Several prominent Republicans aren’t fans of the conservative push to shut down the federal government unless Obamacare is defunded. In fact, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) thinks it’s “the dumbest idea” he’s ever heard.

Andrew Taylor, a reporter for the Associated Press, asked Burr if he was on board with Tea Party favorite Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) effort to get Senate Republicans to vote against a continuing resolution funding the government if it also funds the implementation of Obamacare. Burr didn’t pull his punches, joining a growing group of Republicans who think the strategy is counterproductive and futile:

BURR: No, I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of… Listen, so long as Barack Obama’s president, the Affordable Care is gonna be law… I think some of these guys need to understand that, you shut down the government, you better have a specific reason to do it that’s achievable. Defunding the Affordable Care Act is not achievable by shutting down the federal government. At some point, you’re gonna open the federal government back up, and Barack Obama’s gonna be president, and he won’t have signed the dissolution of the Affordable Care Act.

Asked if that turn of events would amount to “walking into a baseball bat and hitting your face,” Burr replied, “If there’s something bigger than a baseball bat, then I think that’s about where they’re going.”

Personally, I think it is idiotic…….I do believe that this could come back and bite them in the ass in the next election…….of course they will be stupid enough to point to what they did in the 1990’s…….all I have to say…..that was then, this is now!

I hope like Hell they crap in the chili……..I would enjoy that very much.  I can hear Eastwood saying, “go ahead punks….make my day”!

How about you?

A Good Idea No Matter From Where It Comes

News Flash!  In case you missed it…Santorum suspended his campaign yesterday….so now there are three….but only one that will now focus on sniping at the president…….pretty much hands Mitt the nomination on a silver platter…….well played Mr. Romney!

I have said that I would support an idea no matter where it comes from as long as it passes my test…that being in the best interests of the people of the US……and now it is about time for the deficit circus to begin again……..but it will be the same partisan game they have been played since the election of Obama….none of these worthless individuals are concerned with the country and that sucks!

The Repubs have their plan…..Dems have their plan……The White House has their plan…..an NO one talks about it…..all they can accomplish is a sprint to a microphone and sling out lame ass talking points…..this accomplishes absolutely NOTHING!

Personally I like the Simpson-Bowles solution from a couple of years ago……it was a perfect place to start the conversation….but NO the players had to go back and be told what to believe and it did not fit into the scheme of their political BS……in case you missed it back when it was published let me refresh your memory…….

Social Security cuts:

  • Index the retirement age to longevity — i.e., increase the retirement age to qualify for Social Security — to age 69 by 2075.
  • Index Social Security yearly increases to a lower inflation rate, which will generally mean lower cost of living increases and less money per average recipient.
  • “Increase progressivity of benefit formula” — i.e., reduce benefits by 2050 for middle, and, especially, higher earners, relative to current benefits.
  • Increase the Social Security contribution ceiling: while people only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,800 of their wages today, that’s only about 86% of the total potentially taxable wages. The co-chairs suggest raising the ceiling to capture 90% of wages.

Tax reform:

  • The co-chairs suggest capping both government expenditures and revenue at 21% of GDP eventually.
  • In their first plan, called “The Zero Plan,” they suggest reducing the tax brackets to three personal brackets and one corporate rate while eliminated all credits and deductions. Without any credits or deductions (including the EITC and mortgage interest deductions), the 3 tax rates would be 8, 14 and 23 percent.
  • In their second plan, they would increase the personal deduction to $15,000, create 3 tax brackets (15, 25 and 35%); repeal or significantly curtail a number of popular tax deductions (including the state and local deduction and the mortgage interest deduction); and eliminate other tax expenditures.
  • The third plan would force Congress to undertake comprehensive tax reform by 2012 by raising taxes for each year Congress fails to act.
  • All their proposals limit Congress to collecting taxes on income made within the United States, reducing or eliminating taxes on American expats and revenues companies earn abroad.
  • They also suggest raising the federal gas tax by 15 cents per gallon.

Medicaid/Medicare cuts

  • Force more low-income individuals into Medicaid managed care.
  • Increase Medicaid co-pays.
  • Accelerate already-planned cuts to Medicare Advantage and home health care programs.
  • Create a cap for Medicaid/Medicare growth that would force Congress and the President to increase premiums or co-pays or raise the Medicare eligibility age (among other options) if the system encounters cost overruns over the course of 5 years.

Discretionary spending cuts

  • Eliminate all earmarks.
  • Eliminate the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
  • Freeze federal worker wage increases through 2014; eliminate 200,000 federal jobs by 2020; and eliminate 250,000 federal non-defense contractor jobs by 2015.
  • Eliminate subsidized student loans, in which the government makes interest payments while the student is in school.
  • Establish co-pays in the VA medical system and change the co-pays and deductibles for military retirees that remain in that system.
  • Eliminate NASA funding for commercial space flight.
  • Require the Smithsonian museums to start charging entrance fees and raise fees at the national parks.
  • Eliminate funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which many conservatives suggested in the wake of the firing of former NPR contributor Juan Williams.
  • Reduce farm subsidies by $3 billion per year.
  • Create a Committee to eliminate unnecessary programs to the tune of $11 billion by 2015.
  • Merge the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration and cut its budget by 10 percent.
  • End “low-priority” Army Corps of Engineers programs to the tune of $1 billion by 2015.
  • Cut the State Department’s overseas budget by 10 percent by 2015; reduce the proposed foreign aid budget by 10 percent in 2015; and cut voluntary contributions to the United Nations by 10 percent in 2015.
  • Eliminate the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which provides subsidized financing and political risk insurance for U.S. companies’ investments abroad.
  • Cut $900 million in fossil fuel research funds.
  • Force airlines to increase their contributions to airline security costs and allow them to increase per-ticket security fees.

Defense spending cuts:

  • Double the number of defense contractor positions scheduled for elimination from 10 percent of current staff augmentees to 20 percent.
  • Reduce procurement by 15 percent, or $20 billion.
  • Eliminate the V-22 Osprey program.
  • Cancel the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program.
  • Halve the number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in favor of F-16s and F/A-18Es.
  • Cancel the Marine Corps F-35 program.
  • Cancel the Navy’s Future Maritime Prepositioning Force.
  • Cancel the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), the Ground Combat Vehicle, and the Joint Tactical Radio.
  • Reduce military forces in Europe and Asia by one-third.
  • Send all military children based in the U.S. to local schools.

I know it is a lot to digest but if you do not know what is being offered then it is possible that the MSM will make all your political decisions for you………this would be a great place to start negotiations…provided that was ever the intention……

Screw The Deficit!

This is a piece that I was reading on Buzzflash.com and thought that it would be a good post on my blog…..this person Richard Stitt is saying basically the same thing as I have been saying since January of 2011……I urge those who do not see the pressing necessity for a debt debate or a deficit debate to read Mr. Stitt commentary……an excellent piece……

Personally, I don’t see our country’s deficit as the most pressing priority. Although it didn’t take watching the History Channel’s startling revelation, The Crumbling of America, to convince me that rebuilding our infrastructure is an imminent priority, it did magnify the pending calamity which we have confined ourselves if we do nothing.

But, saying No to everything and doing nothing except tax cuts for their wealthiest election campaign contributors is exactly what Republicans want. Maybe they will wake up if we have a tsunami, a major earthquake and a Fukushima-like nuclear plant meltdown. But that would require preparation and attention to our collapsing infrastructure which would require siphoning tax dollars away from their benefactors like the billionaire Koch brothers.

Read the entire piece by Stitt…good read and good points……..blog.buzzflash.com//node/12605?ut…..

Like I have said…these are the things that average Americans are concerned with….BTW…GOP….Where are the jobs!

Wassup With The Deficit?

The Deficit?   Yes we need to keep talking on this issue….it is too important to ignore and revert back to watching Dancing With The Stars……

The Deficit?  You know that monetary problem that every politician has an opinion about?  It is too high….or it is going to effect your children (and if you think your children are of any concern to politicians, then you are dumber than I originally thought)……or that it will subdue any and all economic prosperity…..on and on…and the song stays the same…..need to do something but NOBODY has a workable plan…..

Let us take a bit of time and look at the deficit through glasses that let us see into reality…..First of all Political wire has a very good piece on the deficit……

President Obama and many lawmakers say they will work to cut the federal deficit, but a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey underscores the challenges they may face in taking specific steps that could help reduce the red ink.

Key findings: 57% said they were uncomfortable with gradually raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 over the next 60 years, 70% were uncomfortable with making cuts to Medicare, Social Security and defense in order to reduce the deficit, 60% said they were uncomfortable with increasing tax revenue through measures such as raising the gasoline tax, limiting tax deductions on many home mortgages and altering corporate taxation.

Said pollster Peter Hart: “Everybody wants to cut the deficit and cut the spending. But at the end of the day, everybody wants a choice that doesn’t affect their well-being.”

But as I have said …not everyone sees the deficit in the same light…..Yahoo news blog, The Lookout has a pretty good look at the deficit….

Ever since concerns over the deficit took center-stage in Washington earlier this year, several prominent economists — all progressives — have been pushing back, claiming not simply that proposed spending cuts are too deep, or that the rich should be asked to sacrifice more. Rather, they’ve challenged the entire premise of the debate: that a budget shortfall caused by over-spending and under-taxation stands to put an undue burden on future generations, and that cuts to government programs, including Social Security, can help fix the problem. That view, they say, is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what’s driving the deficit and how government spending works. In fact, they argue, as one recently put it, that “the current deficit is a positive.

“The starting point of the deficit contrarians’ argument is that the deficit was caused not by over-spending and under-taxation, as the current debate would have it, but by the collapse in tax revenues that resulted from the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent economic slump.

I guess I would be a deficit contrarian….I do not see where tweaking SS or earmarks or any of the proposals flying around Washington will do anything to make it better……things will get better when business returns to making things and selling things…..buying up other companies is not going to help the deficit….the stockholders maybe…but that has little to do with the deficit…..now does it?

Alternative Deficit Reduction Plan

Just a week or so ago there was a draft of a plan by the Deficit Reduction Commission…. (or something like that)…..and with the release came the oh craps from Repubs as well as Dem…they hate this issue or that cut…..most notably it was the cuts and tweaks of the Social Security system that got the most attention…personally, I found parts of the draft very doable and well thought out….but that aside there has been a wealth of bitching and finally we have an alternative to the draft……

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, offered a comprehensive proposal to reduce the federal deficit without making middle class Americans foot the bill.  Schakowsky’s plan is an alternative to the Bowles-Simpson plan and would reduce the deficit by $426.95 billion in 2015, surpassing President Obama’s $250 billion target. Critically, the Schakowsky plan accomplishes deficit reduction without making cuts to essential federal expenditures that benefit the middle class.

The Schakowsky plan is based on five key elements:

1) Increased economic stimulus to spur growth in the immediate term

· Provide $200 billion to invest over the next two years in measures to create jobs and spur economic growth, including passing the Local Jobs for America Act; and funding for education and law enforcement; Unemployment Insurance, Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program extensions; and infrastructure. 

· Adopt the President’s proposals to eliminate overseas tax havens and incentives for outsourcing

2) Smart, targeted spending cuts

· Non-Defense Discretionary – $7.55 billion in savings through increased efficiency and cuts to programs that benefit large corporations that don’t need assistance.

· Defense Discretionary – $110.7 billion in cuts from the 2015 defense budget, including efficiency savings, reducing our troop levels, cutting weapons systems we don’t need, and scaling back the wartime increases in the size of the military.

3) Mandatory spending cuts

  • Health Care – at least $17.2 billion in savings by implementing measures to bring down the cost of health care to the federal government and lower health care inflation overall.
  • Other – $7.7 billion in savings by cutting agriculture subsidies in half, and redistributing federal support to offer greater benefits to small family farms reduce subsidies to large corporate agribusiness.

4) Reductions in tax expenditures

  • Raise $132.2 billion by closing tax subsidies for companies that ship American jobs overseas.

5) Increases in revenues

  • Raise $144.6 billion in revenue through progressive reforms to the estate tax, treating capital gains and dividends as regular income, and enacting a cap and trade proposal that includes protections for lower-income people.
  • Enact President Obama’s budget proposal to let the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 brackets expire and return to 2009 estate tax levels.
  • Non-tax revenue – raise $7 billion by addressing places where the private sector is currently under-paying.

The Schakowsky alternative does not contain any cuts to Social Security.

  • It ensures long-term solvency to Social Security by eliminating the wage cap on the employer side and raising it to 90% on the employee side, applying FICA to all wage income below the cap, and establishing a modest legacy tax on wealthier Americans.
  • Surplus funding that can be used to improve the extremely-modest benefits that are now provided.

All the above from the Representative’s website….

There you have it…an alternative and the sanctity of Social Security is preserved…..Is there any thoughts on this proposal….will it help make the liberals happy….if it does then the conservs will be pissed…..but again it is a start and could be a starting place for compromise…..IMO, not as good as the draft released last week….a little to non-specific……

It Is Always Supply Side Economics

The College of Political Knowledge

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Economics

Federal Budget Deficit Series

Paper #5

Tax cuts pay for themselves……tax cuts are budget neutral…..tax revenues will go up with tax cuts……Repubs have been selling this snake oil for decades.  First of all….tax cuts DO NOT pay for themselves!

Since the days of Reagan and his “voodoo” economics, that is what Bush called his proposals, the GOP has been living and dying by the theories of supply side economics.  Today is NO different.  Just look at the GOP’s new “Road Map for America’s Future” and if you read it and understand it you will find it full of supply side issues.

But first what is supply side economics?  Glad you asked and I will try to be a simple as possible for this theory.  For decades the Repubs have been living and dying by the supply side theory….the problem is that it does NOT work the way they promise it will and yet the people buy it hook, line and sinker every time it is offered as an alternative.

I know….what the Hell is supply side economics?

It is fairly simple……government gives aid to business through reduced regs, tax write offs, subsidies and more government contracts…now to pay for these benefits the government will make higher taxes on the working poor, lower social security benefits, less job training, lower welfare benefits and less aid to education….the theory being that this will somehow “trickle down” to Main Street as better working conditions, higher pay and better benefits…….it has been supposedly trickling down since Reagan and so far it has NOT made it to Main Street that is still waiting with open arms.

RE-READ the above paragraph!

Now look at the Repubs new “Road Map” it is choke full of supply side rhetoric….and there you have it….the Repubs are still living and dying by the BS that is supply side economics…..

Lastly, Repubs keep saying jobs, jobs, jobs and that the extension of tax cuts will help small business create more and more jobs…..(thinking)……..we have tax cuts now and small business is NOT creating jobs……why would an extension help them do so?

From Rep. Paul Ryan: Line Item Veto

Federal Budget Deficit Series

Paper #4

While the GOP seems to have NO concrete ideas on the budget deficit other than cutting spending….regardless what it may do to the economy….but I think they want it that way….why?….because as long as the economy stays in the crapper the better their prospects are for picking more Repubs in the Congress…it is all a political game played with the lives of the American people…..Rep. Ryan has some ideas…while they are pretty vague some are pretty good and others are just out right wrong…

One of the better ideas offered is the line item veto…that every Repub president has been drooling over for more than a decade…but is it a good idea?

On the surface I believe it is a good one…..however (I am tired of using the “but”) this could turn into a partisan piece of crap…….a president could remove things that he is personally, notice I said personally, objects to in the budget.  It could be used to pay off the donors who have given massive amounts to his campaign.  This could effectively kill the notion of political compromise which our teachers tell us is the basis of the Federal system.

All in all, I must disagree with Rep. Ryan….while the idea is a good one….the reality of it will suck and suck bad, especially in the hands of those elitists that care nothing of the rest of the people.  This could be used to punish political opponents, regardless of who it hurts in the long run…….

I say leave the system as it is….and stop all this jerking around over something that is NOT that important in the large scheme of running a good government.

From Rep. Ryan: Cancel Remaining “Stimulus” Funds

Inkwell Institute

Federal Budget Deficit Reduction:

Paper #2

In continuing with the series on fighting the Federal deficit according to the office of Wisconsin’s Rep. Paul Ryan….next this all seems to be the same song different Congress from the GOP……This installment is entitled:

Cancel Remaining “Stimulus” Funds

The cancellation of the program would save $273 billion over 10 years.  The savings would be directed to the reduction of the Federal budget.

I will agree with Rep. Ryan, which I seldom do, that the stimulus money should be rescinded from its current proposals…I do disagree with Ryan in that it should be used to stimulate demand….instead of the programs it is trying to fund now…

With demand created…jobs will be created….production will increase…..and revenue will be increased……I know how to create demand?  One way could be refunds to people who make less than the official poverty level….they will spend any extra income they have …..this is not perfect but it will create a demand and could kick start a sluggish jobs market and create a bit of a recovery from below……the recovery from above that Ryan and his cohorts helped to create has done NOTHING to improve the lives of the American people…all it has done is save some massive corporations from taking a dirt nap.

I may agree with Ryan, at least somewhat, but the stim money would be spent on infrastructure and if it is canceled then the states will have to make up the cash shortfall and the way these self-indulgent people are acting….the only way to make it up is by slashing all funds for services.  Ryan’s idea sounds pretty good but in the long run may help bankrupt more states than California.

Greece 2–The Domino Theory (Again)!

Inkwell Institute

International Studies Group

European Desk

I have listened to all those nay-sayers that see our rising deficit as a problem that will turn the US into another Greece….but is it possible that the US could face the same problems as Greece?  In the 60’s there was a popular theory, the Domino Theory, that stated that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to Communism, they all would….this is just an update of that old belief….if Greece goes, then Spain, Ireland and Portugal will follow…and because of a global economy and the rising debt in the US…it will fall too…..

According to David Leohardt of the NY Times:

The numbers on our federal debt are becoming frighteningly familiar. The debt is projected to equal 140 percent of gross domestic product within two decades. Add in the budget troubles of state governments, and the true shortfall grows even larger. Greece’s debt, by comparison, equals about 115 percent of its G.D.P. today.

But how accurate is that analysis?  Personally, I do not think it is that accurate….I feel it is just a conserv way of using the fear card yet again…..Greece is NOT having any form of recession recovery…the US is…while it might not be a great recovery, there are still signs of the economy trying to make a come back…..Greece is having NO such activity….

Yes the deficit is high and needs some control, but I do not see it banging the country down like that of Greece…as Paul Krugman wrote in the NY Times:

The U.S. economy has been growing since last summer, thanks to fiscal stimulus and expansionary policies by the Federal Reserve. I wish that growth were faster; still, it’s finally producing job gains — and it’s also showing up in revenues. Right now we’re on track to match Congressional Budget Office projections of a substantial rise in tax receipts. Put those projections together with the Obama administration’s policies, and they imply a sharp fall in the budget deficit over the next few years.

The US is NOT Greece!  For one thing Greece does not have its own currency that it could manipulate to help the problem, which would be one way to help, but instead they, Greece, will suffer through years of zero growth and massive cuts in services.  One reason is the Euro.  If you notice that the countries that are having the most problems, Portugal, Spain, etc have NO other currency other than the Euro….something to consider.