Beyond reckless / Sacramento, Washington pile up the debt

San Diego Union - Tribune ^ | 12/24/09 | Editorial

[NormsRevenge]

This editorial page has for years criticized the dishonest budgets coming out of Sacramento. State leaders have been unwilling to do anything about California’s structural budget deficit but make it worse by pushing costly bond projects that add to long-term debt.

This reckless practice is reflected in state debt service payments, which have gone up 143 percent the past decade. Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor both recently warned the Legislature that this debt binge will soon cause huge headaches in crafting a general fund budget, since debt service costs alone are on track to eat up more than 10 percent of revenue.

But at least Californians have one thing to be thankful for: The state can’t just print more money when it doesn’t have enough to satisfy irresponsible lawmakers. Only the knaves in Washington, D.C., can do that.

Consider the events of this month alone: Thirty-four prominent current or former government officials – including former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, seven former directors of the White House Office of Management and Budget and seven former directors of the Congressional Budget Office – issued a dire report warning the United States faced ruin if the national debt didn’t stop ballooning. Longtime Washington Post columnist David Broder likened the report to “shock treatment.”

Hardly. Within days after the report came out, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid secured enough votes for a massive overhaul of the health care industry by handing out billions of dollars in legal bribes to recalcitrant senators, new debt that will go directly on the national credit card. Much, much worse is the fact that the health overhaul itself inevitably will add hundreds of billions to future budgets – leaving the federal government on track to have to use a stunning 25 percent of all revenue just to pay interest on the debt.

Only Washington could make Sacramento look good in comparison.

[Nuc1]

So true. Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

[Paul Ross]

Thirty-four prominent current or former government officials – including former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, seven former directors of the White House Office of Management and Budget and seven former directors of the Congressional Budget Office – issued a dire report warning the United States faced ruin if the national debt didn’t stop ballooning. Longtime Washington Post columnist David Broder likened the report to “shock treatment.”

Uh, seems like this went rather unreported in the MSM...

[Windflier]

"Thirty-four prominent current or former government officials – including former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, seven former directors of the White House Office of Management and Budget and seven former directors of the Congressional Budget Office – issued a dire report warning the United States faced ruin if the national debt didn’t stop ballooning. Longtime Washington Post columnist David Broder likened the report to “shock treatment.”"

Wow. That should have been front page news, and led the evening newscasts. I don't recall seeing a word about that report anywhere.

Just unbelievable, that our press has sunk to the depths that it has. They've abdicated their responsibility to inform the public and have now become utterly irrelevant, as a result. If it weren't for the internet, this type of information would never see the light of day.

[anglian]

“Debt Threatens to Take Nation Down” A whopping! 256 Gazoogle hits. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=Debt+Threatens+to+Take+Nation+Down&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=off

[anglian]

Dishing out some shock on debt
December 18, 2009
David Broder http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/12/dishing_out_some_shock_on_debt.html

[anglian]

The Peterson-Pew Commission has just released its first report, Red Ink Rising: A Call to Action to Stem the Mounting Federal Debt, where it calls on policy makers to stabilize the national debt through a six-step plan. Red Ink Rising is the first of two major reports to be released by the commission. http://budgetreform.org/