Posted on 04/08/2010 7:30:02 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
The nations fiscal path is unsustainable, and the problem cannot be solved through minor tinkering, the head of the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday morning.
Doug Elmendorf, best known for arbitrating the costs of various health care proposals, added his voice to a growing chorus of economic experts who predict dire consequences if political leaders dont scale back spending, increase taxes or both and soon.
Elmendorf noted a recent CBO report that pegged an increase in the public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if President Barack Obamas fiscal 2011 budget were to be implemented as written. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the debt would rise from 53 percent to 90 percent, CBO forecasted. The last time the percentage was that high was right after World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I know they think we're all stupid, but c'mon!
“Wall Street got us into this mess, not Main street.”
No, CONGRESS and their BS tinkering with the free market system is what primarily caused this mess! Now, you want to give the idiots who created the problem the right to fix the problem?
“Eliminate the tax after the debt is under control.”
You mean like the long distance phone tax which was enacted to help pay for the Spanish-American war in 1898? Which apparently didn’t get “paid for” until 2006? And when they got rid of the “long distance” tax, they RAISED the local call tax rate!
Let’s not let the patients continue to run the asylum!
Unsustainable.
You think?
Serious budget cuts (and ending govt subsidies) are necessary. Taxes will have to be raised. The only question left is which taxes? Increasing the rate for those households that actually do pay federal income (about 53% of all households), will not be enough.
So they looked at a national sales tax (supported by some national group of accounting firms), but that would not be politically good for democrats. Now they are looking at implementing a Value Add Tax.
We were headed towards this crisis for some time. We just arrived real early because of Wall Street. So, IMHO, cut spending, minimize govt subsidies, and implement a Financial Instrument Trade tax.
They’ll hear only one part of this statement. They must raise taxes.
This country will not survive until 2012 if this keeps up.
My theory is the south has been sending more money to DC than we’re getting back so they can kiss our red asses.
Well, Texas has been anyway.
I agree that the single largest problem facing the US today is our unsustainable debt. But, the problem is that, just like in Europe, taxes do not go away! Nor do they shrink! And even if budget cuts are instituted, as soon as the “fix” money stars hitting the coffers, the idiots who have been running this country (Dems & Reps) are going to start spending like drunken sailors - it isn’t pretty, I have seen in up close and personal!
Europe has been trying to tax their way out of debt for over 40 years and all they have done is kill their own economy and extend benefits to the “poor” because they can’t get decent jobs - oh, because the taxes are killing the company.
It’s the old brick wall, strike head, get headache, repeat syndrome! We CANNOT tax our way out of this problem! We need to GROW our way out of this problem! We need to CUT taxes across the board, cut the US government budget by AT LEAST 40% and then we need to require a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget/deficit reducing budget going forward!
We will never be able to tax ourselves out of this debt! NEVER! It cannot be done, ask ANY country in Europe!
“the blue staters would just foul their nests then move to the red states”
nah uh.......no way....we WOULD secure OUR borders....
Democrat party strategy: send spending and debt tyranny into the straosphere.
THEN whine endlessly in one of the democrat party media’s totally insincere campaigns about how about how we MUST control the debt with massive new taxes.
Every single tax dollar pulled out of the American worker’s pocket, even those designed to reduce deficit, are dollars that do not go back in to growing our economy.
It’s like pulling money out of your left pocket and putting it into your right pocket - then exclaiming that you now have twice as much money! No, you do not!
Until you make MORE money and CONTROL your spending, you are going to continue to be broke.
That is the problem with this entire administration! You cannot make one part of society rich, by stealing from the other part of society! You have to grow the economy across the board and allow everyone to be lifted!
How can this motherfu*ker look at his face in the mirror while shaving every morning ???
Given current events, they will most likely impose a Value Added Tax, like Europe. That is the wrong approach, IMHO, as it will move discretionary monies away from business into the hands of the government. Taxing the Wall Street trades makes more sense to me than anything else they are proposing.
“Taxing the Wall Street trades makes more sense to me than anything else they are proposing.”
Where do you think that money comes from? Our economy as a whole! The largest employer of American workers are the small business owners, correct? Where do the small business owners get their money to run and maintain and grow their businesses? From larger companies and people who INVEST in Wall Street.
You don’t want them to rob Peter to pay Paul, now you want them to rob Peter slightly less, but it’s okay because they are now going to rob Patrick too!
When you say “Wall Street” who do you think you are talking about? I have a 401K through my company which works that income through Wall Street - you are taxing ME (along with almost ever working person out there) again. So, you didn’t rob Peter and Patrick, you just robbed Peter twice.
Again, we CANNOT tax our way out of this situation. We have to GROW our way out! And you are right, cutting the credit card doesn’t solve the problem - that’s why I said we have to have more income! The US government does not make money - they collect it - period! We need to GROW what they can collect!
And in other news, the Pope is Catholic...
And the Pope's Polish ... wait a minute - that was the other guy ...
Lets go with this ... And a wild bear sh*ts in the woods ...
Has this kind of thing ever turned out well?
...pretty much what’s going on in Japan right now.
But we’re too stubborn to learn from others’ mistakes.
please someone tell me....WHAT ARE THE DIRE CONSEQUENCES?
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