Posted on 05/16/2010 12:54:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The European Union has agreed that it is dangerous for a country to allow its publicly held debt to exceed 60% of its GDP. The Congressional Budget Office says that the U.S. could hit 60% by the end of this year, and on its current course could hit 100% by 2020.
I want to put up a graphic here. It shows public debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product, in Greece, it's 113.4 percent. In the United States, 52.9 percent. That's still a lot, and that's only public debt. That's not including some of the shenanigans that our government -- some of the chicanery and shell game that we have going on with the Social Security trust fund and such.
This, however, is not the worst of it, because the national debt represents only a relatively small portion of our government's total financial obligations. The far greater bulk is made up of long-term liabilities inherent in entitlement programs [...] the combined liabilities of Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid amount to an astounding $104 trillion.
When we add the national debt and entitlements together, we get a figure of some $117 trillion. This figure represents the amount of money the federal government will have to come up with in the years ahead in order to discharge its obligations.
To put it bluntly, the dollar's days are numbered and its demise is inevitable. Anyone who still hopes there may be a way around it, must answer that ultimate money question: Where in the world is the American federal government going to get $117 trillion?
“The short answer is: It isn’t. And that’s a good thing. For any attempt to meet those “liabilities” would bring on the dollar’s demise. But that doesn’t mean America would be in default — the “liabilities” aren’t real. But the treasuries purchased freely and in good faith are real, and their default would make America a pariah state around the world.”
So is he saying that those liabilities are not going to be paid for? A lot of entitlements are going to need to be rolled back or a lot of people are going to have to die in order for that to happen!
It is not just the debt that puts us at risk..it is all the unfunded guarantees..real and tacit that will tip the balance.
The US is not in the position to let the State, cities and counties go broke, and we are also in the postion of guaranteeing all of Fannie, Freddies debt, plus FDIC risk, plus all the other alphapet soup guarantees.
We are like AIG..we have taken on guaranteeing more risk than we can ever hope to pay. And then we are praying for things to turn around..or inflate us out of it.
Somehow, these things are always somewhere out there in the future, but the future is moving towards us faster than the calendar. We in deep dodo.
Comparing just the US publicly held debt to Greece is comparing apples to oranges. Our total debt is almost equal to our GDP. The entitlement programs represent an unfunded liability of almost $60 trillion over a 75 year period.
You might tell hundreds of millions of voters that the soft debt is not real. Voters will reject any meaningful entitlement reform until a catastrophe occurs. Even then, it is not clear if a catastrophe will prompt reform. The Democrats plan for reform involves soaking the rich and taking away entitlement benefits from the rich. Not much will be gained from eliminating entitlement benefits from the rich. Confiscatory tax rates will backfire leading to economic decline and lower tax revenues.
Entitlement spending contains a hidden trap for inflation induced debt control. Entitlement spending will grow with inflation so we cannot inflate our way out of debt.
The Democrat fall back provision is stealth of private retirement accounts. Democrats know that real money is locked in these accounts. As John Dillinger once said, rob the banks because that is where the real money is stored.
The ability to print money is a two-edged sword. Greece is being forced to address its problems and has some hope of surviving. We may get to the point that our entire economy collapses and we will be carrying our money around in wheelbarrows like the Weimar Republic.
We, in Canada, heard this same story time and again from liberals, and other “deniers” — right up till we hit a wall in the mid 1980’s & decided to get serious about our debt. Eliminating the deficit was painful — but, once we did so, and started reducing the debt, the benefits started rolling in.
As every “12 stepper” knows — the first step is admitting you have a problem.
Is that before Obama started spending or after?
You miss the point of the deficit, Obama and company are purposely running up the deficit to force a collapse of the dollar (and the Euro) The whole idea is a resultant one world government with a single currency and taxing authority to redistribute the wealth around the world.
Obama has added almost $3 trillion to the national debt and our GDP contracted initially and is now growing. In the next 10 years Obama will add almost $10 trillion to the publicly held debt and triple what he “inherited.”
If so, the first part of that plan is within reach.
How far can we push up the debt ceiling before break the bank?
Now I get it!!!!!
There is PRETEND debt!
Why was I getting so worked up?
That is exactly what some of us are afraid of.
Sydney Blumenthal once wrote a very long editorial that was printed in the Seattle PI in 1996 about Bill Clinton’s core agenda. Blumenthal said that many critics were claiming that Clinton had no core agenda, that he was too willing to compromise and that he was simply always in campaign mode and so Blumenthal was going to explain Clinton’s core beliefs. Those beliefs were simply, New World Order, which included not only a flat power structure, but a one world government, single taxing authority, and even a one world religion which incorporated beliefs from all major religions which offended no one. The editorial disappeared as soon as it was published. It never appeared on the internet and I have never been able to find it anywhere. My guess is that it was too truthful and too scary to be allowed to be read by the public.
I’m not so sure this article is a good one. If I read it correctly, the author is saying the US dollar demise is not inevitable because all that needs to be done to save it is to renege on SS.
I don’t think that is an option. If SS was abolished tomorrow, the SS payments to citizens would simply turn into unemployment and welfare payments instead.
because, the postmodern libtards say, the evil white heterosexual Judeo-Christian males of European descent have to be punished because they have oppressed women, homos, blacks, hispanics, the poor, and every other freakin minority.
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