Posted on 07/10/2019 6:17:20 AM PDT by Fawn
Two and a half years into his term, President Trump has little to show for breaking with erstwhile Republican Party orthodoxy on trade and budget policy.
Indeed, far from delivering on his promise to cut America’s trade deficit, Trump has presided over a ballooning deficit that’s on pace to be some 25 percent higher than when he took office. This is happening at a time when the budget deficit is widening and the country’s public debt is well on its way to exceeding 90 percent of GDP.
With the Democrats in the House? And the GOPe in there before them? Not going to happen until disaster strikes.
I wouldn’t believe much of anything from The Hill.
Even if they are correct on some factual data they will spin it to whatever their agenda is.
All you have to do is go to the OMB site and look up the data. Almost 100% of our income tax revenues are spent paying for entitlements, which by law, is the only spending that the government is obligated to make. The rest like the military, gov. agencies is discretionary. Discretionary spending is paid with borrowed money. Anybody see a problem Here?
I saw the headline and said to myself: New York Times.
I was wrong...it was New York Times-Lite.
If we actually had a country it would be worrisome. I somehow doubt that you can refer to a geographic region which has a border being over run to the tune of over 100,000 uninvited foreigners a country. I somehow doubt that you can refer to a geographic region as a country when a coup at the highest levels is no big deal. I could go on and on. What we have is not a country and so we have no problems. Global bankers will let us run up trillions knowing we will never pay it back. What we have is a giant money laundering scam which we are transiently caught up in. When the money is gone they will leave us alone. One could consider spending a month in Tegucigalpa to get ready for our future. Or Caracas.
You are right. We do not have candidates that run on serious spending restraint.
Democrats always run on spending lots more while giving lip service to cutting the military and corporate welfare.
No programs in existence really get reformed for the modern era.
What Trump did over the last two years was basically expose the GOP members of Congress as a bunch of feckless frauds. After spending the Obama years promising to do this and that during their campaigns and in their fundraising solicitations, they got almost NOTHING accomplished once they were in a position to pass legislation that would actually get signed into law.
As pathetic as this sounds, one of the things that is hard to dispute is that one-party rule by the GOP invariably ends up being a period of grossly irresponsible fiscal mismanagement.
One thing I learned in Tegucigalpa is that if you can manage to hang onto a little wealth it won’t be too bad. You do need to be able to afford a small finca and pay somebody to walk around at night with a shotgun.
Pshaw! All we need to do is reduce the Nation. No nation, no debt.
That's what needs to happen, but it's hard to imagine. How many voters would even understand the issue, much less vote for austerity?
Some other crisis will end the borrowing. Step up and place your bets on the timing!
LIke my tag line says. Shear stupidity
1) The deficit is NOT related, in any way, to the POTUS. It is a function of spending, and Congress has the purse strings. Trump’s proposed budgets had actual cuts in spending.
2) Debt is now 90% of GDP? If true we are moving in the right direction. It WAS 100% of GDP. Thanks to deregulation and tax cuts our GDP has grown faster than the debt.
“LIke my tag line says. Shear stupidity”
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
I think I will go out and invent something now.
I just don’t see how we get off this debt treadmill. In short runs more debt means higher GDP and higher asset prices. Political admins rate themselves by GDP and asset prices (stock, real estate prices). Democracy’s Achilles heel is it often devolves into short run thinking. As you said though, who knows when the high debt and consumption economic model breaks.
The tax and spend congress critters are causing the debt to balloon. If only Trump was a dictator, then he would be responsible for the accelerating debt. But unfortunately, only the congress can initiate spending bills.
Another point to keep in mind is that majority of spending is not discretionary. Things like Medicare, Social Security are not discretionary spending. And no one has the kahuna’s to cut those items. Because the seniors will crucify them at the polls.
I do see a global reset coming. Basically a Jubilee in which everyone defaults on current debt.
Now, that’s unthinkable. It can’t be done. It breaks everything. It would cause huge problems.
But the question is: What’s the alternative?
I say: There is no alternative. These debts can’t be paid. We’re asking people to find trillions of dollars in the seat cushions of their couches. The only answer is: Stop looking for the trillions you aren’t going to find.
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