Thread: The Debt Road Trip

I'd laugh but it's us. I think they pin an extra trillion on Obama. Tarp passed under Bush and this year the CBO was predicting 1.2 trillion 1/7 weeks before the inauguration. other than Porkulus what policies of Obamas are driving those deficits or are they more a product of tax/entitlement/defense obligations of today carried forward? No one is cutting SS or Medicare and we cant afford to cut defense so I dont see how we avoid tax hikes

Originally Posted by Roosveltrepub

I'd laugh but it's us. I think they pin an extra trillion on Obama. Tarp passed under Bush and this year the CBO was predicting 1.2 trillion 1/7 weeks before the inauguration. other than Porkulus what policies of Obamas are driving those deficits or are they more a product of tax/entitlement/defense obligations of today carried forward? No one is cutting SS or Medicare and we cant afford to cut defense so I dont see how we avoid tax hikes

Entitlement and projected additional entitlement spending is a lot of what's driving the increase. Entitlement spending used to be a fraction of the budget . . . it will take some political courage to cut these benefits, but it can be done.

I want to drive 174 mpg... Safely, of course. We don't want to be irresponsible.

I can't see Medicare or SS being cut. In the case of SS the working class would be outraged if benefits had to be cut because the govt blew through the surplus and didnt want to start repaying the IOUs in a dozen years. I think that would be political suicide. Getting a better handle on medical inflation would help but only a tiny bit. Demographics are a train wreck for entitlements. What do you tell people who've worked their whole life and planned on those programs? What do you tell hospitals to do with people presently getting medicaid when they come in with a serious problem? I think any significant benefit cuts that weren't far off in the future would be political suicide so am not sure it could be done. No one has really called for it as a solution in a serious way to my knowledge. I'd be interested in what any sitting Congressmen/ Senator said about that. I do think it's an argument that needed to take place during the big taxcut years and every year they punt it forward we get in deeper. Gore's lockbox was in part about this problem. Tax increases or benefit cuts are coming and once we get through the present down cycle I hope there is at least the political will to finally have that argument. Even the risk of it that was associated with privatization crashed and burned. Does anyone know what percentage of the budget is projected to be interest as compared to the deficit next year?


Clinton sure looks good in that movie even if an intern had a head in his lap while he was driving Oo

Originally Posted by Roosveltrepub

I can't see Medicare or SS being cut. In the case of SS the working class would be outraged if benefits had to be cut because the govt blew through the surplus and didnt want to start repaying the IOUs in a dozen years. I think that would be political suicide. Getting a better handle on medical inflation would help but only a tiny bit. Demographics are a train wreck for entitlements. What do you tell people who've worked their whole life and planned on those programs? What do you tell hospitals to do with people presently getting medicaid when they come in with a serious problem? I think any significant benefit cuts that weren't far off in the future would be political suicide so am not sure it could be done. No one has really called for it as a solution in a serious way to my knowledge. I'd be interested in what any sitting Congressmen/ Senator said about that. I do think it's an argument that needed to take place during the big taxcut years and every year they punt it forward we get in deeper. Gore's lockbox was in part about this problem. Tax increases or benefit cuts are coming and once we get through the present down cycle I hope there is at least the political will to finally have that argument. Even the risk of it that was associated with privatization crashed and burned. Does anyone know what percentage of the budget is projected to be interest as compared to the deficit next year?


Clinton sure looks good in that movie even if an intern had a head in his lap while he was driving Oo

You grandfather current benefits in and phase down future entitlements.

I understand that would work but can't see it getting enough public support it wouldn't end up being political suicide. Something that used a sliding means test might have a chance if we were in the mindset we were in as a Country after Ross Perot scared both parties and the public with those pie charts of doom The sounder our finances become the greater the pressures for new entitlements or tax cuts. We had our house in order 10 years ago. One life rule I hold fast to is if nothing changes nothing changes. I think the same greedy interest groups will just undo the fix again. Pursuing some real pay as you go law asa permanent fixture has to be an underpinning of any reform or imo those fighting the reform will be right when they say we will just shift the beneficiary of a debt. Both parties have no real discipline or will to face down interests they are beholden too. A real pay as you go might fly now with so little pie left to quibble over.

Of course this straight spending per year is a little skewed. We, or the author, should also factor in the GDP at the time. Spending per year as a percentage of GDP is more representative.

Originally Posted by Roosveltrepub

I'd laugh but it's us.

'It's time for a second stimulus pack'
--Biden

Heehe...

me too...

Originally Posted by Shek

Entitlement and projected additional entitlement spending is a lot of what's driving the increase. Entitlement spending used to be a fraction of the budget . . . it will take some political courage to cut these benefits, but it can be done.

yeah, looking at how the budget ballooned under the Bush administration, I don't think you can pin this one on the Dems. Dems will raise the tax a little bit and then raise the entitlement spending a lot. Republicans will lower the tax a little bit and then still raise the entitlement a little bit. So, the budget gap just gets larger and larger.

Of course whenever they are out of power, the republicans pretend to be fiscal conservatives again. When in actual fact, most of them are just social conservatives, which is probably the worst form of conservatism.