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Here is an interesting chart from the AP:
Figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated). Thegovernment's fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.Total public debt subject to limit Jan. 22 12,245,872Statutory debt limit 12,394,000Total public debt outstanding Jan. 22 12,302,465Operating balance Jan. 22 142,454Interest fiscal year 2009 383,365Interest fiscal year 2008 451,154Deficit fiscal year 2009 1,417,121Deficit fiscal year 2008 454,798Receipts fiscal year 2009 2,104,613Receipts fiscal year 2008 2,523,642Outlays fiscal year 2009 3,521,734Outlays fiscal year 2008 2,978,440Gold assets in September 11,041
Here is the sourceNow that is what I call responsible governance. Drowning in debt so lets pile on more.
I think that after a while the American public becomes desensitized to these kinds of numbers. They're so huge they're hard to fathom. Obama often speaks of his predecessor leaving him a big mess to clean up, but Obama's mess will be even larger for his successor to deal with.
The numbers are massive. I thought it was significant that the AP put in a note saying they eliminated the last six digits from the numbers. That kind of highlights the ridiculousness of it to me.
Check out this quote from an analysis piece in the Financial times today:
The long-run projections of the Congressional Budget Office suggest that the US will never again run a balanced budget. That?s right, never.
Thanks both Republicans and Democrats. Very soon reality will jump up and bite America when people realize you cannot borrow yourself out of an economic crisis caused by debt. What America needs is to cut spending and on a massive scale not keep adding to existing entitlement programs or creating new ones. It sure is looking like the skeptics from Fall 08 are right and this economic downturn will be a long one; Great Recession indeed. The full article is here: A Greek crisis is coming to America. The Author is Niall Ferguson; a distinguished economic historian.
I must say that while republicans have not stood up to irresponsible spending like they should have, I would not put them in the same blame boat as the democrats. When a republican spends too much, it is a violation of conservative principles. When a democrat spends too much, it is in keeping with liberal principles. I think both are scandalous but in a sense for different reasons. Still, I think republicans spend more responsibly than democrats on the whole.
Spending more than we have is irresponsible regardless of the use to which it is put. I would agree that Republicans do not in general tend to spend as much as Democrats. But that is like saying someone only does crack twice a day while his neighbor does it 5 times. Both are bad, it is just a matter of degree. The fact of the matter is that neither party can stop spending and racking up debt, that is the heart of the whole problem. Eventually the edifice will fall down, the question is when?
Ironic, yet strangely true quote of the day(I almost agree with it too):
I?ll believe Congress is serious about handling the cause of the financial mess when they all commit seppuku.Frank J. at http://www.IMAO.us
Here's an interesting graph, from August 2009 but still interesting.http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-gram/
That is a really serious debt that America has. I believe that loaning and getting more money for the citizens are not a way to stimulate the economy. But on the other hand, this seems to be one of the best ways in this current situation that is not doing that good. They should really boost up productivity to have their value up instead of getting themselves in deeper debt. Productivity and creativity will solve this dilemma that the country is facing.
