Can you Obama supporters tell us conservatives with a straight face that this guy has any intentions whatsoever on reducing the deficit? Our future is in his hands and it is a scary future!
He called for the Simpson-Bowles Commission on deficit reduction, but ignored their recommendations. He campaigned ad nauseam about the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction, but the latest fiscal cliff deal is almost entirely tax hikes and even includes more stimulus spending. The only spending cuts he agreed to, the sequestration cuts, he had announced during one of the presidential debates "will not happen."
Yeah. The deficit is mainly due to two unfunded Bush wars, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and the economic downturn. The wars are winding down, a lot of the tax cuts for the wealthy have finally been retired, and the temporary stimulus spending accelerates the economy's return to full health. Throw in the defense cuts due to the sequestration and cost savings per Obamacare, Obama's done a pretty good job so far. May be able to do even more this term, like increasing the Social Security taxable wage cap.
BTW, Simpson-Bowles commission never made a recommendation. The commission members needed to vote on a plan, and the Republicans members refused to vote in favor because it contained some revenue increases.
Forbes called Obama the smallest government spender since Eisenhower.
Raising the debt ceiling is about paying our bills, not spending more.
First of all, any calculation that puts spending undertaken after Obama's inauguration on Not!Obama is fraud, period. Don't care whose name is on it.
Second, raising the debt ceiling is, by definition, about leaving further beyond one's means. The bills, i.e. the actual sovereign debt, gets paid whether the ceiling gets raised or not. In fact, it is the fact that that bill must be paid that makes the debt ceiling a crisis, because the debt ceiling obliges us to reign in spending on everything that IS NOT "our bills".
Third, why shouldn't Obama mint multiple trillion dollar coins and offer them as payment against the principal of our debt?
Third, why shouldn't Obama mint multiple trillion dollar coins and offer them as payment against the principal of our debt?
Didn't we just handle this in another thread? Increasing the monetary base when the economy is in the liquidity trap--like we are now--doesn't lead to inflation, but that's not a permanent situation. The coin idea as proposed is an accounting trick to temporarily inflate the monetary base; one that's easily reversed after the economy recovers. Reversing the monetary base increase isn't easy if the coin is something we've paid to another party.
Blaming Bush again! LOL! Obama's spending far exceeded any other president in history so you can take that Forbes crap and shove it where the sun don't shine.
Forbes called Obama the smallest government spender since Eisenhower.
Smallest increase in government spending since Eisenhower. Different from smallest government spending.
Quote:
Raising the debt ceiling is about paying our bills, not spending more.
If we have to raise the debt ceiling to pay our bills, we should be getting serious about decreasing our deficit. Cut spending and raise revenue. Don't just increase the limit on the credit card.
Increasing the debt ceiling did need to be done, but then we needed to follow it up with deficit reduction.
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"Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts."
-Bernard Baruch
Blaming Bush again! LOL! Obama's spending far exceeded any other president in history so you can take that Forbes crap and shove it where the sun don't shine.
Gov spending and reduced revenue is expected during a recession since the private sector is no where to be found....outside of spending to offset, he really hasn't been a big spender....its not like he took us to war twice, gave massive tax cuts without reducing spending, doubled the defense budget, or passed a huge Med prescription bill all on the nations CC while in a period of general economic stability
now if Clinton path was kept during the Bush years, we would have built up a nice surplus for a rainy day
No President in one year spent as much as Obama did in his lowest expenditure year...Therefore Obama's four years of spending will be the highest four we have ever had...
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"It's easier to convince a person that a government should be doing something for them it currently isn't than to convince a person that government shouldn't be doing something for them it currently is."
Didn't we just handle this in another thread? Increasing the monetary base when the economy is in the liquidity trap--like we are now--doesn't lead to inflation, but that's not a permanent situation. The coin idea as proposed is an accounting trick to temporarily inflate the monetary base; one that's easily reversed after the economy recovers. Reversing the monetary base increase isn't easy if the coin is something we've paid to another party.
"Easily Reversed" will be the epitaph of a nation if this mindset will persist in power. Crapping out monopoly money is not "easily reversed".
Yeah, because contractionary monetary policy is just total voodoo that's never been done before.
Inflation has worked wonders for Zimbabwe. Hey, who cares? This is why Keynes answer to intergenerational debt was that everybody that ran up the bill would be dead before it came due anyway.
Yeah, because contractionary monetary policy is just total voodoo that's never been done before.
With this debt load? I don't think so.
I'm not a Keynesian at all, but I do recognize that for better or worse thats America. There are multiple ways of skinning the cat, and in this case a worse way. And perhaps we can blame Clinton and Bush for not stocking the coffers when we could and so that we had real ammo when we needed it.
The point the absolute only way out of this debt load is debasing the currency. Default won't happen. And you can't grow out of this. You can't strengthen the dollar unless we enact MAJOR spending cuts. If we are going to spend like this we need to repay with tremendously weaker dollars.
Lefty libbies cannot address this with any veracity. Obama is not willing to cut spending as he has clearly stated that he does not believe we have a spending problem. Keep in mind, his core belief is redistribution and until all wealth has been taxed, confiscated and redistributed to the mooches, slackers and misfits who voted for him, his job is not complete.
Obama may posture about "cuts" but he is speaking about "cutting the rate of spending growth" and spending will still grow. And as long as the Fed printing presses still are operating, Obama's mess will be passed along to the next prez.
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"In the 80's we had Ronald Reagan. We also had Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now we got Obama, no Hope and no Cash."
Keep in mind, his core belief is redistribution and until all wealth has been taxed, confiscated and redistributed to the mooches, slackers and misfits who voted for him, his job is not complete.
Please be honest: is this a factual statement on your understanding of Obama's policy motivations, or a figurative statement to express your substantial dislike of him.