Does anybody realize the deficit is down 54% since 2009? $1.4t to $640b in FY13

[ivwshane]

Wow. So you're pretty much affirming the perspective that spending is not the problem...it's revenue! And you do this with a straight face even though the numbers clearly indicate our spending as a % of gdp is at the highest levels we've seen since 1940.

This is what I quoted. Thank you for honesty and candor.

And do you think we only have a spending problem?

Call me crazy but I think it's a combination of both!

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

i'm showing that we do, indeed, have a revenue problem. to pretend that we don't is ignoring reality. and to pretend that obama only thinks we have a revenue problem is also ignoring reality. i mean, the guy already cut 900 billion from non-defense discretionary spending over the next 10.

you're the one leaping from there to all kinds of other stuff.

Are you talking about the sequester and giving Obama credit for championing these spending cuts? I've got to be missing something here.

 

[ivwshane]

Are you talking about the sequester and giving Obama credit for championing these spending cuts? I've got to be missing something here.

Yes you are.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

And do you think we only have a spending problem?

Call me crazy but I think it's a combination of both!

Agree. Just pointing out how ridiculous he's being by regurgitating that particular progressive meme. It's just as stupid as saying we have a spending problem...not a revenue problem.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Yes you are.

Please elaborate...I'm terrible at playing guessing games.

 

[ivwshane]

Agree. Just pointing out how ridiculous he's being by regurgitating that particular progressive meme. It's just as stupid as saying we have a spending problem...not a revenue problem.

I'll admit it might seem like he is saying we only have a revenue problem, except in his last post he hinted that Obama doesn't think it's the only problem either.

Sounds like a straw man argument to me

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

I'll admit it might seem like he is saying we only have a revenue problem, except in his last post he hinted that Obama doesn't think it's the only problem either.

Sounds like a straw man argument to me

Seemed to me though that he was totally ignoring our spending problem. If what your saying is actually what he meant to say, then I'll agree with him. And if this is the case...this is an example of what happens when people talk at each other instead of with each other. And I'll be the first one to admit that I'm just as guilty of this as most.

 

[ElFenix]

Wow. So you're pretty much affirming the perspective that spending is not the problem...it's revenue! And you do this with a straight face even though the numbers clearly indicate our spending as a % of gdp is at the highest levels we've seen since 1940.

This is what I quoted. Thank you for honesty and candor.

please point out where i said spending is not a problem.


i await your response.

Agree. Just pointing out how ridiculous he's being by regurgitating that particular progressive meme. It's just as stupid as saying we have a spending problem...not a revenue problem.

again, awaiting your response.

Are you talking about the sequester and giving Obama credit for championing these spending cuts? I've got to be missing something here.

he agreed to them without shutting down the government to get the other side to do what he wanted. not to mention, iirc, it was the admin's idea in the first place.

here's a thought experiment for you: if your kids want ice cream, and you do too, but you also want your kids to eat their veg, do you make the deal that first we'll eat ice cream and then we'll see if we still want the veg, or do you say you need to eat your veg and then we'll get ice cream? do you even tell your kids 'hey, i really want ice cream'?

 

[werepossum]

A lot of this is also due a few factors.


1. The Fed rebates all of its profits back to the USG

2. Fannie, Freddie, Ally and any other entity with TARP funds still outstanding put back a *lot* of money to the USG

3. Because of #2 the initial outlays (ie tarp) of those stimulus items, are what drove the initial amount higher

Overall we are still spending ~2-3x as much on defense as we did 12 years ago, about ~1tr/yr if you include DOE nukes and VA. Then there is DHS and others that haven't gone down at all but have just spiraled upwards.

Not a big achievement and both sides are to blame.

Well said.

Not true. This was the same thing said right before the sequestration and the effects were minimal. All the experts said we need to raise taxes and cut spending and we just did raise taxes on the highest earners. Now it's time for Congress and the President to act on real spending cuts. 2013 will have bring in the highest revenue to date. We do not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

QFT, and also well said.

sooooo, your chart kinda tells us that we are always better off with a Dem in the White House?
:hmm:
funny.

I know that's tongue in cheek, but there's a lot of truth to it. The only party with any fiscal responsibility is the GOP, yet many of the exact same politicians who enforced fiscal responsibility on Clinton (who only vetoed bills for increased spending, not decreased) spent like drunken sailors* with Bush in the White House. Hard to not believe that the Pubby fiscal responsibility is only skin deep, there to thwart a Democrat President but immediately tossed aside when a Republican President offers the opportunity to have unrestrained irresponsible spending on their own priorities. Logic dictates that we are best off (meaning we're heading for the cliff a tiny bit more slowly) when we have a Republican Congress and a Democrat President. Mmmm, sweet meaty gridlock!

* This is of course a slander against drunken sailors, who spend only what they have before going home and sobering up. Instead we have one party who seems to believe that we can survive driving off the cliff as long as the right person is driving and one party who seems to believe that if we drive off the cliff fast enough our automobile will gain the ability to fly.

 

[Tom]

"The only party with any fiscal responsibility is the GOP"

A complete fiction. The 4 least responsible leaders in modern history were Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes.

Among the most responsible were FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and Clinton.

 

[MagickMan]

Both parties are bitches for the banks and the military-industrial complex. Comedy ensues when a person believes that one is less corrupt than the other.