Quick summary of the deficit reduction panel report

[EVAY]

^^^You know, b-d, when I typed the line that said we are powerless to change it, I almost included a "But B-D, this doesn't mean I think you are right" line, but decided not to add irrelevant items in the post.

But, B-D, just because this aspect is truly sad to me, I'm still not quite as down on America's chances as you are.

[coyotes_geek]

Fear-mongering, STFU, and scare us again about the threat Saddam and Iran's imagined nukes are.

So defecits and the debt don't matter...............

How small would the deficit be without Repug tax cuts since 1980?

Without dubya's bogus and botched wars?

Without dubya tripling the national debt during his Reign of Error?

.........and then suddenly they do.

Bring better , next time, .

boutons thread stage 5 is complete.

[coyotes_geek]

How do we know what an "unsustainable debt load" is?

Isn't that similar to asking a frat guy how much alcohol he can consume before he dies? He may not know the exact amount, but hopefully he also knows that it's not in his best interests to find out the answer.

Without knowing what the specific amount is, I do believe that there is an amount and that whatever that amount is we're heading towards it at an alarming pace.

The answer to your second question is that I doubt anyone could unravel things enough to tell.

Let's play devil's advocate for a second though:

What are the benefits of US government debt?

Providing a safe investment vehicle for banks and individuals is the one benefit I can think of off the top of my head. But is the amount that it costs us taxpayers to sustain that debt worth it? IMO, no.

[The Reckoning]

i still dont understand why there cant be a fixed income tax rate...

[Yonivore]

i still dont understand why there cant be a fixed income tax rate...

Because, then, Democrats couldn't buy votes by exempting their base while soaking their opposition.

[Winehole23]

The explanation for Simpson-Bowles’ giant whiff on the one true here-and-now-deficit reducer -- letting all the Bush tax cuts including the AMT patch expire at an immediate gain of $300 billion -- is thus straight-forward: The Wall Street propaganda machine has vaccinated nearly the entire beltway population -- include its few brave denizens like the co-chairmen -- with a politically convenient strain of ersatz Keynesianism. Unlike the real thing, the latter holds that consumption spending on anything -- even by people who already have everything -- is to be embraced without question. On that meretricious point, of course, the questions should start, not end.

In fact, the question of serious revenue raising is never really addressed by the Simpson-Bowles plan -- not even in the by-and-by a decade from now when the current macro-economic “fragility” has presumably passed. Thus, compared to current policy, the co-chairman’s plan would raise the grand sum of $100 billion by 2015 or just over one-half of 1% of GDP. Yet any honest plan to close the nation’s massive structural deficit needs five times that much new revenue -- $500 billion per year or upwards of 3% of GDP.

http://www.minyanville.com/businessm...d/31457?page=2

[Winehole23]

improving economy plus sequestration equals the first sub-$1T deficit since 2008:

via AP

For the first time in five years, the U.S. government has run a budget deficit below $1 trillion.

The government said Wednesday that the deficit for the 2013 budget year totaled $680.3 billion, down from $1.09 trillion in 2012. That's the smallest imbalance since 2008, when the government ran a $458.6 billion deficit. It's still the fifth-largest deficit of all time.


The deficit is the gap between the government's tax revenue and its spending. It narrowed for the budget year that ended on Sept. 30 because revenue rose while spending fell. Revenue jumped 13.3 percent to $2.77 trillion. Government spending declined 2.4 percent to $3.45 trillion.


A stronger economy created more jobs and income over the past year, which generated greater tax revenue. At the same time, the Obama administration and Congress agreed in January to end a temporary cut in Social Security taxes and also to raise income taxes on the wealthy.


And spending fell in part because of across-the-board cuts that took effect in March.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/10...#storylink=cpy

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/10...n-to-680b.html

[boutons_deux]

but tea baggers believe the VRWC propaganda that spending is out of control, therefore cut spending on the 47% and cut taxes on the VRWC.

Ryan is pushing for hard-core austerity in order to stimulate the economy, proving yet again what a fraud he is a policy wonk/economist.

[boobie4three]

"The government said Wednesday that the deficit for the 2013 budget year totaled $680.3 billion

We need to get it down to zero and even try to run a surplus, and that means we're going to have to dissapoint a few people.

[boutons_deux]

"The government said Wednesday that the deficit for the 2013 budget year totaled $680.3 billion

We need to get it down to zero and even try to run a surplus, and that means we're going to have to dissapoint a few people.

ain't going to zero due to the huge Repug tax cuts, bogus Repug wars, unfunded Repug corporate welfare, so you'll be disappointed.

[Nbadan]

Were my fiscal conservatives brothers at? Obama and Clinton both may reduce spending by the end of their terms...Clinton ran a surplus, Obama may too...Dubya ran up 8-9 trillion dollars in debt with unfunded wars, expansion of Medicare D for the old voters, and a tax cut for the rich after his two terms, while Saint Ronny ran up 1.5 trillion in corporate tax cuts after his two terms...we don't live in a vacuum people, policy has costs...elections have consequences..

[boutons_deux]

head said that St Ronnie proved that "deficits don't matter" (when they are Repug deficits)