America (U.S.A.) not going broke

I knew there was destined to be another Bush bashin' message soon, that part is easily predictable. The only question was the exact topic.

Well, the topic du jour is whether or not America (U.S.A.) is going broke.

First, lets be clear. I'm sure that that other thread starter is talking about the U.S.A., though he could just as easily be talking about any country in either North or South America. Assuming we are talking about the U.S.A., there's some quite interesting info that disputes any mis-information that might have been tossed into this latest attempt at the use of a blog style IED (improvised explosive device) aimed at the Bush admin and it's policies.

Check out (linked) Table 2.1—RECEIPTS BY SOURCE: 1934–2009 from the U.S. Government sight here: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy05/hist.html

Scroll down through the table a bit and see the nice numbers for tax year 2004.

Compared to tax year 1999 (fiscal year 2000), those numbers are low, but that ignores the fact that 1999 was a complete anomaly in the fiscal history of the U.S. Because of all of the chicken-littles that were worried that the IT (Information Technology) sky was falling, people spent money in IT like it was, well literally 1999. Companies spent money they didn't have, from profits that didn't exist, for companies like Enron, Worldcom, Sprint, PSI, and a host of companies that have since gone broke, to buy more "stuff", employ more people that didn't have a clue how to do a job and weren't monitored to see if they actually did one.

Since that time, we have had a recession, the bursting of the internet bubble, and several other "corrections" in our economy. We've had tax cuts that were designed to spur growth in the economy and get citizens back to work. And in the end, the numbers (revenue coming into the government) have remained at levels that should easily fund the needs of the citizens of this country. Of course, we also have had politicians (both Democrat and Republican) that can't stop spending more money they don't have for more things we don't need, or for things only a few need (tunnels under Boston as an example). Instead of common sense cutting of spending, we've left spending to grow at a much faster rate than it should, partly because our economy can't take the hit of a massive cut in spending, and partly because no one has the guts to make the tough cuts that would be required to bring spending back under control.

Well that gravy train must end. President Bush has proposed flat spending for most agencies, or cuts -- in relation to inflation -- for others. Congress of course isn't bound to those guidlines though, and they can and do "bust the budget" so they can keep loading up pork back home.

In anycase, check out a few of the numbers in the materials (Excel spreadsheet by the way) that I referenced. When you do, think of just how much money we are seeing documented there, and then tell that tax raise demanding nameless individual that deserves to be ignored that his premise is ignorant and false. I'd encourage you to do that here, rather than letting the individual continue spreading his own FUD in his own thread, but either way, the numbers don't lie. The revenue that is coming in the next few years is enough for even a liberal to choke on -- without new taxes, and without going back to the economy killing higher tax rates of old.

politics

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

Oh, in the interest of fair play, check out this link: http://www.federalbudget.com/ for a look at things from the point of view that says that we are spending too much and not taking in enough money.

Successfully updated karma reason!

One of the bigger complaints is that the books are cooked. The method for determining the amounts changes and is not consistant. Trust me, when inquiring about numbers you cannot use government statistics. Link

I think one has to be skeptical about real growth figures when people such as Volcker Link, Buffet Link, & Ron Paul are telling of problems from within.

Now for the record, this is not a Bush jab - more of a state-of-affairs jab. Spending is one thing. If one operates at a deficet and spends at the same time things can spiral out of control quickly. Now to be fair things haven't spiralled - yet. But they are close.

Be aware that some of the criticism comes from the president's own party Link

Now the bigger issue that concerns you and me is that if the deficet expands and hangs around long enough, it can make us poorer. Link"> It is pretty straight forward - debt goes up, either it must be paid off or defaulted. The question everyone wants to know is if the economy is healthy enough to pay everything off.

Successfully updated karma reason!

If the growing national Debt were ther only issue it would be bad enough. The fact is that it is just one issue that is facing America. Bush is pushing Social Security when the much bigger issue is Medicare and Medicade (which is funded from the Federal and State Budgets without a separate tax like Medicare). Add the Social Security issue as well as the long term national security needs and the fact remains America is headed for trouble. Add the loss of good paying jobs and the fact that our infrastructure needs, by some estimates, more then a trillion dollars in repairs, and a picture of serious financial problem is clear, even for a nation as large as the U S . This is not gloom and doom. It is looking at the issues facing this country- something Bush and the Congress will not do. Their failure to deal with these issues will not make them go away!

Successfully updated karma reason!

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.

There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting and posting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!

View all recent posts

Mark all posts as read Delete cookies created by the forum Return to Top

Stardock Forums v Server Load Time: Page Render Time: