The national debt

[mirkwood]

They just raised the debt ceiling. Brilliant. Let's spend more money so we can get out of debt.

[FunkyTown]

They just raised the debt ceiling. Brilliant. Let's spend more money so we can get out of debt.

Well... There were mitigating circumstances to this. Moody's threatened to downgrade the US's AAA credit rating if they didn't. I'm not going to discuss the potential ramifications of that. There are a plethora of sources you can look to in finding out why that would be bad.

Bleah. I feel terrible for the US that they were essentially blackmailed in to doing this by the international banking community. I think the US needs to take back its economic independence. Careful husbanding of borrowed funds provides international credit. Runaway borrowing creates an international set of alliances every bit as intricate as the ones that led to World War I.

Only in this case, the lines between good and bad and us and them are so blurry as to be impossible to navigate.

[rameumptom]

But Moody's said they would have to cut $4 trillion along with a debt hike, and they are only cutting about $2 trillion. So we will still probably have the rating decrease.

Can you imagine, this debt ceiling raising is for $2.2 TRILLION dollars and will only last us just over a year????? The cuts will occur over a decade, while the debt will happen now. At this rate, we'll owe $25 Trillion in a decade, minimum.

[AGStacker]

Time has already run out for the US. Our government is bankrupt. People don't really understand. The government accumulates more debt to pay off old debt?! No one can do that! You or I cannot print money to pay off debts but the government supposedly can! It is game over people. The Federal Reserve owns more treasuries than China now which means they are printing money to buy treasuries. That is inflation but on a much more rapid scale. This rapidity leads to hyperinflation. Gold and silver will protect you financially as they have for thousands of years.

[bcguy]

Makes me want to move further away from the US. After all, Canada depends on the Us for trade.

Seems that the budget cap has passed, only to add MORE to the debt then the present 14.5 trillion dollars??

Analysis: Angry over debt debate, voters may punish leaders - Yahoo! News

BTW, this issue first started in the Reagan years, and has never been resolved.

[john doe]

Hopefully the voters will remember the scumbags who did this when election time comes around next year. The problem is that the Republicans have no idea how badly they stepped into it by dealing with the Democrats. The Democrats are setting the Republicans up so that they have no moral high ground when the angry Americans find out how much Congress has screwed them over.

[HoosierGuy]

As I told someone last night - one time we were on the gold standard. Back in the 70s we moved to the money standard. Beginning in the early 80s we slowly but surely moved to the Wall Street standard. We are led by Wall Street. The large banks and multinationals are the new mafia. Half the country supports Wall Street and supports those that think corporations have a "soul" and have the same rights as human individuals. They have pushed the idea that Wall Street capital is more important than human capital.

[Just_A_Guy]

This last month must've been downright thrilling for you, then.

[girlygirl]

Does this have any relation on why house prices have gone up so much? I work in Real Estate in Canada and don't understand how a house selling for $300k 6 or so years ago is now selling for 1.2 million????!

[FunkyTown]

Does this have any relation on why house prices have gone up so much? I work in Real Estate in Canada and don't understand how a house selling for $300k 6 or so years ago is now selling for 1.2 million????!

That depends. If you're talking about Toronto or Vancouver, then no. Those two places just have horribly expensive prices and people with ridiculous concepts of what people should pay.

[prophetofdoom]

Canada will be the last economy to implode. Europe will fall first. The US second. Then, Canada.

[FunkyTown]

Canada will be the last economy to implode. Europe will fall first. The US second. Then, Canada.

I seriously doubt that last one. Canadian business will start to fail in Canada, and even then only the exports will fail. As Canada has a very robust economy in electrical generation(Which the US depends on, as well as China), Oil, mining and food, Canada is in a place to weather a worldwide depression quite well.

I suspect Canada will do fine, relatively speaking.

[talisyn]

Just so you all know, our national debt is about to equal and then surpass our Gross Domestic Product. IOW, if every dollar created in the United States this year was put into paying the deficit, we would almost pay it off this year. Of course, no one would get paid, there would be no money for anything else in the government budget, and we would all be sitting in the dark with no food.

The last time the debt was as big as the GDP was during WWII, when we just completed the Great Depression, and sent millions of men into battle.

Debt now equals total U.S. economy - Washington Times

Of course, the proposed budget for this year is $3.73 Trillion dollars. If we were to equally tax every man, woman and child in the USA for their portion of this, we would all have to cough up over $12,000. But don't worry, about $2 Trillion of this is going to be paid off by borrowing more, the most we've ever borrowed in history.

NationalJournal.com - What Could You Do With $3.73 Trillion? - Monday, February 14, 2011

Sadly, the American people have not yet learned their lesson. They don't want taxes increased, they want the budget cut, but they don't want any of their personal stuff cut (Social Security, Medicare, etc). IOW, as a people, we hate our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, because we are leaving them a giant debt for their inheritance, just so 90 year olds can get hip replacements today.

Time for us to demand from our leaders that they make the tough choices, and that we'll take our harsh medicine. Raise my Social Security retirement age! Cut my Medicare benefits! Stop my unemployment after 6 months!

If I have to lose my house and move in with family members, I'll do it. If I have to work an extra 10 years until retirement, I'll gladly do it. If I have to enter into retirement age as a poor person, and eat dog food, I'll chow down just fine.

If I end up dying at 65 or 70 because I don't get that $1million Medicare surgery, then that is okay, as long as my grand kids don't have to pay for it the rest of their lives.

Can we just agree that we'll happily suffer for a few years and then die peacefully, so our kids and grand-kids can have a chance at the American dream?

I notice you don't bring up the easiest way to solve this problem, cut corp. tax loop holes

[talisyn]

Defined benefits need to be changed to defined contribution into 401Ks. And yes, do it for all of them, even military. I believe that had the military given me a defined contribution for my retirement, instead of defined benefit, my retirement amount right now would be more than I am receiving. I would have benefited from the stock boom of the 80s-90s, and would probably have millions in a 401K right now doing it in that manner.

What is really sad is that US Postal workers have a better retirement than military, because they are unionized. Military get their retirement until 65, and then get Social Security as a portion of that retirement. Postal workers get both in their entirety. Why is that fair or good for our nation to benefit postal workers more than military? Drop the Postal workers and all others to equal or lesser benefits than those who risk their lives for our nation.

I think you're looking at this wrong. What is needed is to raise the military benefits to the level of the other gov't sectors. And the post office is an independent entity, isn't it? As is the IRS.

[Just_A_Guy]

I notice you don't bring up the easiest way to solve this problem, cut corp. tax loop holes

Talisyn, there's not enough money out there to cure what ails us. I'd suggest you take a look at

(skip over the initial polemics and go straight to 2:16)--I confess it's not diplomatic, but it does illustrate how little a difference raising corporate tax rates--even nationalizing every company in the Fortune 500--would make in the long run.

The amount of debt we've racked up, is truly staggering.

[Guest Sachi001]

Canada will be the last economy to implode. Europe will fall first. The US second. Then, Canada.

As soon as it's largest trading partner falls (USA) then it will tank in Canada.