This is a snapshot of the continuously mounting debt of the United States. It’s quite interesting.
Click here to see a live version.
Thanks Gene
We Scour the Web, so You Don't Have To!
We Scour the Web, so You Don't Have To!
This is a snapshot of the continuously mounting debt of the United States. It’s quite interesting.
Click here to see a live version.
Thanks Gene
I want to check this again the second Health Cares/Insurance Reform is passed.
no you will really be sad then,DAYUM our kids are soo screwed
Does the US have a Celibate Day in late October?
A huge portion of the deficit, of course, is the 1.7 trillion dollar tax cut that George W wrangled for the wealthiest Americans. This is nearly twice as much as the bill for health care reform, which, despite the bald-faced lies of the Republican obstructionists, will actually be paid for in one or several of several ways. In addition, once in place, a good plan that includes a public option will save money at almost point in the system. This, of course, is the real reason Republicans are trying to block the plan: if it goes through, everyone will see the vast improvement over our current system, and the Republicans will never get back in office again.
Even if it were not going to be paid for, the cost is dwarfed by the costs that will result if the system is not reformed. This is another telling insight into Republican thinking: the worst of all possible outcomes is to do nothing, yet they are willing to have this happen for the pleasure of seeing Obama fail.
As far as putting it off on our kids, that’s just silly. The numbers are big because our economy is big, but our GDP is still big enough to service the debt without trouble. The ratio of debt to GDP was three times as high as it is now after WW II. Besides, again this is just political sophistry. If Republicans want to reduce our national debt, all they have to do is push for Reagan era tax rates on the wealthiest Americans and the debt would drop like a rock. But, of course, they’d rather “saddle our kids” with the debt than force the Bushes and the Forbes to buy shorter yachts.
Acorvid,
Dude. (and if you’re not a dude then I’m terribly embarrassed and ashamed for using the term, so please forgive me.)
I have been called, in a previous discussion, the most liberal poster to B & P. (And I’m DAYUM proud to be!) Your most rational and cogent statements are sure to send shivers up the spines of our citizens who swing to a separate system of social thought.
But I say, welcome to the fray!
Acorvid,
Congress haven’t and will not read the bill so I don’t think you have either. We don’t know how much it will cost and where the money will go.
Your solution to balancing the federal budget and to fund health reform is to raise the taxes of the wealthiest American? Their combine taxes rate is already close to half of income. You are for raising that even higher? Over half of their income should be taken away because they can afford it, right? I want health reform too, but you are very generous with other people money. I’m not one of them, so it’s not my problem, right? What is the difference between people like you and someone breaking into a neighbor’s home to steal money because he doesn’t have as much?
Instead of being insanely jealous of successful people, you can spend your time building you own wealth.
Health cares is too complicated to fix in months. They need to slow down and listen to all sides.
We are talking about our (corrupt) federal government. Can you think of any program that is not over budget or not going bankrupt?
sigh… how much fuc*ing taxes is enough for the rich?I can tell you we pay more than enough,and there is a reason why we are rich,we do things that make us rich.. we dont sit on our @ss and want the Government to do everything.And its not my place to buy the poor health care,have you ever got a job from a poor person?
I guess Acorvid missed the report by the independent Congressional Budget Office that said that the Health Care Reform would cost a lot more then the Dems are saying and that it would not change medical costs to the consumer. So please check your facts and then we’ll talk about illegal aliens, young people who have not bothered to get health care, etc.
@ X: We have been attempting to fix our health care system for far longer than Obama has been in office. In terms of taxes, here’s some historical data:
The top tax rate when Reagan became President in 1980 was 70%. By the end of his term, the top tax rate was 28%. At the beginning of Clinton Presidency, 1992, the top rate was 39.6%. Bush II lowered that rate to 35%. All Obama wants to do is raise the rate on the highest income earners back to where it was when Clinton was in office. Seems reasonable to me. (source: http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php)
@ Infi: If you are someone who, through your own personal hard work and sacrifice, was able to become independently wealthy, I salute you for your hard work, dedication, and effort. My question to you is what about Trust Fund Babies, those people who don’t really do anything to contribute to society except spend daddy’s (or grand daddy’s, or great grand daddy’s) money. Don’t you think they have at least a miniscule responsibility to contribute to society?
@ Richard: So I guess you would rather have Americans fall into bankruptcy than have health care? Truth of the matter is that the major cause of bankruptcy to Americans is….medical bills. That never happens in Canada, in the UK, in Western Europe, or Japan. Reason? They have single payer medical care. Health care should NOT be a for profit endeavor in this country. Period.
“We” have been attempting to fix the health care system since 1946 – yes, 1946 when Truman was president and each and every time the republican did what they are dosing now..
go figure!
Paul – If you can single out the “Trust Fund Babies” and make all of them give up their rights, you go for it. I paid for healthcare (as a company benefit) for 30 years, so I don’t have any sympathy for all of the leechs who spent their money on poor lifestyle choices, or who never had a job, or who are illegal aliens. If you can find it in the Constitution where it says that everyone has a right to healthcare, tell me about it.
And as far as your statement “health care should not be a for profit endeavor”, that oughta get more folks to train to be doctors…
Yeah, I can see an exodus of Americans rushing into Canada, Mexico, France and GB to get their health problems taken care of … Oh, WAIT! THEY’RE COMING HERE! Why? It’s because we have the best healthcare in the world … and the Dems want to screw that up too? Sure, it’s not perfect, but still the BEST in the world.
Read pg 524 of the bill. It states that every 5 years, anyone who is on medicare will be required to be “counseled” on ways of committing suicide to reduce healthcare costs. This is a fact that they don’t want you to know about because if you did, you’d be up in arms. — Another reason they want to jam it through.
These are things the gov’t-run media WON’T tell you. You’ll have to do the research yourself instead of being mindless sheep that will believe whatever Obama-Lama-Ding-Dong and rest of the socialists tell you.
Consider this:
The Usurper-in-Chief has a MAJORITY in congress … not just a majority, but a FILIBUSTER PROOF majority. This means that they can pass anything they want to WHENEVER they want to. Why are they blaming the Republicans? The Repubs have nothing to do with this. In fact, Pelosi & Ried won’t let the Repubs in on the briefings. Closed doors! If they wanted to pass this bill, they could jam it through without a hitch. The fact is, that some of the dems are getting wise to the healthcare scheme bill and are taking a second look at it and it’s scaring the hell out of even them.
Yeah, I can see an exodus of Americans rushing into Canada, Mexico, France and GB to get their health problems taken care of … Oh, WAIT! THEY’RE COMING HERE! Why? It’s because we have the best healthcare in the world … and the Dems want to screw that up too? Sure, it’s not perfect, but still the BEST in the world.
Read pg 524 of the bill. It states that every 5 years, anyone who is on medicare will be required to be “counseled” on ways of committing suicide to reduce healthcare costs. This is a fact that they don’t want you to know about because if you did, you’d be up in arms. — Another reason they want to jam it through.
These are things the gov’t-run media WON’T tell you. You’ll have to do the research yourself instead of being mindless sheep that will believe whatever Obama-Lama-Ding-Dong and rest of the socialists tell you.
Consider this:
The Usurper-in-Chief has a MAJORITY in congress … not just a majority, but a FILIBUSTER PROOF majority. This means that they can pass anything they want to WHENEVER they want to. Why are they blaming the Republicans? The Repubs have nothing to do with this. In fact, Pelosi & Ried won’t let the Repubs in on the briefings. Closed doors! If they wanted to pass this bill, they could jam it through without a hitch. The fact is, that some of the dems are getting wise to the healthcare scheme bill and are taking a second look at it and it’s scaring the hell out of even them.
Sorry about that.
I guess it needed repeating.
I must start by saying i have the national debt. We need to raise taxes and reduce spending and start paying down our debt.
That said… Some of the numbers on the chart are not reflective of reality.
–GDP is much higher than that listed. I assume it is year to date GDP, but why don’t they say that. GDP will liely fall around 14 trillion.
–medicare and medicaid are seperate government programs and should be listed apart.
–SS, medicare, medicaid ard mandatory programs. That might not mean much, but means they aren’t voted on during any budgeting debate.
–Interest on national debt is a strange item. I like that it is listed, but don’t think it belongs under the budget heading. An interesting note is that in 10 years at current spending levels we will spend as much on the DOD as we do on the cost of debt.
–the private debt numbers are so missleading outside the context of private equity they shouldn’t be listed. Maybe credit card debt but to include things like morgaatges in a debt picture with out the counter weight of house value has the effect of lying to the reader.
All that said we need to work towards debt reduction.
PAY-GO PAY-GO PAY-GO
Paul,
I agree with you on the need for health care system reform. I’m just against robbing one party to support another.
Taxes. I did say ‘combine taxes’. You are forgetting state tax, sale tax…If you add all that with the surtax Congress are suggesting, that’s how I got 50%. You are for the reform. But how much more taxes are you willing to pay for it? Or are you just for it as long as it only affect wealthy (other) people?
Trust Fund Babies don’t contribute to society? They pay taxes too. Those yachts, cars, etc they buy create jobs.
How about a 50% tax on college funds and your kid’s allowance. Those trust fund babies haven’t contributed to society.
Stop being jealous of successfully people.
FYI. When Congress/people attacked the CEO of the auto makers for using private jets to get to Washington, corporates put jet order on-hold and thousands of people at Cessna Aircraft Company lost their job. And the other companies/people that built everything that go into those planes? Bye bye.
X, Seems to me we are a civilization in rapid decline. Here we are, fighting amongst ourselves, while the top 1% of the food chain are eating about 20% of our food, and control about 75% of the food supply. America has ceased to be a country of producers, and is now a country of consumers. Every country in the history of the world that at one time ruled it fell into decline. It happens to be our turn now. Back to the point:
oops, sorry. I want to have the same health insurance as Senators Martinez and Nelson, and Congressman Robert Wexler, my representatives from Florida in the CONgress. (h/t to Jim Morin of the Miami Herald)
Umm, not to change the subject. If Infidel is rich, we found a place for the bigass BBQ. 🙂
KLAW, I like the way you think. ….. Sometimes 🙂
One of Obama’s campaign promises was to give everybody the same health insurance that’s provided to Congress and the President. Well, Congress exempted themselves and the unions from the bill. They both want to tax your paychecks but don’t give much in return. The top 1% is not the source of our problem and the government is not much of a solution.
Jonco you did it again…you started another political blog that’s gonna go on for ever….lol
Yeah, I know. I just thought the clock was interesting. I knew it would bring out the commenters.
KLAW, you sure brought a smile to my face!!
You want health care reform? Try this on for size: leash the lawyers. Malpractice insurance premiums are outrageously expensive. I know civil litigation DOES have a place in our society. It protects people, it forces businesses to maintain safer environments, and it helps people who need help. However, it’s gotten a bit out of hand, not unlike some of the unions which likewise have an important place in society … unless they get out of hand.
Here’s another thought. You want healthcare reform? How about cheaper medicine. I know a woman who has a very bad disease, likely fatal, certainly fatal without proper medical care. The medicine she needs costs about $5 a pill, and runs about a thousand dollars a month. The company that makes these pill reported a profit of more than a billion dollars in 4th quarter 2008. They are holding the sick for ransom: pay or they die.
That’s why we need healthcare reform.
Sorry, it’s $5 a pill for the generic stuff: $10 a pill for the brand-name. She’s currently taking the brand name stuff but we’re going to try to get her doctor to order the cheaper generic stuff.
So at what point does the wealthy decide that enough taxes are enough? I would imagine that if I was a wealthy individual I would move to the country that offers me the lowest amount of taxes on my income. If I move my business to another country, then I take all of the jobs that my money creates with me. We keep picking on the wealthy, and we never stop to consider what happens when they take the proverbial ball and go home.
Crispy, you have touched a very peculiar topic here. This has always been one of my biggest issues with the health-care system… profits generated by corporates, while charging crazy amounts for products and paying workers peanuts. That is problem number one…
Secondly, Infidel, your statement earlier is totally ignorant. I assume you have a pair of Nike’s laying in a cupboard somewhere. Those were produced by someone who earns less than a dollar a day. In fact, he probably earns around 50cents a day… A “poor” person may not have given you a job, but they sure as heck are directly involved with your life in the lap of luxury (your car, dvd player, even the computer you are working on had a “poor” person involved in its manufacture or assembly)…
And this kind of statement as from Infidel is a prime example of why we are in the situation that we are. Consider this: You have a private healthcare system where only the wealthy can afford proper care. The poor find themselves sick, but unable to get proper care or even time off to get better. Now that person becomes sicker, so suddenly this person is totally unable to work… often losing their jobs as a result. Now he’s unemployed, and sick. It is a commonly known fact that in Western Societies, poverty is directly influencing crime, so suddenly you have a very volatile situation where crime is becoming more difficult to deal with. Now consider the alternative. You have a system where everyone has access to the same healthcare, then you don’t have a scenario like that. Fact of the matter is that healthcare is a human right!!! Whether you are wealthy or poor, black or white, cripple or healthy. In Europe it works! It’s proven! So for you to say that “And its not my place to buy the poor health care” you’re being both selfish, ignorant and to be honest a totall @ss. If you’re not willing to help the man next to you, why the heck should anyone care to help you? And lastly, if you think that you are “so high up on the food-chain” maybe you should consider how much lower you are than the people who own your health-insurance company. To them YOU are the “poor” person, being ripped off by the amounts charged to you… think about it.
On the point of National Debt, well… Two great thinkers our times said the following:
“Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.”
– Albert Einstein
The other one is this one:
“Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”
– Thomas Jefferson
The fact of the matter is that such trillions of dollars worth of debt can never be repaid. Period. You can see it with “foreign aid”. 3rd world countries are loaned billions to rebuild their infrastructure, but due to the free-market system their local economies cannot keep up with international market influence on their economies. Einstein said it a few lines earlier… compound interest makes it almost impossible to succeed. The solution? We need to create a culture of social upliftment, not individual profit gain. In all things!!!
Jaco Im not even going to try and explain it to you(it would be a waste of my time anyway),your liberal mind is beyond help
Yeay for liberal!