by Jack
Did you see the new Gallup survey? It says 42% of Americans are just fine with not raising the debt ceiling. They want government to cut back on spending and not raise taxes. Pretty smart of them. The really good part here is that’s nearly twice as many who who want Congress to vote for raising the national debt-ceiling increase…. from $14.3 trillion to something even more unimaginable.
Look, Obama has had 903 days in office to get his house in order. During this time the national debt has risen about $4 trillion, a pretty good spending clip even for a Chicago style politician. He caused us to blow through $787 billion for economic stimulus that didn’t stimulate much, except a few banks got richer. Unemployment is back up to 9.2% and the real number is likely closer to 15%…so much for the stimulus bailout. Ah, and then there is Obamacare…those numbers are soon to bite us.
The fight in the next two weeks leading up to the arbitrary deadline may be over those Americans that Gallup says are “unsure” about raising the legal authority of the federal government to spend even more money that it doesn’t have. This is the swing vote? Give us a break! Anyone who doesn’t have this figured out by now needs to go sit in the corner and let the smart people run things.
Republicans are pretty unified over opposing the increase: 60% say firmly…No, 11% Yes, 29% Unsure. Independent voters, a crucial part of Obama’s victory coalition in 2008, are almost equally opposed to the increase now: 46% No, 18% Yes, 36% Unsure.
Do we have the money, or not? Can we meet our obligations, or not? As I said before in a previous post, there is money, the decision is how it is to be spent and who will decide for what and how much. Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner is the man in charge.
Here are the figures from the Daily Treasury Statements published by the US Treasury Department.
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“But, CNSNews.com reports that there is more than enough funding to cover entitlement. Specifically, the outlet claims that there is enough to cover the combined costs of interest, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and federal wages for workers (not to mention insurance benefits). This information comes via Daily Treasury Statements published by the U.S. Treasury Department:
Specifically, according to the Daily Treasury Statements, as of the close of business on May 16, the federal government had taken in $1.333454 trillion in tax revenues since the beginning of fiscal 2011. By the close of business on July 7, tax revenues for fiscal 2011 had grown to $1.629630 trillion. Therefore, between May 16 and July 7 the federal government took in a total of $296.176 billion in new tax revenue.
In that same time period, total interest payments on the national debt equaled $14.632 billion.
Thus, the new tax revenue of $296.176 billion the federal government took in between May 16 and July 7 was enough to pay the federal governments $14.632 billion in interest obligations during that period 20 times over.”
Full story here:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-i-cannot-guarantee-social-security-checks-will-be-mailed-if-debt-deal-not-reached/
“Did you see the new Gallup survey? It says 42% of Americans are just fine with not raising the debt ceiling.”
That is because they (and Ms. Bachmann) are ignoramuses. It will not improve the economy to put another million out of work, or to incite the Chinese to foreclose … so we are not going to do it.
But I do love Mitch’s plan, don’t you? Faced with complete recalcitrance in the freshmen, the Republican Party is going to renounce all responsibility for solving the problem, make Obama dictator, and allow him to raise the debt ceiling as King!
Sickening. And unprecedented. The last time they pulled this, the sitting President was at least a member of their own party.
The National Bureau of Economic Research published an article in the Boston Globe addressing the recession of 2001. In it they cite the length of time it took to recover in 10 previous recessions:
http://www.nber.org/feldstein/bg120401.html
Eleven months! We are now approximately 30 months (903 days per Jack) into recovery and they’re now talking about QE3 because previous QEs havent worked to create recovery. But nobody on the left thinks this is a problem. Q3, it was explained this morning is necessary to keep interest rates down. Lenders of various stripes, includijng those of dubious origins, have been trying to get me to borrow for all of those months. I get several phone calls a week at home and at work and advertising is all over television and the internet. (same with grants to go back to school). Who wants to borrow now? Who? And why does this group of incompetent boobs think anybody would? Whare’s the evidence that people are anxious to buy anything beyond food and gasoline…anything expensive right now?
The O man and his crew need to get a clue…seriously! Cut government spending and growth way back and create a friendly atmosphere for business with tax incentives and reasonable regulation and the American people can get back to work
what comes after a trillion?
If it looks like a depression, walks like a depression, sounds like a depression, guess what? It’s a DEPRESSION!
“The nine recessions since WWII ranged from 6 to 16 months with an average of 11 months.
Eleven months! We are now approximately 30 months (903 days per Jack) into recovery” ….”
Do you see what your are doing? We do. The recession did officially end some months back. The recession, that is. The recovery is another matter, and has been stalled since the freshman class took office.
For a third time … congratulations.
Libby: ” has been stalled since the freshman class took office.”
By magic? Explain yerself woman! What exactly has happened? What has changed? What?
I heard a fellow on the radio saying much of what you’re saying. Rush somebody. But 3 minutes afterwards he said we have to go back 15 years and blame Clinton. Then he said we need to go back 30 or more years to Clinton. You either can go back or you can’t. That poor man sounded so confused.
I think he is blinded to reality, or he does not understand how America works. For sure he doesn’t know macroeconomics.
Curious, its curious that you should pretend to represent what another has said when it’s easy enough to find direct quotes. Of course you would have to resort to cut and paste…typing is much too exhausting…but at least then it would be an accurate representation.
The election of the freshmen put a stop to the stimulous.
Are you denying this?
Libby how do you stop something that’s already happened? Now they’re threatening to do QE3?
Qe 2 was enacted last November. See this article from March 2011 for an eye popping evaluation of the effects of QE2…things haven’t gotten better since then:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/259141-what-happens-when-qe2-ends
Either you don’t get what has been done by this administration in the name of “stimulus” or I’m not hearing you…want to try again?
Read this article for some history and perspective on the debt:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203304576446332084493902.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
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