by Jack
The politics of the deficit seems to have disappeared, nobody is talking about it anymore. But, the ugly truth is, the deficit hasn’t gone away or even slowed. The U.S. federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 is $985 billion. The deficit occurs because the U.S. government spending of $4.407 trillion is higher than its revenue of $3.422 trillion.
But, few are paying attention to spending because right now the economy is growing at the rate of 3%, inflation is under control and employment is at record levels. Life is good, except we’re still spending far more than we take in. Question: What happens when a recession returns, as is inevitable, how will the deficit impact us then? Nobody is looking down the road at where this over-spending is taking us. If there is any sort of leadership in Congress at the moment, it’s management by polling.
What’s popular right now, especially among the democrats, is climate change, universal healthcare, free college tuition, amnesty for illegal aliens, full entitlements for dreamers, massive spending on homeless, a 70% tax rate on top earners and a huge increase in federal spending for infrastructure. That one 70% tax proposal alone is enough to derail the economy for the sake of curbing the social and political power of the rich. All of these things will grow the deficit enormously.
I think over the past 30 – 40 years, citizens have slowly acclimated to the idea of deficit spending to the point they have given up caring. Both party’s overspend so there’s really place to run. That means it’s up to us to effect change by being loud and forceful.
You may think Bernie Sanders and AOC are total nitwits, but let me remind you that what
they are selling appeals to a staggering number of voters. And there’s the big problem, 90% of politicians are poll watchers. They will jump on whatever bandwagon that will get them to another term, even if it means more deficit spending. We’ve got to stop that kind of thinking – even if it means taking extreme measures.
For those of us who are informed, who are concerned about the future and who vote intelligently, we are the last best chance for this democracy. Keep reminding the politicians that you are watching them. Demand they STOP the irresponsible spending or we’ll soon be marching on the capitol with torches and pitchforks!
Easy—Republicans pretend to care about the deficit when a Democrat is in office and stop caring when a Republican is in office.
This despite the fact that for the past three decades, the deficit has gone up at a far faster rate under Republican presidents than under Democrat presidents.
And yet you blame the Democrats.
Cute.
“And yet you blame the Democrats.”
CORRECTION: I actually blamed both the GOP and the DEMS, guess you missed that part? You seem to have mixed this up with the planks/issues dems now embrace that will lead to catastrophic debt if implemented.
Do you think universal healthcare will lower the deficit Chris? Do you think a 70% tax bracket for the rich is a good idea?
An eight year recovery from the recession that ended in June 2009 under the Obama policies double our deficit. It was in the 9,000 range when Obama took over and 20,000 when he left. Historically a recession takes 18 months from beginning to end. Trump was left with one mell of a hess to clean up.
Now he’s fighting with both hands tied behind his back against democrats, republicans and the media. Can’t help but wonder what he and his administration would/could accomplish if some liberal unelected judge didn’t stop him almost every time he tries to do what’s best for American and its citizens.
From a friend.
Fight on, Trump —
“You magnificent bastard”
A description of politics in the US since the mid-sixties. Evan Douglas Sayet is a comedian and conservative speaker. He is the nation’s leading conservative speaker, an in-demand Master of Ceremony for Republican events. Sayet is the author of The Kinder Garden Of Eden: How The Modern Liberal Thinks And Why He’s Convinced That Ignorance Is Bliss.
He Fights . by Evan Sayet
My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #Never Trumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum.
They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” Here’s my answer: We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried propriety: has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney? And the results were always the same.
This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.
I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper” about Barack Hussain Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party.
I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to cover your tracks. I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent. Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.”
The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ’60s. To them, it has been an all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen as beyond the pale. It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of violence, demagoguery and lies from day one and the violent take-over of the universities till today.
The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety. With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America ‘s first wartime president in the Culture War.
During wartime, things like “dignity” and “collegiality” simply aren’t the most essential qualities one looks for in their warriors. Ulysses Grant was a drunk whose behavior in peacetime might well have seen him drummed out of the Army for conduct unbecoming.
Had Abraham Lincoln applied the peacetime rules of propriety and booted Grant, the Democrats might well still be holding their slaves today. Lincoln rightly recognized that, “I cannot spare this man.He fights . ..”
General George Patton was a vulgar-talking, son-of-a-bitch. In peacetime, this might have seen him stripped of rank. But, had Franklin Roosevelt applied the normal rules of decorum then, Hitler and the Socialists would be five decades into their thousand-year Reich.
Trump is fighting. And what’s particularly delicious is that, like Patton standing over the battlefield as his tanks obliterated Rommel’s, he’s shouting, “You magnificent bastard, I read your book!”That is just the icing on the cake, but it’s wonderful to see that not only is Trump fighting, but he’s defeating the Left using their own tactics and that’s what they really hate. That book is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals a book so essential to the Liberals’ war against America that it is and was the playbook for the entire Obama administration and the subject of Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis . It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted.
Trump’s tweets may seem rash and unconsidered but, in reality, he is doing exactly what Alinsky suggested his followers do. First, instead of going after “the fake media”– and they are so fake that they have literally gotten every single significant story of the past 60 years not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to the truth, from the Tet Offensive to Benghazi, to what really happened on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, Trump isolated CNN. He made it personal.
Then, just as Alinsky suggests, he employs ridicule which Alinsky described as “the most powerful weapon of all” …Most importantly, Trump’s tweets have put CNN in an untenable and unwinnable position. … They need to respond. This leaves them with only two choices. They can either “go high” (as Hillary would disingenuously declare of herself and the fake news would disingenuously report as the truth) and begin to honestly and accurately report the news or they can double-down on their usual tactics and hope to defeat Trump with twice their usual hysteria and demagoguery. The problem for CNN (et al) with the former is that, if they were to start honestly reporting the news, that would be the end of the Democratic Party they serve.
It is nothing but the incessant use of fake news (read: propaganda) that keeps the Left alive. Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s church. Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.
So, to my friends on the Left and the #Never Trumpers as well do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course, I do. These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years.
So, say anything you want about this president — I get it — he can be vulgar, he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this warrior. He fights for America! Fight on,you magnificent bastard!
An eight year recovery from the recession that ended in June 2009 under the Obama policies double our deficit. It was in the 9,000 range when Obama took over and 20,000 when he left.
Bald-faced lies. Do you really think no one can look this stuff up, Peggy?
Deficits — Under Obama, annual federal deficits fell, but then turned up again.
The deficit hit $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009. As we’ve documented elsewhere, Obama inherited most of that deficit and signed spending measures that contributed as much as $203 billion to FY 2009’s red ink.
After that, the yearly deficits declined markedly for several years. In fiscal year 2015, the deficit was $438 billion, a drop of 69 percent from FY 2009.
But deficits were again on the rise as Obama left office. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in June 2017 that the deficit for FY 2017 — which ends Sept. 30 and is the last one for which Obama signed spending bills — will increase to $693 billion.
https://www.factcheck.org/2017/09/obamas-final-numbers/
There you go again Chris calling me a liar. Time for the teach to learn who the real liar is.
National Debt Under Obama:
https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-under-obama-3306293
Why are you pretending to not know the difference between the deficit and the debt again, Peggy?
Why are you pretending to know what you’re talking about when you don’t and refuse to be informed? Are you sure you have a BA qualifying you to teach kids?
From the article you once again obviously didn’t read.
“The deficits from all these budgets total $6.785 trillion. But, like most presidents, Obama’s contribution to the debt was higher. There’s a difference between the deficit and the debt by president. All presidents can employ sleight of hand to reduce the appearance of the deficit. They can borrow from federal retirement funds.”
Peggy,
I did not read that article because you introduced it as an article about the debt, after I called you out for lying about the deficit.
As you know, those are two different things.
I am not sure why you expected me to read an article that looked like nothing more than an attempt by you to change the subject, deflect, and conflate different terms in order to mislead.
Obama raised the debt, like every modern president has. He lowered the deficit. Which is what I said. You responded by claiming he raised it. That is a lie, as the Fact Check article I cited makes clear.
In the modern era, it remains true that Democrat presidents tend to preside over periods of deficit decreases while Republican presidents tend to preside over periods of deficit increases.
What are you an idiot? Oh silly me, of course you are. What the hell is a “deficit decrease?” Is that like only gaining 10 lbs instead 20lbs or charging $100 to your credit card instead of $200? A deficit compounded each year, year after year adds up to a debt. Obama added to the debt with his annual budget deficits. Period!
God you really are stupid if you think anyone believes anything you say and even more stupid for assuming you know everything before you even read it.
LOL – Would love to see how you manage to live on a personal budget deficit and try to buy a home with your FICA score.
“What the hell is a “deficit decrease?””
Google it, you boring pedant.
You’ll find the term “reduction” is used more than decrease, but any idiot can tell those words are synonyms.
Obama lowered the deficit. He raised the debt. These are not mutually exclusive. And they are both facts.
Do you accept these facts?
Calling me boring doesn’t prove you’re not an idiot.
I googled deficit decrease and this is what came up. Pay close attention to the last sentence!!!
“Deficit reduction in the United States refers to taxation, spending, and economic policy debates and proposals designed to reduce the Federal budget deficit. … Further, CBO reported that high levels of debt relative to GDP may pose significant risks to economic growth and the ability of lawmakers to respond to crises.”
More proof you don’t know what you’re talking about.
“Obama lowered the deficit. He raised the debt. These are not mutually exclusive. And they are both facts.”
No, I don’t accept your facts. The debt goes up because the deficit goes up, which they both did under Obama and others. Only a reduction and/or a complete stop in deficit spending will result in reducing the debt to lead us back to a balanced budget where we’re not spending more than is generated by tax revenues.
Bye again. You’re a waste of time.
Thank you for citing the CBO, Peggy. It confirms that the deficit fell under Obama.
Deficits have declined dramatically during the Obama Administration. Although Republican Members of Congress frequently claim otherwise, deficits haven in fact gotten smaller during the Obama Administration. The CBO report shows that the deficit is shrinking, with this year’s deficit projected to be smaller than last year’s and next year’s expected to be even lower. CBO does project the deficit to increase beginning in 2019. But this is hardly a new development that one can blame on the Obama Administration. Budget forecasters have seen this increase coming for decades, in large part due to the aging of our population.
The deficit shrank dramatically under President Obama’s watch. It was well over $1 trillion when he took office and has fallen by more than $800 billion, a nearly two-thirds reduction (as a share of the economy).
The long-term budget outlook poses significant challenges. However, it also improved significantly under President Obama. The long-term projections CBO issued in July are dramatically improved over the most comparable estimates CBO released soon before and after President Obama took office.
https://budget.house.gov/publications/report/setting-record-straight-obama-economy