Obama's new budget

American madness

"Ultimately what cannot continue will not. The USA is headed for the biggest crisis of all in the U.S. dollar and its internal interest rates as the world slowly pulls back from subsidizing American madness that some people are entitled to produce and others are born to consume."
?Bob Sutton

Obama Proposes $3.8 Trillion Budget - WSJ.com
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I got to spend my sick day home today learning about the federal debt. What an elixer! It amazes me that our debt is not receiving 24/7 coverage ala Haiti because it is going to be a catastrophe for our country.

I got to spend my sick day home today learning about the federal debt. What an elixer! It amazes me that our debt is not receiving 24/7 coverage ala Haiti because it is going to be a catastrophe for our country.

Tebow's choose life commercial is clearly a far more critical issue. :roll:

Clearly we must stop the maddness of spending more than we take in. And higher taxes will cripple the economy. So the only thing to do is cut spending. I applaud Obama for the start but we must encourage him to do more. Going back to the 2007spending levels on domestic items would be a start. Pulling our troops home should also be looked at. Foreign aid should be suspended. The fair tax should be enacted. There are many other ideas to consider but the bottom line is we must make tough choices now to prevent unbearable choices tomorrow.

Clearly we must stop the maddness of spending more than we take in. And higher taxes will cripple the economy. So the only thing to do is cut spending. I applaud Obama for the start but we must encourage him to do more. Going back to the 2007spending levels on domestic items would be a start. Pulling our troops home should also be looked at. Foreign aid should be suspended. The fair tax should be enacted. There are many other ideas to consider but the bottom line is we must make tough choices now to prevent unbearable choices tomorrow.

I agree on higher taxes crippling us right now. Cutting spending is the way to go. Record spending and deficit last year and we have to remember that it was all approved.

Time to turn over some politicians!

With fair tax, are you talking about the flat tax? Are these synonymous? I am not for the flat tax. I haven't studied it and that's my disclaimer.....my knowledge is limited, but it seems like it would curtail consumer spending, which we can't afford more of right now. Just my opinion.

When my expenditures became higher than my income, guess what I did? Cut back. I think this is the solution.

Bring troops home definitely. Cutting foreign aid is probably not a good idea right now. In the big picture, that is.

I shudder to think about the inflation we are going to see! It's not going to be pretty!

I agree on higher taxes crippling us right now. Cutting spending is the way to go. Record spending and deficit last year and we have to remember that it was all approved.

Time to turn over some politicians!

With fair tax, are you talking about the flat tax? Are these synonymous? I am not for the flat tax. I haven't studied it and that's my disclaimer.....my knowledge is limited, but it seems like it would curtail consumer spending, which we can't afford more of right now. Just my opinion.

When my expenditures became higher than my income, guess what I did? Cut back. I think this is the solution.

Bring troops home definitely. Cutting foreign aid is probably not a good idea right now. In the big picture, that is.

I shudder to think about the inflation we are going to see! It's not going to be pretty!

Flat tax is a set rate for everyone with very limited or no deductions. The fair tax is basically a sales tax. Either is better than what we have now.

As to foreign aid, why should we borrow money to give it to someone else? If we were running a surplus I would not have a prolem but it seems crazy to me to borrow the money to give away.

We need more men and women like Judd Gregg in Congress!!

I find it frustrating that Obama now wants to take the paid back Tarp money and use it for more spending programs - i.e. the jobs bill - aka stimulus 2. By law that paid back money should be used to pay down our debt. The Obama administration is now going to try to change the law so that they can spend the repaid Tarp money instead of using it to pay down the debt.

The path that we are headed down is unsustainable - the madness has got to end!!!

A 1040EZ is basically a flat tax offering a standard deduction, right....this is for those with little to no deductions? Again, my knowledge is limited and it's been a long time since I have been able to file an EZ form. The fair tax with 24-28% sales tax will curtail consumer spending. This is just my opinion.

Foreign aid is tricky. We shouldn't borrow to give. But, we should give. I am considering more long term effects of this as opposed to short term. Cutting back, but still giving should be balanced.

The TARP money should be used to pay down the deficit and I think the President would gain more supprt if he did shift his agenda into paying down the deficit. If they leave us alone, we will through free enterprise pull out of this and stimulate the economy.

Democrats in Congress balk at Obama's debt outlook.

Democrats in Congress balk at Obama's debt outlook | McClatchy

Idlewind, I learned a little bit about the fair tax today. Evidently, while the sales tax will increase and be fair for all, the concept is to consider the embedded tax, which in theory would reduce the tax. I could be on board with this.

I'd have to dig a little deeper to see what consumer expenditures are each year as well as break it down by demographic. However, first I'd to see Obama balance the Budget if that's even an option these days.

Spend more. Tax more. Borrow more. Sounds like the Three Stooges School of Economics.

I've actually become quite interested in this. In theory, if there is no corporate tax, this will spur healthy competition and we will see prices drop a bit, such that when we buy and pay the 23% sales tax (currently proposed figure), we will only feel a slight increase; however, no we would be paying no income tax, which increases our disposable income.

How much does it take each year to operate the IRS? Take that savings and reduce the deficit. The only issue I see is that this will be sluggish for the first two years and we have to find jobs those at the Dept. of Rev. who are suddenly out of work.

I think our sales tax now is 8.5% and we are looking to increase that 1%. Many urban counties in the US are well over 10%.

Clearly we must stop the maddness of spending more than we take in. And higher taxes will cripple the economy. So the only thing to do is cut spending. I applaud Obama for the start but we must encourage him to do more. Going back to the 2007spending levels on domestic items would be a start. Pulling our troops home should also be looked at. Foreign aid should be suspended. The fair tax should be enacted. There are many other ideas to consider but the bottom line is we must make tough choices now to prevent unbearable choices tomorrow.

You touched on something that I keep thinking about. What if we actually did bring all of our troops home? Or even half of them. What would they do other than add to an already huge unemployment number. Let me put it another way.
Is it possible we are fighting wars because wars have historically been good for the American budget? Building tanks and planes and guns...
It is a serious question when discussing the budget.
There are about 100,000 jobs available in the US because those troops are in foriegn countries.

You touched on something that I keep thinking about. What if we actually did bring all of our troops home? Or even half of them. What would they do other than add to an already huge unemployment number. Let me put it another way.
Is it possible we are fighting wars because wars have historically been good for the American budget? Building tanks and planes and guns...
It is a serious question when discussing the budget.
There are about 100,000 jobs available in the US because those troops are in foriegn countries.

If these troops were stationed in the US we would not incurr the expense to deploy them overseas and our local communities would reap the benefits of more troops stationed in them. Sort of BRAC on steriods.

to worry about our debt in the middle of economic catastrophe is to ignore the problem at hand. to criticize the current administration as if they were operating in a vacuum ignores the inertia of everything causing our predicament. inaction in the name of fiscal responsibility is a path only available to the the upper class, and for a limited time. we are going to have to creatively incentivize banks to help small businesses that have recently shown profit but cannot currently borrow. until this happens, nothing changes. wall street has been made whole, the speculation cycle is running again, and americans are going without.

No Job Growth for Small Business Spurs Recovery Doubt (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
By Michael McKee

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Small businesses are becoming the Achilles heel of the U.S. recovery by limiting growth and job creation.

Companies with fewer than 500 employees, such as Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and Sonic Corp., helped lead the economy out of the four recessions since 1980. This time, they continue to cut capital spending and dismiss workers, eliminating 3,000 jobs in January, according to Roseland, New Jersey-based Automatic Data Processing Inc., the world?s largest payroll processor.

Improvement in the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7 in January from 10 percent in December, may stall later this year if these firms aren?t hiring, and growth likely won?t meet the median 2.7 percent annual rate forecast for 2010 by 67 economists in a Jan. 14 Bloomberg News survey.

small businesses have no reason to borrow even if they could, they have no customers.

You can replace "consumer" in the equation with "government", but that's just forced consumer spending through tax and spend. You can borrow all the money government spends from china, but that's just screwing future generations who have to pay the debt and interest - a totally selfish act imho. None of these "solutions" are, well, solutions.. you're just kicking the can down the road.

Who's going to be the first to actually volunteer to either pay more or get less and ACTUALLY solve the problem?

My generation has pretty much written off getting anything FROM Social Security - even though we continue to pay into it.

Also thought someone's suggestion that we stop borrowing money just to give it out again as foreign aid was a good one.

Would also love to see some of our elected representatives cut, refuse, or donate some of their benefits/salary to pay off the debt. Though I still think taxing their campaign contributions is a better (and more equitable) way to go.

George Will's column this week contains a couple of great ideas

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/150187/

Budget cuts: how they would impact the deficit

If you want to be depressed, click on this chart and see how little impact cutting foreign aid, eliminating welfare payments, and expiring all tax cuts would have on the deficit. It's an eye opener to how complicated the problem has become. No pat answers.

If you want to be depressed, click on this chart and see how little impact cutting foreign aid, eliminating welfare payments, and expiring all tax cuts would have on the deficit. It's an eye opener to how complicated the problem has become. No pat answers.

"Simply returning to the bloated budget of George Bush?s final year would require a historically unprecedented cut of over 15% in total government spending. The budget President Obama just submitted would swell the federal workforce to over two million. Trimming it back to where Bush left it would put half a million people out of work. Correcting this ruinous course will be an achievement unlike any the world has ever seen. The world has also never seen anything like the crash that awaits us if we fail."

The Greenroom ? Forum Archive ? The Great Crash

I find the notes interesting in this:

U.S. Foreign Aid Summary

There are other great articles on this, but we give approx. $26B in some form of foreign assistance. Additionally, we give about $300MM privately....that's you and me. I still say cut back on foreign aid, but do not cut the program completely. It would be global political suicide, not to mention Hollywood bashing us even more.

I find the notes interesting in this:

U.S. Foreign Aid Summary

There are other great articles on this, but we give approx. $26B in some form of foreign assistance. Additionally, we give about $300MM privately....that's you and me. I still say cut back on foreign aid, but do not cut the program completely. It would be global political suicide, not to mention Hollywood bashing us even more.

I don't care what Hollywood thinks and I don't care about global politricks

I'm not concerned with Hollywood either, but I do believe maintaining good foreign relations is key. In evaluating how much and to whom we do give, a lot goes to those war torn countries. That could easily be cut. Just a thought.