In 2008 Barack Obama complained that Bush raised the debt $3 trillion to $8.8 trillion, and promised “Pay as you go rules”
http://moveleft.org/obamas_promises/www-barackobama-com_issues_fiscal.pdf
Obama has now borrowed more money than all other presidents combined, increased the debt by almost $10 trillion, and more than doubled the national debt.
And the latest news is he wants to increase spending an additional 7%.
Obama Said to Seek 7% Budget Boost, Setting Up Fight With Congress – Bloomberg Politics
Your biggest problem will be that at the end he will leave you with a worthless dollar.
http://youtu.be/NgSqZKx0mNI
Aren’t you Americans lucky you’ve got those printing presses!
I blame Gutenberg. 😉
“Fiscal Discipline”, something else for the Obama legacy.
That is the published number. I have read that some economists estimate that the real figure is several times this amount. Sorry no proof. Someone may wish to google this claim.
There are all those ‘off budget’ items so the actual debt is certainly much higher. Also there is the state and local debts.
As E.M. Smith noted the highest amount you can skim from the gross domestic product in the USA is 18% MAXIMUM. So why not just slap an 18% – 20% tax rate on everybody with an income over 20K and be done with it. And while you are at it get rid of all the excess red tape strangling small business. Of course that puts all those tax accountants out of business but they can go to work as straight accountants for all the extra small businesses that start up.
Cameron meets Smith, Keynes, and Laffer
It never ceases to amaze me just how many Politicians think that they are Economists. And fail spectacularly in the process….
The basic idea is not all that hard to grasp (at least, not for those folks who bother to think, even just a little…) You get less of something if you tax it. The more you tax it, the greater the decline in the thing taxed. If that tax is applied to, say, productivity, you get less productivity. If it is applied to incomes, you get less income….
The goal of the taxing authority is to find that level of tax rate that yields the most total tax revenue….
For the USA we know that no matter what tax rate is set, the maximum Federal Revenue is about 18%. (We know this from all the screwing around that the Congress has done to the Federal Income Tax rates. As high as 90% in some eras – with a significant depression of economic activity – and much lower in other times. Reagan cut tax rates to below 40% and revenue rose dramatically as economic activity improved.)
Perhaps we can get Mr. Cameron and Governor Jerry Brown to share a Basic Econ class…
Dear Progressive (taxation) Politicians: Just because you don’t LIKE it, that does not let you CHANGE it.
The laws of economics are as immutable as the laws of nature.
“Reality just is. -E.M.Smith”.
Please learn that. I’m really tired of seeing you all, one at a time, try the same error, over and over, and yet never learning.
……No amount of hiding, wiggling, lying about what it is, or redefining things changes the results. Folks notice that working more gets them less, so they stop. Folks find other ways that are not taxed to make the marginal money. They move investments to other places. Sometimes they move themselves….
REVENUE has a max amount and that is very nearly 18% of the GDP. All the “gimmicks” do is to move exactly from whom and how it is collected. Obama has stated he wants ‘only’ 25% of GDP as the Federal Goal. He simply can not get it PERIOD FULL STOP.
The way to get more REVENUE is to grow GDP, then you get 18% of a larger total. That’s why Reagan and Kennedy both cut tax rates and got more total revenue… Economics does not care what party you belong to, nor what your “motive” is. It doesn’t care if you are an “Evil Republican” or a “Nice Democrat”. It works the same for all comers and regardless of motivation…..
And yes E.M. does know economics — about
Hell Gail from what I have seen the vast majority of school trained economists “fail spectacularly in the process”. In fact as far as I’m concerned Economics is not a viable science really and though useful as a learning tool for certain other course of study it is at the higher levels, more like astrology than anything else. I mean after all what can one think when a fellow like Krugman get’s Nobel Prize for it?
I agree, except astrology seems more scientific than economics.
ASTROLOGERS ARE NOT IN POSITION OF POWER, AND THEY ARE SURELY NOT THE SAME AS LIARS IN GOVERNMENT WORKING EVERYWAY THEY CAN WITH THE ECONOMISTS, WHO ARE IN PART LIARS ALONG WITH THEM. YOU DO NOT HAVE ONE DAMNED FINANCIAL PERSON ON THE RADIO OR IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA, WHO IS BEING HONEST TO TELL US WHAT IN THE HELL IS HAPPEING TO THE DOLLAR. THE HOLY BIBLE IS THE ONLY SOURCE YOU CAN REALLY TRUST IN PROPHECY.
E.M. Smith (ChiefIO) has the training but thinks Keynes was full of bull feces.
These are the consequences of an insane effort on 24 OCT 1945 to “save the world from nuclear annihilation” by prohibiting public information on the source of energy that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki – NEUTRON REPULSION [1].
Falsehoods replaced Facts in the very foundation of the Standard Nuclear Model and the Standard Solar Model after WWII:
a.) Neutron attraction rather than neutron repulsion
b.) Stars consumed rather than stars generated hydrogen
Perhaps unintended consequences of the seemingly noble international undertaking were:
1. A tyrannical, one-world government replaced all the national governments that mankind had generated earlier;
2. Society was isolated from the real Creator, Destroyer and Sustainer of every atom, life and world in the solar system [1]; and
3. Mental illness, addictions and social insanity increased as the public lost faith in government words and deeds (e.g., recent AGW propaganda from the UN’s IPCC)
. . . after the UN was established on 24 OCT 1945.
1. “Solar energy,” Advances in Astronomy (submitted for on-line review, 6 Jan 2015)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10640850/Solar_Energy_For_Review.pdf
The seventy-year path from 1945 to 2015 was not moved uniformly toward totalitarianism. Theses are a few major turning points:
1957: The USSR launched Sputnik and prepared to take totalitarian control of planet Earth.
1960: Thanks perhaps to Joseph Kennedy’s political influence and wealth, his son – JFK – became President instead of Nixon and started the Apollo program to prevent Russian domination of the world.
1963: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
1971: Henry Kissinger secretly flew to China to restart international peace agreements by agreeing to end Kennedy’s Apollo Program.
1972: At the 3rd Lunar Science Conference we were told the Apollo program was ending now so Nixon, Brezhnev and the leader of China could circle the Earth in a spacecraft and announce an international peace agreement.
2015: The United States no longer competes with Russia for control of space but relies on Russia for travel to the International Space Station.
Great, another milestone for Skeeter, and another millstone for us.
IT IS HAPPENING ALL OVER THE GLOBE, THEY ALL HAVE AN AGENDA TO DESTROY US:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/world-just-happened-switzerland
Don’t like American football? Well that’s fine. But if your a conservative you gotta love what this legendary college football coach has to say. So take a couple minutes and read the wisdom from Lou Holtz on what is happening to America. http://rightturnforever.com/2014/09/lou-holtz-nails-it/
I abhor professional sports. However, I admire men like Lou Holtz. Thanks for the link!
Keep on truckin’!
When the regressive left/Obama supporters attempt to flout low unemployment, increased GDP, record levels of stock market indices etc…etc… Remind them that it only cost $9 Trillion dollars to do what the markets would’ve done on their own for free.
It is NOT low unemployment it is Clinton’s shell game that was used to hide the export of American jobs via the World Trade Organization.
At one time ~ ten years ago I had a World Trade Organization report (2005?) that point blank said the USA was going to lose millions of jobs due to the WTO ‘Free Trade Agreement’ but that was just fine and dandy (for the international Corporations).
Explanation of the shell game by John Williams
You should watch the BBC programme “The Super Rich and Us”.
It shows how this was all designed in the 70s and 80s.
You are off a bit in timing. It goes all the way back to the American and French Revolution, Classic Liberalism and the measures the Elite took to regain control of the peons who had now become the middle class. Unless of course you were talking of 1770s, 1780s….
If I remember correctly even when the democrats had control of both houses they did not pass Obama’s proposed budgets and at least once it did not get a single vote from either side of the isle. So what they heck do they think is going to happen now?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I recall during the last year of G W Bush’s tenure in office he increased the debt by 700 billion to head off a potential melt down of the financial.markets. The melt down was a product of the Democratic caused housing crisis. It was Bush’s idea to “lend” the money out to needing financial institutions until they were on their feet, at which time they would pay back what was owed. Bush had loaned out less than half of the money approved when Obama took office. Obama then “gave” away the remaining money and when any money was repaid, he gave that away as well. Bush got tagged with the portion of the debt that Obama spent.
Yes it goes back to Clinton’s Five new Banking Laws.
BANKING LAWS:
The McFadden Act of 1927 or Amendment to the National Banking Laws and the Federal Reserve Act (P.L. 69-639, 44 STAT. 1224): Prohibited interstate banking.
Law: Negating above:
Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-328, 108 STAT. 2338).
Permits bank holding companies to acquire banks in any state one year Beginning June 1, 1997, allows interstate mergers.
The Glass-Steagall Act or Banking Act of 1933 (P.L. 73-66, 48 STAT. 162): Separated commercial banking from investment banking, establishing them as separate lines of commerce.
Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (P.L. 84-511, 70 STAT. 133): Prohibited bank holding companies headquartered in one state from acquiring a bank in another state.
Law: Negating both of the above laws:
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-102, 113 STAT 1338)
Repeals last vestiges of the Glass Steagall Act of 1933. Modifies portions of the Bank Holding Company Act to allow affiliations between banks and insurance underwriters. Law creates a new financial holding company authorized to engage in: underwriting and selling insurance and securities, conducting both commercial and merchant banking, investing in and developing real estate and other “complimentary activities.”
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-242, 105 STAT. 2236).
Also known as FDICIA. FDICIA [b]greatly increased the powers and authority of the FDIC. Major provisions recapitalized the Bank Insurance Fund and [b]allowed the FDIC to strengthen the fund by borrowing from the Treasury.
Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-550, 106 STAT. 3672).
RTC Completion Act[/b] (P.L. 103-204, 107 STAT. 2369):
implement provisions designed to improve the agency’s record in providing business opportunities to minorities and women.. Expands the existing affordable housing programs of the RTC and the FDIC by broadening the potential affordable housing stock of the two agencies.
Increases the statute of limitations on RTC civil lawsuits. In cases in which the statute of limitations has expired, claims can be revived for fraud and intentional misconduct resulting in unjust enrichment or substantial loss to the thrift.
https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/important/index.html
If by now you have figured out I HATE Slick Willy you would be correct.
Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-550, 106 STAT. 3672).
RTC Completion Act[/b] (P.L. 103-204, 107 STAT. 2369):
implement provisions designed to improve the agency’s record in providing business opportunities to minorities and women.. Expands the existing affordable housing programs of the RTC and the FDIC by broadening the potential affordable housing stock of the two agencies.
Increases the statute of limitations on RTC civil lawsuits. In cases in which the statute of limitations has expired, claims can be revived for fraud and intentional misconduct resulting in unjust enrichment or substantial loss to the thrift.
THOSE two were the real killers. And actually the bill that originally got the housing finance scam rolling started under Carter. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA, P.L. 95-128, 91 Stat. 1147, title VIII of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1977, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq.)
That’s how I remember it. Carter approved the CRA but this legislation was ignored under Reagan and GHW Bush. Bill Clinton ordered Janet Reno to implement the regulation that Carter had enacted. When GW Bush tried to stop the CRA (made 18 attempts to stop this financial disaster of a program). It was Barney Frank and the Democrats who would not let any change to the CRA get out of committee.
I tried to post this earlier and it got kicked into neverneverland by WordUnimpressed.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The banks did not care if they had to lend to poor credit risks, The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 allowed unregulated credit default swaps to cover the mortgage. With multiple policies a bank could earn $500,000 or more on a $100,000 mortgage AND get the property too. All for a couple of keystrokes that created the fairy dust backed loan.
The federal government poured tax payer money into AIG who then paid off the credit default swaps. That was the ‘bank bailout’
Here are the crucial moves:
1.CDSs, credit default swaps were exempted from regulation in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in the year 2000 ( sponsored by Phil Gramm)
2.Hank Paulson was the Treasury secretary who engineered the AIG bailout. He worked for Goldman Sachs.
3. If a bank had the credit default swap insurance policies on a mortgage, especially if they had more than one, it was to their advantage to force foreclosure.
4. Obama mortgage program sets up homeowners for defaulting on their mortgage by reducing payments up front before qualification. The bank then stalled making a decision for a year by asking for different paperwork. They then handing homeowners a staggering bill, due in one month when they do not qualify. If the homeowners could meet the bill the banks then refused to name an actual amount due. (First hand experience. Took 6 months and a lawyer to nail bank down.)
A link I found this morning state only about 2% of the millions of homeowners who fell for the Obama mortgage program trap actually got a modified mortgage!
]
In other words there maybe more than one CDS on a mortgage and therefore it is much more profitable to collect the multiple payoffs than to refinance the mortgage.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/world-just-happened-switzerland
The other link I could not find:
Obama’s Mortgage Modification Program A Colossal Flop
futeret:
Cash No Longer Reigns Supreme – Over half (53%) of American Adults now say they’ve gone an entire week without paying for anything with cash or coins,
Making “Cents” of Credit Card Processing Fees
Of course all of the ‘money’ involved is created on the spot by the banks. In my small business we insist on cash and very reluctantly will take checks although that has become increasingly chancy.
The goal of course is to do away with cash so the banksters get their slice of your wealth and the Government gets theirs.
More Americans Work in the Underground Economy
To give you an idea of how much the shadow economy has grown there is this older article: America’s ‘shadow economy’ is bigger than you think – and growing
“The informal, or ‘shadow,’ economy is as big as $1 trillion. And in poor economic times, it’s growing.” November 12, 2009 (wwwDOT)csmonitor.com/Business/2009/1112/americas-shadow-economy-is-bigger-than-you-think-and-growing
All spending bills originate the the House of Representatives and the Republicans have controlled the House for about the last 20 years, except the two years that San Fran Nan and the other fascists took control and gave us the Unaffordable Health Care Act.
THEY MAY DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, BUT EVERYONE KEEP IN MIND:
http://lissakr11humane.com/2015/01/16/fear-not/
No actually not all spending bills “originate” in the HR though the Constitution in it’s Origination Clause states that “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.”
Notice that the Constitution says “raising revenue” and not “appropriations” (spending).
There are various legislative tricks for getting around even that clause so plenty of spending (appropriations) bills have originated in the Senate and especially when one part controls both houses though of course in order to get passed the HR must concur.
That’s how we got stuck with Obamacare. The original “bill” was a shell in the House and the only thing remaining was the title. The Senate filled it in and then they pulled that “reconciliation” BS and we’re stuck with an ongoing disaster that would have been stopped had our government followed the law as written.