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Iceland's not doing all that poorly. Better than the rest of the EU. So we're pretty much in agreement on less regulation being a good thing, I guess?
Yes, less regulation is good but you need to be careful how you go about doing it. There were Senators and other academics that were vocal about the impending crisis (Dr. Ron Paul was one along with Brooksley Born), yet, they were all ignored (as the government conveniently does in regards to other events such as 9/11)
One think you need to be aware of is all those wall street bail out packages were passed during the Bush administration, two full months before Obama took office. Other then the snowballing national debt, Spending under Obama has been pretty tame.
One think you need to be aware of is all those wall street bail out packages were passed during the Bush administration, two full months before Obama took office. Other then the snowballing national debt, Spending under Obama has been pretty tame.
So you don't count the trillion for the stimulus, the increasing size of the federal bureaucracy, the push for greater food stamps, student loans, medicaid, and exemptions to welfare work requirements, expansion in Afghanistan, green energy programs, etc.?
It seems I was seeing 500 billion annual deficits under Bush 2, who wreaked havoc on the economy with two unfunded wars. Then when Obama entered office he got us out of Iraq yet I started seeing 1 trillion annual deficits. So it seems we can look forward to the national debt growing by roughly a trillion a year for the next 4 years, assuming he gets reelected---that is, assuming all stays the same, about 20 trillion by the time he leaves office. How did the deficit double under his tenure? And can the country survive with a 20 trillion dollar debt?
well, when you lose 800,000 jobs each month, your tax revenues start to decrease. then, when those people who lost their jobs start collecting unemployment, food stamps, and using medicaid, your expenditures start to increase. When you bail out companies that should have failed, but the consequencues of them failing would be deep...you expenditures increase as well.
Then, every year, we're adding more interest expense to our annual outlays.
The bigger question to me is, if Bush didn't pass the tax cuts, medicare part D, and start 2 unfunded wars...what would our national debt have been at in 2008 when the economy collapsed? We might have been more able to deal with it, if we maybe kept that surplus going during the good times...but...we'll never know.
So you don't count the trillion for the stimulus, the increasing size of the federal bureaucracy, the push for greater food stamps, student loans, medicaid, and exemptions to welfare work requirements, expansion in Afghanistan, green energy programs, etc.?
The stimulus was $789B, and not all of it was spent.
How was federal bureaucracy increased?
Food stamp program hasn't changed, more people qualify for it because of many months of losing 800,000 jobs after Bush's policies had years to have an impact.
Student loans are less costly to the government now, because they eliminated a middle man from the process.
Exemptions for welfare aren't even in effect yet, but when they do go in to effect, it was to appease the request of Republican Governors and some Democrat Governors who have ideas on how to spend the money more wiseley.
Afghanistan Expanded as Iraq shrunk, and Obama has cut future increases (he hasn't cut, on net though) to the defense budget based on feedback from the Pentagon.
Green Energy Programs was part of the stimulus, $90B was earmarked for it, and we have 770,000 homes nationwide that are more energy efficient because of it, the U.S. has doubled it's production of renewable energy because of it, and we have cars that get 100 MPGe or more now, in part, because of it.
The stimulus was $789B, and not all of it was spent.
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Many ways to do the accounting but some are higher...
'What did the CBO find? As you can see from the table below, the true 10 year cost of the stimulus bill $2.527 trillion in in spending with another $744 billion cost in debt servicing. Total bill for the Generational Theft Act: $3.27 trillion.'
The other choice was unfunded tax cuts which would have also increased the deficit with no guarantee the money would have been spent by either corporations or individuals, who have shown a stubborn propensity to save and pay down debt, which is not conducive to stimulating a weak economy. Additionally tax cuts can take months or years to wend their way through the economy.
Deficit spending is not something anyone should relish. Still, the cost of doing nothing cannot be measured.
So you don't count the trillion for the stimulus, the increasing size of the federal bureaucracy, the push for greater food stamps, student loans, medicaid, and exemptions to welfare work requirements, expansion in Afghanistan, green energy programs, etc.?
Get your facts straight. Here is some reading Material for you.
No, at some point the US Govt is going to default on some of its obligations. We will be Greece on a much bigger scale.
And just listen to the rationalizations when we default! Can't pay China? Hey! China! If we didn't come to your rescue in WWII, you'd still be under Japanese Occupation! We don't owe you nothing!
The European bondholders? Well, well, well! If it wasn't for us you'd all be speaking Russian or German!
We owe you nothing!
It was Bush who got the Deficit rolling and it continues to roll under Obama! Jack Kemp once told Alan Greenspan, during the Bush years: The Democrats have had their spending parties over the years, now it's our turn!
Imagine! If Bush, who never vetoed any spending bill, what the deficit would be like today, if we had elected him to a 3rd term!
It seems I was seeing 500 billion annual deficits under Bush 2, who wreaked havoc on the economy with two unfunded wars. Then when Obama entered office he got us out of Iraq yet I started seeing 1 trillion annual deficits. So it seems we can look forward to the national debt growing by roughly a trillion a year for the next 4 years, assuming he gets reelected---that is, assuming all stays the same, about 20 trillion by the time he leaves office. How did the deficit double under his tenure? And can the country survive with a 20 trillion dollar debt?
The time to start worrying about huge increases in the national debt was during the Bush Administration, when massive tax cuts combined with runaway military spending critically undermined the US economy. Under the 1st 4 years of GW Bush, the deficit increased from 144.5 billion to 605 billion, a quadrupling, not just a doubling of it, as the OP attributes to Obama. By the time he left office, it was at 962 billion.
The Bush admin's own Economic Advisement Council opposed the Bush tax cuts, which, together with increased spending to cover the Iraq war, caused the deficit to spiral out of control.
10 Nobel laureates sent a statement to Bush saying ... "these tax cuts will worsen the long-term budge outlook...will redue the capacity of government to finance Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as investment in schools, health, infrastructure and basic research...and generate further inequalities in after tax income." G.W. Bush: author of America's economic demise.
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