32 DAYS SINCE DEFICITS DECLARED UNSUSTAINABLE

[RDANGELO]

On March 2nd, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan declared that the current deficits were unsustainable. He also stated that the cost of making ****'s tax cuts permanent would add 1,8 trillion dollars to the federal debt. To this date , **** and the republican congress have proposed nothing substantial to reduce the deficits.
Currently , the cost of the operations in Iraq are not being included in the budget. The cost of this is estimated at 207 Bill by the end of this fiscal year. Also off the budget is the cost of transition for ****'s Social Security privatization plan ,which is estimated at 104.5 bill for the first year and 2.2 trill over the decade.


www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/business/02cnd-deficit.html?...

[MikeNY]

1. Response

Social Security.. that lockbox is looking real good right about now. Sorry Gore-y but now we're too poor-y

Taxes... thanks for the rebate George, now someones gonna have to raise'em sooner or later

War... in 50 years we'll still have troops stationed in Iraq. Real cost is already in the trillions, you just don't know it yet

Deficit...we've got a whole nation linked to a mastercard with no credit limit. uhh oh, why is the minimum payment so high?

I have 3 words for everyone here.. We are screwed

Thanks George!

[ladjf]

7. That's about it in a nutshell. Thanks.

[lonestarnot]

14. Doomed doomed doomed I tell ya doomed! n/t

[adwon]

2. Response

It's as much Greenspan's fault as W's. After all, it wasn't W who monetized the damn debt.

[Maraya1969]

3. Wait a minute..

From what I have read the Bush tax cut is the reason we are in a trillion dollar debt instead of a billion dollar one. What has Greenspan got to do with this?

[adwon]

4. Easy money

Greenspan lowered the cost of the deficit by keeping interest rates abnormally low. He let W have a double bonus: tax cuts and a lax money supply, both of which sustained consumption. Greenspan could have refused to cut rates as he did, which might have been a wiser course, in order to make the real cost of the deficit apparent.

[Toots]

9. The US Debt is over seven trillion dollars

I am not very sure how many here know the difference between debt and deficit and if they do know the difference they sure don't know much about our debt servicing expense. Before Bush* is out of office we will be paying almost a trillion dollars a year in interest on our debt. That is much more than our current deficit and ten times what we spend on any social programs. Just think if we were out of debt how much good we could do for the US and the entire world. Clinton had us headed in that direction but when did the Republicans ever want to do good for the people. They want to do good for their corporate cronies and have excelled at that..

[Maraya1969]

12. Is the deficit the interest est that we are paying on the debt?

[Toots]

18. No the deficit is the amount we overspend every year

Every year we see whether we spend more than we bring in and if we spend more it is called a deficit. The deficit is added to the National Debt which is made up of deficits from previous years. This year we are predicited to run a deficit of over five hundred billion dollars and that figure does not include War costs, which equal over a hundred billion just by themselves. At a half trillion a year deficit you can see how our debt is skyrocketing. It is now well over seven trillion dollars of which we pay interest on. The last couple of years Clinton was in office we ran a surplus and instead of adding to our national debt we were able to start paying the debt off. Things were so positive that they actually shut down the Debt clock. It is up and going again and quite scary. We are goiung into debt at over two billion dollars a day. That is two thousand million dollars a day. Just think what good could be done with that money..

[NVMojo]

16. ...and federal bankruptcy is out of the question....

we are so f*cked!!!

[paula777]

20. Why is federal bankruptcy out of the question?

I thought the federal governement could claim bankruptcy at which time they would be forced to sell the trillion dollars worth of real estate they hold at an auction (so the rich could buy it all up and own EVERYTHING) Is this not correct?

[indepat]

10. Greenspan, the chief enabler of the fiscal and tax debacle and he knew

better.

[Tsiyu]

5. could this be why my tax refund

will not be deposited until MAY 3rd? When every other year, two weeks was the max it took? ( That was two weeks ago). Now, I'm told by the automated system that it will be over six weeks time. Guess they have to wait for some inflow on April 15th since * busted the treasury?

Anyone else facing long refund delays?

[fasttense]

6. No delay in my refund.

But we did ours in February and got our refund about the middle of the month.

[B Calm]

8. I too blame Greenspan. If that idiot didn't raise % rates

during Clinton's last year in office, we would be on Al Gore's second term.

[mmonk]

11. No need to worry,

they make their own "reality".

[clem_c_rock]

13. I'm 36 and I'm 100% thankful I don't have children now

Good lord - I freaking scared shitless by this stuff.

I keep having visions of me living out of my car 2 years from now.

[lonestarnot]

15. Better buy a tent...if you're making payments. n/t

[enid602]

17. debt

$7 trillion is approximately $24K for each US citizen.

[Selatius]

19. Bush is hitting the unborn with a 24,000 birth tax