National debt hits $16T; GOP critical

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the national debt has topped $16 trillion, the result of chronic government deficits that have poured more than $50,000 worth of red ink onto federal ledgers for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The news was greeted with a round of press releases from Barack Obama's GOP rivals, who used the grim-but-expected news to criticize the president for the government's fiscal performance over his 3 1/2 years in office. Obama has presided over four straight years of trillion dollar-plus deficits after inheriting a weak economy from his predecessor, George W. Bush.

"We can no longer push off the tough decisions until tomorrow," said No. 2 House Republican Eric Cantor, R-Va. "It's time to address the serious fiscal challenges we face and stop spending money we don't have." Last summer, Cantor dropped out of a set of budget talks hosted by Vice President Joe Biden, citing the insistence of the White House on tax increases to help close deficits that require the government to borrow 33 cents of every dollar it spends.

The spiraling debt means that lawmakers and the eventual winner of the White House in November will have to pass a law early next year to raise the government's borrowing cap from the current ceiling of $16.39 trillion. Passing such legislation last year proved enormously difficult and the nation's credit rating suffered.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120904/DA137MFG1.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. Debt hits $16T, GOP says give Mitt Romney a big tax break

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. ...

http://zfacts.com/p/1195.html

[high density]

3. Time for more tax cuts and wars.

I see since Reagan these things have helped the deficit immensely.

[bhikkhu]

12. Regulated Trade is economic activity

which is generally good if the deals are between equals, more or less, and carefully written. And economic activity is generally beneficial if there are decent tax policies.

[KansDem]

14. It's amazing. It grew the most under GOP presidents...

The "Party of Fiscal Responsibility."

[jmowreader]

4. Cantor and the GOP are masters at pushing off the "tough decisions"

For them, cutting the social safety net is an easy decision: no one who donates to a GOP candidate (and most of the people who donate to Democrats) are dependent on it, and the "I Got Mine" mentality dominates.

The first "tough decision" that must be made is the one to raise taxes. And it doesn't even have to be all that painful.

According to the IRS, 60.5 million tax returns were filed for tax year 2011. To raise $1 billion in new tax revenues, each of those 60.5 million taxpayers (I assume this is a combination of individual and corporate filing) must pony up an extra $16.52.

The Wall Street Journal informs us we have 3.1 million millionaires; hit them up for an extra $1000 per year and another $3.1 billion of the deficit just goes away.

I can hear the Right: "if you give money to the government, they just spend it!" The 20 years of Republican malfeasance we endured between 1981 and 2009 goes to show that if you don't give money to the government when a Republican is in office they spend it anyway. And if they're going to spend it ANYWAY, why not raise it in taxes first?

The second "tough decision" is the one to cut defense spending. Start with missile defense and go from there.

Cuts are going to have to be made...but cuts-only will not get them where they need to go.

[wordpix]

5. how about taxing people like Tax Dodge Mitt & closing the loopholes so they HAVE to pay

No matter where they want to park their money

[woofwoof01]

6. six, two threes or half a dozen

hmm,
its a bit strange to see people quote figures here:

if the dollar has been losing over 50% per generation for over 50 consecutive years.
What does this make the figures quoted above?

I'd expect somewhere between: whatever you hope they are, and whatever you fear they are.

We are playing a dud hand at poker and I hate the fact that pretending we're not has become a part of the American psyche.

Frankly, there is absolutely zero chance of the debt ever being repaid whatever the number is.. the question should be:
Who do we owe it to and how/what plans can we make to make them happy ( or.. my favourite: fuck them and be like Iceland / Argentina

[bhikkhu]

11. Who we owe it to:

Fuck'em is easy to say, but might cause some problems in practice. 30% or so is foreign governments, but the rest is us; social security, pension funds, private investment, local and state government holdings, etc.

[cstanleytech]

8. Yet if this was President Bush their tune would be that the debt doesnt matter. nt

[VPStoltz]

9. And who's resposible...? Congressional Republicans!!!!!

It's the House, run by Republicons that makes the budget and it's both Houses that pass expenditures.
The President proposes but Congress disposes.
If they don't like it - then stop spending.

[bhikkhu]

10. The Bush tax cuts, two wars, and spiraling health care costs

...all of which Obama has taken up or has a solid schedule to fix; while Romney still has no plan at all. I think Romney's main problem is that to actually address the debt issue at all he would have to advocate for the president's approaches!

[oldsarge54]

13. GOP Complains

Yet all they can cut is NPR and PP, really big ticket items. Oh, yes, welfare. They are pretty good at demonizing those agencies/groups as well. Tell me, what have the Republicans done besides defend big ticket items and refuse to increase taxes? Oh yeah, declare pizza a vegetable, wait a minute, that was a joint bi-partisan action.