Want to know our TRUE financial condition as a Nation?

[jschurchin]

Think about this. If we would cut Federal spending to $0 a year, it would take almost 5 YEARS for us to pay off our debt.

No SS, No Medicare, No Military, No Congress, No National Parks, no FUCKING SPENDING what so ever. And it would STILL TAKE 5 FUCKING YEARS!!!!

And the idiots in D.C. are arguing about a couple Billion dollars. Three words.

WE ARE FUCKED

[dkf]

1. Yep. I wish we could ride off the earnings of the top 1% but ironically that would

Mean they would be earning way more than they do. Funny how that works.

[mmonk]

2. More more than likely.

The lack of spending would contract the economy more (zero would be crushing). Much less economic activity that could be taxed.

[PSPS]

3. Nobody proposes paying of the national debt in a short period.

The annual budget deficit, on the other hand, could be dealt with quite handily with pre-Reagan tax rates.

[earthside]

5. That's true ...

... but the OP shows how ridiculous it is to take military spending and tax hikes off the table in dealing with the debt crisis.

So, America is broken because the Teabaggers are monkey-wrenching any serious efforts to deal with the federal debt.

[Southerner]

7. Really?

Do you have a link to an analysis that proves that is correct?

[jschurchin]

8. I tend to disagree with this

The annual budget deficit, on the other hand, could be dealt with quite handily with pre-Reagan tax rates.

And the reason being the Tax code has changed significantly since then. We would have to return the code to late 70's rate and deduction schedules to make your statement true.

[unblock]

13. you're drawing a distinction between "pre-reagan" and "late 70's"?

i'm not clear on your point.

[Southerner]

9. Double Post

...

[notesdev]

10. Nobody actually proposes paying off the national debt at all

I have yet to hear a credible plan - or any plan, really - under which the US can free itself of its debt.

There is no intention to do so and a lot of influential folks would find it highly undesirable. And of course those folks contribute more to your representatives than you do, and thus get their ear more than you do.

Our national debt will not be paid off honestly; it simply can't be. We cannot grow enough to grow out of this debt, we'd need to grow at something like a 10% rate every year for 30 years.

There's only two ways this can resolve itself - one, an outright default on the debt; or two, an effective partial default achieved through major monetary devaluation. Personally I prefer the former, as I find the national debt to be odious (as per the legal doctrine of odious debt).

[WatsonT]

4. Not necessarily

you're forgetting inflation.

In a few years our debt will be numerically larger but possibly worth less in buying power.

We can always print our way out of this. It will be a disaster on so many levels, but we can pay off our debt.

[jschurchin]

6. No I'm not forgetting inflation.

And you are right about printing our way out of debt. The Germans tried it after WW1, and we all know how that turned out.

http://ingrimayne.com/econ/EconomicCatastrophe/HyperInflation.html

[ladjf]

11. "We are fucked" until the rich can be forced to pay their reasonable

and fair share of taxes and we shut down those wars and most military bases.

[Initech]

12. Just end those fucking tax cuts for the wealthy. Problem solved.