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US hits debt limit on March 16!
serf
Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
And The Federal Reserve hasn't even raise the interest rates yet!
Of course why pay the bills when you can control the amount you can loan and still control the interest rate. Only the buyers of such financial instruments could cause a problem but then there's always a lender of the last resort to save the day you say!
Isn't the debt ceiling already programed to float now?
serf
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102459024
In a Friday morning letter to House Speaker John Boehner and other House and Senate leaders, Lew said that his office will be forced to suspend the issuance of State and Local Government Series securities on Mar. 13 unless the debt limit is raised.
Of course the Republicans are adding debt to the budget too!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/affordable-care-act_n_6431102.html
Of course why pay the bills when you can control the amount you can loan and still control the interest rate. Only the buyers of such financial instruments could cause a problem but then there's always a lender of the last resort to save the day you say!
Isn't the debt ceiling already programed to float now?
serf
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102459024
In a Friday morning letter to House Speaker John Boehner and other House and Senate leaders, Lew said that his office will be forced to suspend the issuance of State and Local Government Series securities on Mar. 13 unless the debt limit is raised.
Of course the Republicans are adding debt to the budget too!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/affordable-care-act_n_6431102.html
Comments
Anybody out there think otherwise?.
I for one realize many are concerned over our tremendous debt, however the powers to be don't share our views.
It should be abolished.
The debt limit is a political slight of hand left over from WW1. It does not limit debt or spending. It limits the paying of debts taken on already.
It should be abolished.
It should not be abolished, it should be respected.
Federal revenue is projected to be $ 3.3 Trillion for FY 2015.
We first spent more than this in FY 2009.
To limit spending to current receipts would mean cutting $ 400 billion from projected spending for FY 2015. This is less than 10%.
Respect the limit. Across the board 10% cut in Federal outlays. Tough medicine for a few years, but we would then grow the budget as revenue increases.
There is not one program or agency in the Federal Government that cannot afford a 10% cut, including defense.
Or, if you want to wait for 5 years, freeze Federal Spending at current levels until revenue catches up.
Brad Steele
Not paying our troops? a 10% cut in retirement or healthcare to Federal retirees?
Because those are the things that seem to always come up every time they talk about cutting something.
Means testing Social Security and Medicare?
quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
quote:Originally posted by ChrisInTempe
The debt limit is a political slight of hand left over from WW1. It does not limit debt or spending. It limits the paying of debts taken on already.
It should be abolished.
It should not be abolished, it should be respected.
Federal revenue is projected to be $ 3.3 Trillion for FY 2015.
We first spent more than this in FY 2009.
To limit spending to current receipts would mean cutting $ 400 billion from projected spending for FY 2015. This is less than 10%.
Respect the limit. Across the board 10% cut in Federal outlays. Tough medicine for a few years, but we would then grow the budget as revenue increases.
There is not one program or agency in the Federal Government that cannot afford a 10% cut, including defense.
Or, if you want to wait for 5 years, freeze Federal Spending at current levels until revenue catches up.
Worried about SS? 20 years ago, people receiving SSI were 4% of the total SS recipients, and now they are 25%? Those are people who didn't pay enough into the system to qualify for regular SS payments. Disability payments and retirement benefits to immigrants who came here as elderly relatives are very large costs.
Means testing Medicare and Medicaid may or may not be necessary if the waste, fraud, and abuse is dealt with. Start with that simple fact, and see where we are.
There are something like 57 federal bureaucracies that administer food assistance programs. There might just be some overlap and redundancy there.
If we allow any effort to reform the federal government and its spending to be derailed by the mere mention of someone's Sacred Cow, we get nowhere.
Why do people have so much difficulty comprehending this? The Debt Limit is not a Debt Limit. You cannot observe a limit that isn't a limit other than in name only.
Congress determines the budget and spending is to be paid for. That is where the problem is to be found. When a "Debt Limit" is reached it is after the fact, the spending already took place.
Take away their magic trick, their shell game, the extra ace's hidden up their sleeves. Killing off the false debt limit is but one small step to forcing honesty in budgets.
The debt limit is utter and total cow cookies. It was a political parlor trick intended to fool voters the instant it was dreamed up to sell war bonds a hundred freak'n years ago. Without exception every single majority and minority party has maintained the parlor trick over that time. All while knowing full well the only thing it accomplishes is to divert attention from spending.
Why do people have so much difficulty comprehending this? The Debt Limit is not a Debt Limit. You cannot observe a limit that isn't a limit other than in name only.
Congress determines the budget and spending is to be paid for. That is where the problem is to be found. When a "Debt Limit" is reached it is after the fact, the spending already took place.
Take away their magic trick, their shell game, the extra ace's hidden up their sleeves. Killing off the false debt limit is but one small step to forcing honesty in budgets.
No one believes it being treated as an actual limit to spending, so it is no parlor trick, or if it is, it is one that fools no one.
It performs the valuable function, however, of pointing out every so often how out of control our Federal Spending is. This, for no other reason, is reason enough to keep it.
With any luck, we may someday vote in a Congress that puts America ahead of Party and Power. Absent this type of principled vote, it may take a 'Debt of Honor' style purging of government to accomplish this. Frankly either method would be fine with me.
Brad Steele
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain