National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute

Conservatives have the gall to imply that our government grows more from democrats. They seem completely immunte to the missteps of Bush Jr.

Re: National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute


Are you saying this is good, or bad? What is the "ticking time bomb" analogy above mean? Is this relating to a kitchen timer?

President Clinton announces another record budget surplus

From CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace

September 27, 2000
Web posted at: 4:51 p.m. EDT (2051 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/09/27/clinton.surplus/

The day Bush was sworn into office in 2001, the national debt was $5.7 trillion, and there was a surplus. On the day he showed up in Parkersburg, it had climbed to $7,782,816,546,352.29. That is seven trillion, seven hundred and eighty-two billion, eight hundred and sixteen million, five hundred and forty-six thousand, three hundred and fifty-two dollars, and twenty-nine cents.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/08/opinion/main686839.shtml

Rama, The US has bigger problems than Bush's deficit spending; the subprime mortgage debacle on top of the national debt is the last nail in the coffin. It's just beginning to be felt by the retail industry, and the christmas season is off to a bad start.

C I
Problems are aplenty- not only in USA but around the globe.
But USA under BusH NEEDS SPECIAL SYMPATHY:

The comptroller general of the United States says the nation is on the path to financial ruin unless the American public tells Washington to change its ways.

David M. Walker, head of the General Accountability Office, or GAO, is the nation's top federal accountant. With the voting season now in full swing as November approaches, candidates from both major political parties are talking up the standard issues that energize the public and encourage discussions, but no candidate appears to be talking about the state of the nation's fiscal prospects.

"This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids … we the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed," says Walker.

Walker said the challenges facing the nation were severe as the federal government continues to fund operations by borrowing foreign money. He also warned of the coming effects on the economy as the "baby boomer" generation begins retiring, calling it a "demographic tsunami" about to wash ashore.

"He can speak forthrightly and independently because his job is not in jeopardy if he tells the truth," said Isabel V. Sawhill, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Walker's term ends in 2013, as he is serving a 15-year term as the comptroller of the U.S., so he has one of the most secure jobs in Washington. That fact frees him to be candid about the state of the nation's economy.

"You can't solve a problem until the majority of the people believe you have a problem that needs to be solved," Walker says.

Mike Adams, a consumer advocate, adds that "The U.S. national debt is the 800-pound gorilla hiding in the economic closet … no one wants to talk about the national debt, and no politician who talks about reducing it will ever get elected. The U.S. public has lost any appetite for fiscal restraint and seems intent on driving this economy into total debt collapse."
http://www.newstarget.com/020930.html

Rama, It's almost self-evident that when our commerce begins a downward spiral, income tax revenues to the government will dwindle.

Our country cannot sustain this kind of government deficit and consumer debt at a time when the financial institutions are unable to determine the impact of the subprime mortgage debacle.

Government debt will escalate to levels unseen before, and consumers are struggling to keep their homes. The future looks dark, not only at the federal level,, but also at the state and local levels.

More people are going to feel the pain as the day, weeks, and months passes by.

C I
Aside from the subject of this thread i wish to draw your kind attention to this week's ECONOMIST article about the slow death of Dollar

"The history of international co-operation on currencies is patchy. But China and the oil-rich Gulf states have ample reason to play their part in an orderly decline of the dollar's dominance. Despite the opprobrium heaped on them, the Chinese do not want to see the Fed's hands tied by a dollar crisis; nor do they want to see the euro zone, one of their best markets, slow sharply; and they have little interest in the external value of their existing dollar reserves plunging. Beyond all that, China's leaders want to be taken seriously as responsible actors in the international system. Now is their chance."
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=10215040

'm a true believer in freedom and Democracy, but it only works when your citizens are well educated and capable of considering the long term consequences of today's decisions. Sadly, the educational standards in the United States today are abysmal, and only a tiny percentage of the voting population can even understand the concepts of fiscal policy, the money creation process or international debt markets. As a result, most voters have absolutely no clue about how to vote intelligently. And so politicians who want to get elected simply promise more short-term handouts that further compromise the fiscal future of the country.

It can only lead to one ultimate outcome: The bankruptcy of the U.S. government. It's not a question of if, but when.
http://www.newstarget.com/019388.html

Rama, The Euro is no better than the US greenback. Most of the Euro countries are struggling, and their unemployment is twice the US. There's no more goods and services to back up the Euro as there is the US greenback; it's all in the mind.

China is creating huge problems for itself by over-buildihng and GDP growth that cannot be sustained. Pollution is a big problem in China; economimc growth only exacerbates their problems in water-shortage, fuel supply, and their over-heated economy.

They have been over-building condos and apartment houses that most Chinese cannot afford to buy. Their housing problem is just beginning to be felt; no buyers.

Most of their rivers are polluted, and the air in the big cities are so bad, many have respatory problems. When I was in China last month, the new steel and glass buildings look impressive, but behind that facade is the growing health problems for most of the Chinese.

Even our tour director who lives in Beijing shared with me the simple fact that she and her husband do not drink tap water. Most homes in China do not have heaters or heat; they warm their stone beds with charcoal.

Clean water is necessary to sustain life; they've been suffering from draught, and even the Yangtze River is showingt signs of pollution problems.

I don't envy them.

Yangtze river 'cancerous' with pollution
(Reuters/Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-05-30 15:17

China's longest river is "cancerous" with pollution and rapidly dying, threatening drinking water supplies in 186 cities along its banks, including Shanghai, experts warned on Monday.


Chinese children wait to collect drinking water from a water tanker at a remote village in Minxian County, Northwest China's Gansu Province, in this file photo taken on April 2005. China is facing a serious water crisis -- 300 million people do not have access to drinkable water.[Newsphoto/file]

C I
Perhaps you have a point there to ponder over.
But I am afraid that Dollar is receding to the status of other currencies like India Rupees.
And if Dollar stoop to that level then USA should stop to project itself as the only super power .
Sorry if I sound irrational.

Not irrational at all~! Bush has done damage to the US not only in international diplomacy, but our country's economy that many Americans don't comprehend. Most middle class families lost buying power since Bush took over the white house, and six to seven million more Americans are without health insurance. I don't understand why Americans are not up in arms to challenge Bush's a) illegal Iraq war, b) torture of prisoners, c) ignoriung habeas corpus, d) illegal wiretaps, e) leaking the name of a CIA agent, e) increase of the national debt, and f) Bush's promises not kept 1) New Orleans, 2) lack in the support of our troops(cut vet benefuts and added co-pays), 3) tax cuts will help everybody, 4) his use of religion to win favor with the electorate, and 5) his lies to the American People and the world.

C I
I can add one or two items to your above list of reasons against Bush.
Once again i wish you to peruse this article .

Foreign policy and the presidential race
The world in their hands

Nov 29th 2007 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition
How the candidates would handle the rest of the world
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10214921

I'm taking a wait and see mode on the next election. There's been too many positives and negatives up to this point to make a confident decision. It won';t be Hillary.

None of us here care about the ideal world.
Most of us here to relax and forget about reality.
few of us care for others.
You are one among the few.

The loss in value of the US dollar is good for us; it makes it more difficult for Americans to continuue buying foreign products, and our balance of trade gets a free ride.

I only disagree with the feds plans to cut short-term interest rates by .5 point; they should be increasing interest rates, not cutting them. It makes borrowing more difficult for people already in debt up to their eyeballs, and savers gain. Those are two positives for increasing rates.

We can't continue to live on borrowed money; it's not healthy for the long-term economy of our country.

C i
"Iam a part of all that I have read."--- John Kieran

Most people in the U.S. have become anesthetized to hearing about the "national debt" for a number of reasons:

* Hearing about the National Debt repetitively over a lifetime, conditions us to believe that the debt has no direct effect on our purse. Repetition conditions the individual to accept the debt as irrelevent to daily life. Repetition numbs.

* Media impressions that national debt is a normal and necessary for all countries to do business

* Illusions of the US as an invinceable superpower.

* The media-spawned belief that there are no alternatives and persistent attacks remove socialism from the discussion.

* The belief that safeguards have been adopted against a repeat of the Great Depression of 1929 (e.g. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 to insure the first $100,000 of depositor's money).

* The belief that the U.S. economy will always be resilient and invinceable based on one's own, brief personal or family history.

* Feelings of helplessness, i.e. "there is nothing we can do about it anyway".

* The paralysis of anxiety, rooted in unacknowledged fear causing intellectual, psychological and physical withdrawal from family, community, the true self and the body politic.

* The mind-numbing and values-corrupting influence of one of capitalism's most powerful drugs: consumerism.

These influences continue for most USers until they experience the repossession of the automobile, losses of the home, health care (especially in a medical crisis), decent education, healthy diets, and/or the loss of a job with few if any alternatives for similar work. The culture of materialism, consumerism, immediate gratification spawned by the news, entertainment and advertising media makes it extremely difficult for most to imagine a total collapse of the "invulnerable" U.S. economy. But it's coming just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. The "when" is not known but immanency has always been in the genetics of capitalism.

U.S. debt: $30,000 per American
USA Today Editorial
"Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion."
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_25589.shtml