very interesting & informative about national debt

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

i actually learned a little from this

[Chupaca]

Tricky business.... simple really but polititions can really twist things up to where nothing makes sense...

[canamjhb]

Interesting.

[Joe T.]

Interesting, but there can be a lot of spin on these numbers. No doubt, our debt is out of control, no matter how one 'spins' it.

A couple of things that are important:

1.) I do not belive the House has had a final budget, ON TIME, in a long time:

"The last time that we had a full-on, real-life federal budget that was signed into law, it was 1997. Bill Clinton was president, and Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House"

From 'Prospect.org" I don't know anything about this organization. First Google entry

2.) Last time the House had a BALANCED budget:

"When was the last time the United States had a balanced budget?"

Google search results:

2 Answers:

1.)




Khadijah Bint Muhammad, Data Scientist
Answered Sep 9, 2016 · Author has 665 answers and 222.8k answer views

The budget was “officially” balanced last in 2001.
The last PERIOD of time (five years or more) that we operated in surplus was the 1920’s. Since then, we’ve been in balance just a couple of times, more by accident than anything else. :-(

2.)

Balaji Viswanathan, CEO at Invento (2016-present)
Answered Aug 3, 2012 · Author has 4.5k answers and 286.1m answer views
2001 was the last year US had a balanced budget. In fact, balanced budgets are quite uncommon in the US and most often the government ran into deficits.

(You can see below that the light blue worm -- revenues -- is almost always below the dark blue worm -- expenditures)

OK, what does this tell us? Well, before I put my 2 cents in, a couple of facts, as unpleasant as they maybe:

1.) California changed their 'rules' for passing a budget from a Super Majority to a Simple Majority (~62% to 51%)
2.) California changed their election laws from the top candidate of each party who wins the primary, who would then go onto the main election, to the TOP TWO CANDIDATES, regardless of party, go to the main election.

From 'The New York Times' Jan. 10, 2013:

"Back From the Fiscal Abyss, California Balances Its Budget"

Mr. Brown’s news was hailed on both sides of the political aisle. “This is a proposal that clearly shows California has turned the corner,” said John A. Pérez, a Democrat who is the State Assembly’s speaker.Connie Conway, the Assembly’s Republican leader, said it was “good news for taxpayers that the state has made progress in getting our financial house in order.”“But we haven’t fully solved our budget problems just yet,” she said.

The budgetary distress has meant that, for years, the Legislature has battled over what to cut or, in some cases, what kind of maneuvers might be appropriate to avoid cuts. Good news or not, the announcement means that more, albeit different, kinds of battles were in the offing, lawmakers and Mr. Brown said
Democrats now control two-thirds of the Assembly and Senate, and some of them have talked about restoring at least some of the social service cuts, like dental care for the poor, that were imposed to bring the state to this point, Mr. Brown said he understood the impulse to repair broken social services, but he warned against returning to a boom-and-bust pattern of spending during the good years, only to later struggle through debt.

“We have to live within the means we have; otherwise we get to that situation where you get red ink and you go back to cuts,” he said. “I want to avoid the booms and the bust, the borrow and the spend, where we make the promise and then we take back.”Mr. Brown, who has always presented himself as something of a moderate in his party, suggested that in the months ahead, he would be an enforcer.“It’s very hard to say no,” Mr. Brown said. “And that basically is going to be my job.”On that point, Mr. Brown found an unlikely ally in Ms. Conway. “Now is not the time to enact massive spending increases that will reverse the progress we’ve made in reducing the deficit,” she said.On another contentious front, while Mr. Brown proposed a significant increase in school spending — $2.6 billion — he said he wanted a financing formula that would direct more money to poor students. Lawmakers said that could set off a fight between wealthier and poorer districts.Mr. Brown, in presenting his budget, suggested that the turnaround should be a rebuke to “a couple of characters” who have “written off California as a failed state,” a reference to conservative commentators who have, for a year, questioned the state’s economic policies and its very future.Now, Mr. Brown said, he wanted the nation to look to California, and to his example. He promised a combination of “fiscal discipline and imaginative investment” to complete the state’s restoration.“I would like to do something that would make California a leader and an example of what America has to do,” he said."


I say:

Pretty high price to pay, but SOMETHING has to be done about the budget. There are NO GOOD CHOICES! All will hurt the middle class.

Regards,
Joe T.

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

to me the budget with it's income(taxes) seems like a multi trillion $$$ ponzi scheme if it can never ever be paid off.

[Firefly]

.
Seems every forum has one $&@& that has no life and just likes to bend the rules and cause trouble.
#troll

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

.
Seems every forum has one $&@& that has no life and just likes to bend the rules and cause trouble.
#troll

so why do you do it?

[UtahPete]

i actually learned a little from this

I hope that what you learned is our skyrocketing national debt has the effect of depleting your cash savings. Runaway inflation will do that, and other nasty things too.

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

i did learn one way to lower government spending is not to give taxpayer money to illegals.

[UtahPete]

i did learn one way to lower government spending is not to give taxpayer money to illegals.

You must be watching a different video...this one did not have a political message. It was just basic economics, as taught at any college.

[Firefly]

#sstroll
#norespect

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

You must be watching a different video...this one did not have a political message. It was just basic economics, as taught at any college.

no i just watched & understood myth #6, did you? that is the one i actually learned a lot from.

[Firefly]

i did learn one way to lower government spending is not to give taxpayer money to illegals.

#political
#troll
#fakenews

[UtahPete]

no i just watched & understood myth #6, did you? that is the one i actually learned a lot from.

I learned critical thinking decades ago. So, I don't go in for myths, conspiracy theories or any other unsubstantiated beliefs.

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

I learned critical thinking decades ago.

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

I ran across this today to help me understand more, hope it helps others

[UtahPete]

I ran across this today to help me understand more, hope it helps others

That is interesting and informative. Very good.

Are you okay?