15 Trillion Dollars In Debt, 45 Million Americans On Food Stamps And Zero Soluti

[dustup]

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15 Trillion Dollars In Debt, 45 Million Americans On Food Stamps And Zero Solutions On The Horizon

How does a country end up 15 trillion dollars in debt?  30 years ago, we were just a little over a trillion dollars in debt.  How in the world do supposedly rational people living in "the greatest nation on earth" allow themselves to commit national financial suicide by allowing government debt to explode like that?  It almost seems like there should be some sort of official ceremony in Washington D.C. to commemorate this achievement.  It really takes something special to be able to roll up 15 trillion dollars of debt.  To get to this level, we really had to indulge in some wild spending.  For example, did you know that the U.S. national debt grows by more than 2 million dollars every single minute?  All of this debt has fueled an unprecedented boom of prosperity for the last 30 years, but now that prosperity is drying up.  Today, there are over 45 million Americans that are on food stamps.  America is being deindustrialized at a blinding pace and there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.  Poverty is exploding all over the nation, and millions of families have lost their homes to foreclosure.  Unfortunately, there are zero solutions on the horizon.  The leaders of both major political parties seem even more clueless right now than in past years.  We really could use some hope, but hope is in very short supply.

So do our politicians have any solutions?

Of course not.

The worst of the Republican candidates are actually at the top of the polls.  The cold, hard truth is that Romney, Cain and Perry are all clueless when it comes to the economy.

Of course you might as well call Barack Obama "Captain Clueless" when it comes to the economy.  Obama keeps giving great speeches about jobs while at the same time signing more "free trade" agreements that will send thousands more businesses and millions more jobs out of the country.  Even the CEOs on Obama's jobs creation panel are shipping huge numbers of jobs out of the United States.

Obama gave a speech in Washington D.C. today that exemplified his clueless approach to the economy.  During the speech, Obama made the following statement....

    "If Congress tells you they don't have time, they got time to do it. We've been in the House of Representatives, what have you guys been debating? John, you've been debating a commemorative coin for baseball? You have legislation reaffirming that In God We Trust is our motto. That's not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work"

First of all, Obama is not putting people back to work.  He has been helping big corporations ship jobs out of the country at a record pace.
Read More Here:http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/15-trillion-dollars-in-debt-45-million-americans-on-food-stamps-and-zero-solutions-on-the-horizon

(emphasis mine)

[SufferedMoreThanJesus]

I approve this thread.

[lucy]

No one can fathom how much money this is...where did this go? hmmm?

[ivanm]

No one can fathom how much money this is...where did this go? hmmm?

I think that what really dilutes the value of government expenditures is the ridiculous prices people charge for their goods or services, and it is the old idea that the pols are spending someone elses money so the cost is no object.  More competitive bidding needs to be done than is being done now.


When you look at the sum of interest paid on the national debt over a period of ten years then it should tell you something.  I would estimate it to be a few trillion dollars at least. What do we have to show for?  As you say, where did it go?

 For example, 200 billion in interest each year for ten years comes to a paltry 2 trillion dollars if my math is correct. 

[SufferedMoreThanJesus]

Has the budget been passed yet?

[SufferedMoreThanJesus]

MONDAY, JULY 11, 2011
Why Obama Has Not Passed a Budget in Over Two Years
We've heard it many times before, mostly from the President himself - he's making history. Unfortunately there are few people that think his political tactics regarding the budget is good history. But as of today, as Michael Graham from the Boston Herald points out, the democratically-controlled congress has not passed a budget in 800 days! Over two years. To put it into context:


..the last time Senate Democrats passed a budget, Ted Kennedy voted for it.

Last year Obama passed no budget. Why? It was an election year. My guess is that he voted present for two reasons: 1. If he voted to cut expenses, he figured his party would get crushed. 2. If he voted to increase expenses, he figured his party would get crushed. Well, at least Obama was right on one thing: his party got crushed.

But here we are one year later and now Obama is playing politics to help himself - this time to get him through the 2012 elections. Most helpful to Obama would be an extension of the debt ceiling so the Fed can continue printing money and so he has a chance at re-election.

It's true that increasing debt might give a short-term jolt to the economy. MIGHT. But might NOT as well. There's just as good a chance that the international community shuns Obama and tells the Fed to take a hike - meaning a hike in interest rates because of the increased risk associated with more debt. And regardless of the short term impact, the long term impact will certainly be a very big negative for years, and I fear, decades to come.

If the Republicans don't hold firm on this one, I fear the worst. Batten down the hatches.

http://bizblogger.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-obama-has-not-passed-budget-in-over.html

[dustup]

Updated: Oct. 27, 2011

In the fall of 2011, President Obama and Congress appeared headed for conflict on three different fronts related to federal spending: the budget for the 2012 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1; the special deficit reduction committee, which is supposed to propose $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years by Nov. 23; and President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill, a mix of spending programs, tax cuts and tax increases.

Before these clashes had even really begun, Congress had come within days of a government shutdown when the Democratic Senate and the Republican House could not agree on a continuing resolution that included extra money for disaster relief. The Senate wanted to provide more disaster aid than the House, and the House wanted to make offsetting cuts to pay for the emergency funds, a break from tradition that Democrats resisted. A showdown was averted when the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it could stretch its funds on hand a little longer, and a seven-week stopgap measure, or continuing resolution was passed.

In September, Mr. Obama had proposed a $447 billion jobs bill, a mix mostly of tax cuts plus some new government spending. To help pay for it, he outlined a variety of tax changes, including what he called the “Buffett’' rule, after the billionaire Warren Buffet, which would limit deductions for millionaires to make sure they did not pay lower rates than middle-class households.

Two weeks later, he unveiled his proposal for the deficit committee. The plan would reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over a decade and includes $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue and $580 billion in adjustments to health and entitlement programs, including $248 billion to Medicare and $72 billion to Medicaid. Republicans responded that they were not interested in new tax revenue, while Mr. Obama said he would veto any plan that relied solely on spending cuts.
Read More Here: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/federal_budget_us/index.html

 House passes FY2012 Continuing Resolution, but showdown with Senate looms
Friday, September 23rd, 2011

Early this morning, the House passed (219Y-203N) a FY2012 Continuing Resolution (CR) that would keep the government operating until November 18, 2011........

Time is running out!

[lucy]

Maybe if we really found out where the missing trillions have gone we might have a chance to get the money back, or at least find the culprits...where did the money created go? That is the bottom line here? Was it paid to banks and other entities to bail them out of risky debt like the derivatives? Did it go into someone's private account? Where is the money? Hold those who have risked everyone for their own shady business deals accountable.

[dustup]

Maybe if we really found out where the missing trillions have gone we might have a chance to get the money back, or at least find the culprits...where did the money created go? That is the bottom line here? Was it paid to banks and other entities to bail them out of risky debt like the derivatives? Did it go into someone's private account? Where is the money? Hold those who have risked everyone for their own shady business deals accountable.

Lucy....I have a hunch that it went to the World Bank or other foreign Banks.....least we forget........

“The American people are going to be outraged when they understand what has been going on,” Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Fed, told Bloomberg TV.

“What in the world are we doing thinking we can pass out tens of billions of dollars to banks that are overseas?” he added. “We have problems here at home with people not being able to pay their mortgages, and they’re losing their homes.”

The Fed and Chairman Ben Bernanke had fought for two years to keep the information secret, saying it could lead people to think some banks are weaker than they are. But the Fed eventually had to honor a Freedom of Information Act request.http://www.theblaze.com/stories/guess-who-benefited-most-from-feds-discount-loan-program-foreign-banks/]
[url]http://www.theblaze.com/stories/guess-who-benefited-most-from-feds-discount-loan-program-foreign-banks/[/url]

Thursday night, Fox News detailed the domestic borrowers:

Which Banks Borrowed Billions From the Fed During the Financial Crisis?

[lucy]

Maybe someone could explain what this means exactly?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/cme-goes-margin-defcon-1-makes-maintenance-margin-equal-initial-everything

[notoc]

Maybe someone could explain what this means exactly?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/cme-goes-margin-defcon-1-makes-maintenance-margin-equal-initial-everything

'Tyler Durden' tried to make it mean something it wasn't ... as usual.

It is better explained here:

The CME Margin Notice That Has Everyone In a Tizzy

[lucy]

just for discussion...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ge-filed-57000-page-tax-return-paid-no-taxes-14-billion-profits_609137.html

[dustup]

just for discussion...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ge-filed-57000-page-tax-return-paid-no-taxes-14-billion-profits_609137.html

Loopholes compliments of Crony capitalism in Congress...........aka THIEVES IN GOVERNMENT.....

[JC3.0]

Loopholes compliments of Crony capitalism in Congress...........aka THIEVES IN GOVERNMENT.....

]


The solution is jobs. Now, traditionally it's not governments responsibility to create jobs. BUT the beloved "Job Creators" who were supposed to use their precious tax cuts from more than the last 10 years to create jobs-have a laundry list of nothing but excuses for not creating jobs as they continue to get richer. So I say NOW is the time for the government to create and mandate a new historic jobs program much like the TVA way back when. Let's fix bridges, roads and other infrastructure for starters. Fuck the private sector. If the government can get jobs going lets do it. Folks want to work-they're ready to go. The Job Creators are full of shit-fuck them.

[johnhp]

]


The solution is jobs. Now, traditionally it's not governments responsibility to create jobs. BUT the beloved "Job Creators" who were supposed to use their precious tax cuts from more than the last 10 years to create jobs-have a laundry list of nothing but excuses for not creating jobs as they continue to get richer. So I say NOW is the time for the government to create and mandate a new historic jobs program much like the TVA way back when. Let's fix bridges, roads and other infrastructure for starters. Fuck the private sector. If the government can get jobs going lets do it. Folks want to work-they're ready to go. The Job Creators are full of shit-fuck them.

Hell create long term jobs.  Know how to do that?  According to the CBO increasing aid to the unemployed will insure the creation of full time jobs for about 19 years.   Decreasing payroll taxes for businesses that hire employees will create full time jobs for 16 years.