Found this on the Internet....

U.S. Tax Revenue $ 2,170,000,000,000
Federal Budget $ 3,820,000,000,000
New Debt $ 1,650,000,000,000
Existing National Debt $ 14,271,000,000,000
Recent Budget Cut $ 38,500,000,000

Now, remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a family's budget:

Annual family income $ 21,700
Money the family spent $ 38,200
New debt on credit card $ 16,500
Existing balance on credit card $ 142,710
Total budget cuts which some politicians are proud of $ 385

One candidate wants to cut $1 trillion in year one or in this analogy $10,000

The only difference in that analogy is the federal government won't go hungry.

This puts the issue into prospective, but one has to realize that Federal expenditures are tied to jobs.

For example, the DOD budget buys planes, ships, tanks, rifles and uniforms, generating employment in Marietta (GA), Newport News (VA), Lima (OH), Columbia (SC) and, Los Angeles (CA).

If we cut the Federal budget (which we do need to do at some point) we all need to realize that jobs will be lost.

And toss figuers are what I see as the greatest danger to our American way of life.
The wealth this nations citizens, not the govt, has been squandered, it's gone, vanished, kaput.
Even u sharp guys that have a positive net worth out there are living under false pretenses. That debt has been accummulated in ur name by our govt. Both sides of the aisle for years and years. U have to subtract your share of the debt from ur net worth to glean ur true net worth. That figure must be derived by dividing the actual number of tax paying citizens not non layers to derive a true figure

no matter your stance on foreign policy, domestic spending, infrastructure or entitlements, it doesn't matter where u stand on any of those we can't as a country decide how to fund any of those things. First we have to begging with hat in hand to see if the Chinese & other nations will lend us the money to do so

you can thank a bunch of politicians for that

treason in my book. YMMV

Apology submitted. Typing from iPhone as outa town

Is this Randy? Did you change your handle back?

Jobs that are paid for by money extorted from taxpayers.

We, as a people, no longer have the balls to do what is required.

It is simple, no more deficits, Ever! Bite the bullet .

Take last years tax receipts, less a reasonable payment on the outstanding debt, and there is what you have to spend.

Set our priorities, use the money for those, and screw everything else.

Just like a responsible adult does in their personal finances. In a few years the economy will improve.

The freeloaders, well, be they on the dole or useless government lackeys, starve or get productive.

I agree, but good luck with that, since over half of the country is on some form of handout from .gov, and not likely to vote against its continuation, at least not until it collapses of its own weight.

One thing people don't understand, is when the debt gets to $20 trillion, the tax revenue will only cover the INTEREST on the debt. At that point, the fed is bankrupt, and hyperinflation will kick in so the government can pay back the debt with inflated dollars. Read up on the Weinmar Republic in Germany after WWI. They ended up in a depression in 1924 and Hitler in 1933.

I'm very familiar with Weimar-ask anyone around here.

BTW, we are already bankrupt, especially if using GAAP rules, and the Fed's balance sheet is a joke. The government IS paying and servicing debt with inflated FRN$'s now, and it will accelerate this trend in the future as it's the only thing they can do to kick the can down the road for another election cycle or two.

We have reached over 100% debt to GDP, and 90% is generally considered to be the point of no return, as pointed out by Reinhart and Rogoff in their book "This Time is Different", which is the definitive study into government debt, and its consequences.

Collapse is inevitable, it's just a matter of when and how bad, and the longer we try and print our way out, the worse the results will be.

That original piece has it right, but they dropped a few lines.



Additional income
(found change in seat cushion) $0.27



Expenditures:
cat toys $1,756,018,800,000
congressional barbershop subsidy $904,320,000,000



How does anyone believe what the government/OMB tells us anymore if they don't include all the figures?

And to put a Trillion Dollars in perspective.....
http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

More like jobs paid for with money that does not actually exist.

There you go.

We wuz robbed.

More than once I'm afraid.

Depends on how you look at the issue, but I'll bet some members of the Forum derive their income from such spending.

Not at all. Government spending is malinvestment--that is, taking resources from productive sectors and transferring them to unproductive ones. (The proof of this is that it's coercive. If the money was being spent productively, it would produce a profit and investors would be falling all over themselves to spend it voluntarily.)

Without those resources being confiscated from productive purposes, and with the burden of unproductiveness reduced, the economy will show much more health and many productive jobs will be created.

Now if you're a professional bureaucrat whose job is to prevent people from doing productive things, that may not help you; but I think it's a good thing.

What about infrastructure (roads, bridges and harbors). It's generally a governmental activity which the private sector is unwilling (in virtually all cases) to invest. But, private trucking companies are sure willing to use it.

How about National Parks and Forests?

How about the Defense program?

I agree with you but first cut needs to be the halfricans 32 czars and eac of their staff!

JD338

Bush had essentially as many czars...

My wife heard a Romney speech where he was pledging "restore" the military. Christ in a cracker, it just boggles my mind that this gets traction among some.

We are at gridlock. The political will doesn't exist to do a damn thing, because America is divided in factions who refuse to see that their pet part of the beast needs cutting back, and jealously guard it. The scope of cuts to virtually everything gets lip service, but would STUN people. No way in hell it'll happen.

Whatever happens when a superpower does what we've done, is about to happen, and we ain't stopping it.

Global warming is similar. The carbon is out there, there's a chitload more on the way, not a damn thing to be done, and the consequences will be what they turn out to be.

The Privatization of Roads and Highways by Walter Block


The National Parks: The Super-Rich's Greatest Idea by Gary North
How will national parks be protected in a libertarian society? by Mary Ruwart


The Myth of National Defense edited by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Sorry for the links instead of a live argument, but I've got snow to shovel and I've argued all of this stuff dozens if not hundreds of times here already.

you are so right at so many levels, but noone is buying the awfulness of any kind of cutbacks. just the opposite has been occurring, we've been ramping up money availability as offered by the gov't. it's all the politicians know to do. it's not that they are oh so evil. it's that we're in an economic conumdrum. they're all caught up in current "main-stream" economic theory. that is, the gov't is a redistributor of wealth, and a money pump. without the gov't pumping out money where does the public think we would be??

as has been stated by plenty of others, we're in uncharted waters. thankfully i don't have any snow that needs shoveling.

yeah it's me mike, and it's not that I changed my handle back, I just never changed it to 2legit on my iphone.


I always hit the "remember me" button on every puter I use to log onto the fire,


hate using my iphone for websurfing, but my internet/24hour jones had me checking in on a short trip to the land of Wasillabillies.


didn't realize what happened until i hit submit



either that or 1ak is like that danged ole Ron Paul, he just won't go away! and quit reminding us that we're up to our debt in eyeballs

Thats a whole lot of spending of money we don't have.. Just because politicians haven't learned to say no.

We are the ATM...

Had me confused, just for a moment though.