Yep. If the democrats don't make a serious move to get off spending our creditors will do it for us. They understand when they hear "investment" from a politician it really means "spending". And I for one don't believe you can spend your way out of debt.
That deficit plan the republicans put out could probably hurt me more than most of the others here. But I know it has to be done.
I disagree with getting 42 cents of every dollar from China and blowing it on so called "investments" like cash for clunkers and bullet trains.
Spending money you have can make you more money or not. But Barry thinks there is no end to the money he can toss around. Notice how him and his family don't worry about fuel prices for their travels. Why worry. He will never be the one to pay it. Everything that happens he goes into campaign mode and flies all over hell and back making speeches. Much cheaper to just go on TV and say the same thing.
Casinos are full of people that believe in spending money to make money. And sometimes it works. But it really does not matter what I believe. The day is coming when these bills will come due. And the crowd doing the spending will be long gone and leave their mess for someone else to pay for.
I think the point is that everyone does not agree that that is what is happening here. Myself included. It's all about the special interests, not any actual investment.
Cash for Clunkers got polluting jalopies off the road and upped car sales which was 1 of the reasons the Big 5 returned to profitably. As for bullet trains, Gov. Scott can kiss re-election goodbye for killing it in FL, we needed it badly down here.
The problem is the Republican Party has built it's platform on spending reductions and nothing else, as a result they have to demonize any spending because they don't have anything else to talk about. The reality is we're long past the point of no return on the spending issue, so cutting wildly is futile and will just hasten the economic collapse. Better to cut out waste and fraud, spend on things like rail (as I said, FL needed it regardless of what some hick politician in some middle of nowhere Midwestern district might have told their supporters), education, scientific research, etc, and raise taxes across the bored (an action that enjoys the support of most Americans, though the Repubs would have you think otherwise). Smart fiscal polices like this will never happed, though. More political points to be won cutting wildly and massively increasing military spending regardless of party.
WRONG! What cash for clunkers did was was keep the really poor from buying a decent used car or truck. Because when the ones they crushed went off the market it jacked up the price of the ones left. What it did was keep me in my 1977 Chevy Caprice and my 1978 Dodge one ton. Which I am happy to announce has a new reverse and has many more years of happy mortoring left!
But of course I cant send my wife and kids flying all over the world. As for "polluting jalopies". What do you think using Air Force One as a private taxi all over hell and back for nothing is doing? Saving money? I can tell ya it is not saving energy or cleaning up the air!
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When it comes to Cash for Clunkers and pollution, it isn't as simple as it sounds. Those old cars, were "junked"- a process that takes a lot of energy and hence increases energy demand and with it pollution. Sure it puts new, more environmentally friendly cars on the road, but it puts them on the road a lot earlier than they otherwise would have been, which means more cars were created earlier (demand increased) and with that the production energy needed was increased as well. That also causes pollution. I remember seeing a study on this with specific figures and I will try to find it, but I am pretty sure Cash for Clunkers wasn't very environmentally friendly. Again, it was all about the special interests and saving some big lobbiers of the government instead of letting the consumer-preferred choices live it out (which on a side note, also generally offered more environmentally friendly cars as well).
Cash for Clunkers was a failure.
The most frequently purchased cars under Clunkers are:
4WD Ford Escape (an SUV)
Ford Focus
4WD Jeep Patriot (SUV)
4WD Dodge Caliber
Ford F-150 (Pickup Truck)
Honda Civic
Chevy Silverado (Pickup Truck)
The government claims small cars were the top choice is false. The government tabulated the sales based on model, engine type, and transmission type. If the count is based strictly on the model, you get the results above - 4 of the top 7 were SUV or truck.
Sales were a failure as well. Clunkers just accelerated existing sales - people that were planning on buying a car in the near future simply bought their car earlier, and they upgraded their car to a larger less "green" model. Sales went up, then way down, net result was zero.
The winners were Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai.
The problem is that spending is unsustainable, period. No amount of reasonable tax increase will balance the budget. Make the tax rate 100% for income above $250k and it still doesn't balance the budget - its not even close. To balance the budget, tax revenue has to double and doing that would damage the economy even in the best of times.
The problem is only going to get worse as the demographics and new financial & health care regulations kick in, not to mention the typical mode of congress of always increasing spending.
Cutting waste and increasing taxes will never solve the problem.
Also remember that for 50 years (including the Clinton years, the Clinton balanced budget and surplus is only an accounting gimmick), Congress spends more than revenue in all cases. Increase revenue $1, Congress will spend $1.50. Without fiscal restraint, tax increases only increase the debt.
The only answer is spending reductions. The Republicans are being forced (by the Tea Party) to talk about cuts, Democrats still claim increased spending is the answer.
I never claimed otherwise. Fact is we're long past the point of no return. We can limit the damage but short of inflating our way out of debt we're too far in the hole to get back in the black. The needed tax hikes/spending cuts would cause America to collapse on itself as the gov't wouldn't be able to fund it's operations and everyone would go bankrupt.
The way I see it, we have 3 choices:
1. Inflate our way out and hope to avoid going the way of Zimbabwe or the Weimar Republic.
2. Default and hope we can recover as Brazil did.
3. Establish a state economy (this wouldn't necessarily mean nationalizations, the gov't could set up businesses from scratch) and try to turn a profit, using the money to supplement/replace tax revenue.
I don't think this government can run a lemonade stand on budget. And it makes me sad to feel that way.
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