It's Good to Hear a few Politicians talk about the Deficit

I listened to the State of the Union address, and Joe Biden mentioned the deficit. In recent attacks on Trump, who built a massive 8-Trillion dollar debt, Nicki Haley also talked about the deficit. Even though I'm an Independent, I'm a fiscal Conservative. I think Biden holds a big edge over Trump when it comes to deficit reduction. That said, I am not a fan of policies like Student Loan debt forgiveness.

I believe the deficit needs to be front-and-center. How can it be the top issue of the 2012 election, and virtually forgotten now, when the deficit is far worse?

 

Lets be clear on one thing.
The debt and the deficit are two completely different things.

• A deficit occurs when expenses exceed revenues, imports exceed exports, or liabilities exceed assets. A deficit is synonymous with a shortfall or loss and is the opposite of a surplus.
• Debt is something, usually money, owed by one party to another. Debt is used by many individuals and companies to make large purchases that they could not afford under other circumstances. Unless a debt is forgiven by the lender, it must be paid back, typically with added interest.

When politicians, especially brandon, talk about "reducing the deficit" they are lying to us. First, reduced the deficit compared to what? Second, reducing the deficit means you aren't going as fast into debt as you were whenever you were comparing to. Pretty much meaningless in other words.

The debt currently stands at $34.5 TRILLION and skyrocketing. It's projected that before Brandon is voted out of office we'll be another $4 TRILLION in debt.

And no one, not brandon, not the democrats, not the republicans, not anyone, has a plan to get it under control.

We cannot tax our way out of debt. If we keep spending like drunken sailors on stupid stuff like internet access and forgiving student loans, we will never get out of debt.

Getting out of debt is possible.
1) Only pass balanced budgets. This means do not spend more than we have coming in.
2) Reduce expenditures by, say, 10% and apply that to the debt. If we did that it would only take 100 years to pay off the debt.
3) Any new expenditure MUST HAVE A DEDICATED FUNDING SOURCE. If you want a bridge, how you paying for it, and no, you can't use existing taxes. They've already been spent.
4) Move Medicare/social security/unemployment out of the general budget. These programs are funded by dedicated payroll taxes and were designed to be self supporting. Their debt or surplus only skews the real debt picture. Move them aside and let them do their own thing.
5) Every American pays tax. Every American pays tax. It doesn't matter if you pay $1 cause you're poor, or $1 BILLION cause you're rich. Every American pays tax.
6) Any new tax, ANY NEW TAX goes to the debt until it's paid down to a more reasonable number, like maybe $1 TRILLION.​

 

I agree with everything you said. Both Parties are lacking in a vision to address the deficit and the debt. But at least Biden and Haley have been talking about it.

 

They all talk about it when campaigning.

 

It's amazing that it's been since 2000 that we had a negative deficit. Bush put an end to that quickly. He used to blame 9/11, but the problems started well before that, when he pulled the stunt to issue checks to all Americans - the Two Santa Claus politics.

 

You forgot the most obvious solution: cut the military budget in half, and still remain the most powerful military on earth. Why do social programs always get budget scrutiny while military waste does not?

 

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When we talk about reducing the deficit, that means increasing production. That means, a more productive population. More educated people produce more. More people working produce more. Innovation, infrastructure, a healthy population.... they all help us produce more.

So we need education, employment, more workers, more investment on innovation, ... Today there is a future opportunity for green technology, for example. This is not immediately productive. So the government steps in to incentivize it because, down the road, the country that dominates green technology will have a huge advantage. Building more roads does not immediately produce a return. It takes time.

So what we need is FORESIGHT. Right-wing politicians take advantage of the lack of foresight that is characteristic in part of the population. Because their goal is not to benefit the country, but only to get themselves re-elected.

 

Politicians are good at talking about problems. They are also good at blaming problems on the other party.

 

Lets be crystal clear;
The deficit is very different from the debt.
Reducing the deficit is NOT doing much good.
Reducing the DEBT is the only thing that matters just now.

 

I wouldn't specify any budget item cut.
I'd take a meat axe and go with a 10% across the board cut.
Every budget.
Every department.
Every office.
No exceptions.

Otherwise we get into a "don't gore my sacred ox" debate that serves no one.
Cut the damn budget by 10%.
That's a start.
Now, you want more money?
Wonderful.
Where are you going to get it?
Not existing taxes.
We already spent all that.

Oh, you want a new tax?
Great.
It goes to the debt until we get it under control.
Then you can have your money.

 

You have to start somewhere, and yes it does.

 

Because your social program desires don't hold up well when we are invaded?

How is the quality of social safety nets in Ukraine right now?

Oh, and also, the Federal government was not intended to be your nanny.

 

Just how massive a military do you need to hold up when being invaded? Nowhere near as big as the one the US has. At least half of it is bloat, sending money to the military industrial complex.
If you want to save money, that's an excellent place to start.

 

Pathetic but true.

I'd add one more to help ensure the above:

7) End the Fed. Outlaw the central banking cartel and nationalize the Federal Reserve Bank to return control of US currency to Congress. Outlaw fractional reserve banking and reestablish a gold (or silver, platinum, etc) standard for US currency value to end the fiat petrodollar.

 

Balanced Budget Amendment.

If you oppose that, you're not serious about the issue.

 

The deficit has to be positive, before the debt can be reduced. Clinton and Gore and the Newt congress got the deficit into positive territory, but the debt wasn't reduced much, because it was only for a short period.

 

sigh.
Saying they got the deficit under control is like my wife saying "I only spent $200 at the beauty salon. Last month I spent $400."
Now before I get jumped, momma can spend whatever she wants at the store or wherever. The point is, if we budget $100 but spend $400 one month and $200 the next month we're still running a debt.

Understand?
The deficit is very different from the debt.
Reducing the deficit is NOT doing much good.
Reducing the DEBT is the only thing that matters just now.



And by the way, a lot of Clinton's deficit "reductions" were just voodoo accounting with dedicated funds.

 

So many Conservatives love to cherry-pick the Clinton-era numbers, Look at your graph above. See what happened to those number as soon as the irresponsible Bush took office.

 

It's interesting you think Biden holds a "big edge over Trump when it comes to deficit reduction" when he's going to leave the country with more debt than Trump did.

The national debt has turned into a huge, if not existential, problem for this country - last year the annual payment on the interest alone passed the $1 trillion mark, which was almost a quarter of the $4.4 trillion in revenue the federal government took in last year - but spending keeps going up, the government keeps getting bigger, more programs are added to the ones that are going insolvent, etc..

Politicians like Biden only talk about the deficit - they never do anything about it or the debt - so this is a problem the American people are going to have to solve, and the first step in solving that problem is acknowledging that Washington has gotten too big, too intrusive and too expensive. Unless we stop expanding the size and expense of government and start reducing it we are headed towards bankruptcy, and this is going to require us to take a hard look at our domestic and foreign policies and make some difficult decisions. This won't be a painless process, but the alternative is exponentially worse.

 

Amen.

 

Because "taking the couch" hurts us all.
Illegals are here taking jobs Americans should be doing and would be doing if we let wages rise according to demand, but nope. We bring in illegal workers to keep wages down by over supplying the labor markets.

 

I'm all for cutting our military budget, but our social programs do not get the scrutiny you appear to think they receive. The social welfare programs enacted during the 1930s and 1960s have become the third rail in American politics - nobody wants to touch them, even though they must be reformed to keep them and the country solvent.

We are $34 trillion in debt and are on the hook for another $213 trillion in unfunded liabilities - there isn't enough money in the solar system to cover our debt. EVERYTHING across the entire board is going to have to get cut.

 

I agree that Biden doesn't hold "a big edge over Trump". The debt under Biden is expected to be $7 Trillion vs Trump's $8 Trillion. That said, Biden inherited a mismanaged COVID crisis that increased the debt and the defiicit in his first year. You'll never address the deficit if you don't talk about it. Most politicians are reluctant to talk about it. It has gone from the #1 concern of the American people in 2012 to a non-issue for America.

 

I've never seen a discussion on your social programs that didn't involve the question of how to pay for it or how much it is all costing. I've also never seen a discussion on your military involving the same questions. I find that notable.