"House Democrats Move to Force a Debt-Limit Increase as Default Date Looms"

[pdq]

Mr645 wrote:

The only real area left with enough budget to make a difference is military. Taxes really need to go back up, government needs to tighten the belt across the board, we need big cuts to military spending and foreign aid. When the credit card is maxed out, you don't go out for steak dinner

Foreign aid is not much; less than 1% of the budget. And the biggest recipient over the years (on average) is Israel.

Good luck getting the GOP to endorse those cuts, or to defense.

This is another manufactured crisis. Just like every other time during my life, when the Dems win the WH, they reduce the deficit spending orgy the last GOP president engaged in.

And now suddenly (again!) the GOP holds the whole country hostage over their new-found concern.

:RollingEyesSmiley5:

[gabester]

Mr645 wrote:
The country is broke, $32 trillion in debt, we have to stop spending. 8% of all federal income goes toward interest on the debt. Time to tighten the belt

Our annual GDP is $23 trillion. What you're saying is that we should move out of the family home because the mortgage is 40% greater than our family income?

Lots of folks are financed into homes that are integer multiples of their annual income - e.g 3x to 5x is a common range.

This is a false flag argument!

[AllGold]

Mr645 wrote:
[quote=pdq]
[quote=Acer]
These calls for cuts are going to hurt the plans presented elsewhere on this board vis a vis firearm homicide. Better mental health support, arming and training teachers, hardening of security at soft targets and more prison space for the longer sentences for the violently inclined--these things all cost money.

Well, we wouldn’t cut those things. Or Defense. Or my Social Secuity check. And keep government’s hands off of my Medicare.

Just the “waste”. Or any money that goes to people who aren’t me.
The only real area left with enough budget to make a difference is military. Taxes really need to go back up, government needs to tighten the belt across the board, we need big cuts to military spending and foreign aid. When the credit card is maxed out, you don't go out for steak dinner
Yet Republicans are categorically opposed to both cuts to the military and higher taxes. They're even opposed to keeping taxes the same but giving the IRS the resources needed to collect the taxes actually owed by wealthy tax cheats.

[pdq]

...and a number of countries have similar or higher Debt-to-GDP ratios than we do (including Japan, Italy, and the UK):



As stated before, this is a manufactured, fake crisis.