Spend Today, Pay Tomorrow
[Guest post by DRJ]
America has been on a spending binge but the bill is starting to come due:
“With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher.
In concrete terms, an additional $500 billion a year in interest expense would total more than the combined federal budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
And the fiscal problems are just beginning:
“The problem, many analysts say, is that record government deficits have arrived just as the long-feared explosion begins in spending on benefits under Medicare and Social Security. The nation’s oldest baby boomers are approaching 65, setting off what experts have warned for years will be a fiscal nightmare for the government.”
Americans are concerned about the deficit. So are foreign creditors like China.
EDIT: Gateway Pundit has the updated deficit chart.
Gulp. Maybe this recent SNL skit will help us laugh despite our concerns:
— DRJ
It’s the Alfred E. Newman administration – what, me worry? As long as they get healthcare passed, screw the deficit, screw our creditors and ultimately screw the future of the American people.
Dmac (a964d5) — 11/23/2009 @ 12:33 pmIt is hilarious, especially the last part. If he has lost SNL, can Letterman be far behind ? Well, yes he can be.
Mike K (2cf494) — 11/23/2009 @ 12:44 pmI added a link to GatewayPundit’s updated deficit chart.
DRJ (dee47d) — 11/23/2009 @ 12:47 pmWell, at least I have hope for SNL’s future now that they’ve obviously discovered their long-lost comedic spine.
Hope for us? Not so much. Is it too much to ask that this administration discover their spine, too?
We are witnessing the collapse of the White House of Cards and the one person that should be in massive panic about it, is instead more concerned about recapturing his campaign *magic* throughout the world.
Dana (e9ba20) — 11/23/2009 @ 12:48 pmpay no attention to the man behind the curtain – I am the all powerful OZ.
Corwin (ea9428) — 11/23/2009 @ 12:56 pmIsn’t it ironic to discover that those who profess — so loudly — to be the ones that care about the American people . . . are actually the ones that don’t care at all.
Icy Texan (bade06) — 11/23/2009 @ 1:02 pmWe know who won’t be getting an invite to the WH Christmas Party.
AD - RtR/OS! (222944) — 11/23/2009 @ 1:04 pmLOL, I can’t watch that clip enough!
My new response to politicians: “Will you kiss me?”
Patricia (b05e7f) — 11/23/2009 @ 2:19 pmIt’s interesting to consider the outrage if Rush or Beck had hired these actors and out on this hilarious skit.
Just the mild Chinese language stereotypes would have been enough to keep Beck from attending an NFL game or buying a hot dog at Fenway.
Dustin (cf255c) — 11/23/2009 @ 2:43 pmCheney to Treasury: “Deficits don’t matter”
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was told “deficits don’t matter” when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis. O’Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush’s economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from “the corporate crowd,” a key constituency.
O’Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: “We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due.” A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.
The vice president’s office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O’Neill, insisted that deficits “do matter” to the administration. Source: Adam Entous, Reuters,1/11/04 . Credit [card] the sweet smell of Reaganomics as the thread of humorous truth in that scathing skit… live from few yucks, it’s Saturday trite.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 11/23/2009 @ 2:55 pmSorry if this is a dupe posting.
“Cheney to Treasury: “Deficits don’t matter”
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was told “deficits don’t matter” when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis. O’Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush’s economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from “the corporate crowd,” a key constituency.
O’Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: “We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due.” A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.
The vice president’s office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O’Neill, insisted that deficits “do matter” to the administration. Source: Adam Entous, Reuters,1/11/04.” Credit [card] the sweet smell of Reaganomics as the thread of humorous truth in that scathing skit… live from few yucks, it’s Saturday trite.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 11/23/2009 @ 3:21 pmWhat a silly “argument”, IMP. Is there a shortage of Lithium in SoCal?
JD (87c922) — 11/23/2009 @ 3:30 pmCheney would have been right if he said those deficits are nowhere near as dangerous as Obama level deficits. I don’t even know that Cheney said that, and Cheney was not the House of Representatives or the President, anyway.
but if you’re bashing Bush deficits, like Obama did, then you have to agree that Obama has done far, far, far worse.
Dustin (cf255c) — 11/23/2009 @ 4:13 pmIMP…Your criticism would have more validity if you had a current quote from O’Neil re the BHO deficits.
AD - RtR/OS! (e1051f) — 11/23/2009 @ 4:59 pmSince you don’t, you have just confirmed your partisanship, and irrelevance.
1) It’s Reuters …
2) Even for DCSCA, it’s not even *skilled* misdirection …
3) What frosts DCSCA and his ilk the most is that the annual deficits were going down between 2003 and 2006 (into 2007) even allowing for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan … and then Congress changed hands at the end of 2006, and the US economy started into its tailspin …
So – what’s your prediction ? To which of my three points, if any, will DCSCA respond ? Or will he just sulk ?
Alasdair (528b3b) — 11/23/2009 @ 5:23 pmSo you believe Cheney?
Michael Ejercito (6a1582) — 11/23/2009 @ 5:29 pmSo, let me see if I can dig a point out of DSCSA’s post:
Somebody said something to Cheney and according to somebody, Cheney said something that somehow agrees with whatever point you’re trying to make.
Well, that certainly solves our deficit problem.
Ag80 (3d1543) — 11/23/2009 @ 9:04 pmIt’s like they aren’t even trying anymore………
Techie (482700) — 11/24/2009 @ 4:07 amDCSCA, my mother taught me that two wrongs don’t make a right.
“Cheney did it first, Mom! So I hit the economy four times as hard!”
Patricia (b05e7f) — 11/24/2009 @ 8:48 amIt’s not even clear that Cheney said anything at all. I’d have to see actual video to believe it, these days.
But since the right was nearly universally irritated with the deficits Bush signed onto, I just don’t get how this matters. Obama promised he could and would cut the deficit. The left said it was too high, and then increased it enormously… more than all other president combined, actually. COMBINED.
Dustin (cf255c) — 11/24/2009 @ 9:04 am[…] at the link; hat tip to DRJ. The Times article continued to note that an additional $500 billion per year for debt service […]
Common Sense Political Thought » Blog Archive » I told you so: now the Democrats want another budget-busting stimulus jobs creation bill! (73d96f) — 11/27/2009 @ 9:02 am