According to your moral and intellectual superiors at the Globe & Mail;
“The deal cuts federal spending by around $2.1-trillion over 10 years. That’s an impressive dent into the country’s debt …”
h/t Stan
According to your moral and intellectual superiors at the Globe & Mail;
“The deal cuts federal spending by around $2.1-trillion over 10 years. That’s an impressive dent into the country’s debt …”
h/t Stan
Let’s see . . . at current rates, the debt will increase about $160 trillion over the next ten years.
So those cuts are really, truly impressive . . . just like the Hope & Flail.
Let’s call it Toronto Based Arithmetic.
ahhhh..but it’s GOVERNMENT money…so the people that don’t pay taxes don’t care…and that includes the ones on the ‘lower’ end of the scale…as long as they get their taxfree handouts, all is good…bring back the flat tax…no exemptions other than the personal one, no loopholes, everyone pays a little and it turns into a lot.
So the officers of the Titanic have finally settled on how to rearrange the deck chairs. We can rest easy now.
It is not surprising that the editors at the Grope and Flail do not understand what values are as they support the valueless Liberals.
The thing the media has failed to cover (covered up), is baseline budgeting.
There is an 8% increase built into the US budget year over year – automatically.
So to cut even 5% from the budget still leaves a 3% increase.
There have been no budget reductions, just reductions in the rate of increase.
The word they were looking for there was DEFICIT, not debt.
That kind of sloppiness should never make it onto the printed page.
It’s laughable that Republicans are simply written off as ‘unreasonable’ as if everyone shares this opinion. Why is it unreasonable to want an economy that thrives (thus producing more taxes) for the freeloaders? This is precisely why I don’t usually read that toilet paper called the Globe. I actually feel dirty. Thanks a lot SDA!
The G & M writer clearly failed basic math.
That 2.1T won’t even cover the deficit in 10 years, never mind make a dent, impressive or otherwise, in the debt.
More proof !!
sda is heads and shoulders above “Canada’s financial newspaper”
From an IBD editorial:
“According to IBD’s analysis of available budget numbers, the deal’s $2.4 trillion in 10-year cuts amounts to a mere 5% trim off total projected federal spending during that time.
“It’s like a 400-pound man boasting that he plans to drop 20 pounds over a decade, while his doctors warn about the risks of losing weight so fast.”
One of my readers added:
“It’s even worse than a 400 pound lardass boasting about losing 20 pounds over a decade … because in fact there will still be an even HIGHER deficit in 10 years, just not as high as it would have been before the deal.
“So for accuracy IBD’s analogy should have been: ‘It’s like a 400 pound man boasting that he gained ‘only’ 200 more pounds over the decade…”
It’s not just the odious G&M, there’s something seriously wrong with the MSM in the English-speaking world. It’s like they’re all suffering from some horrible soul-sucking, brain-eating disease.
Unlike the Canadian government, no American federal government has spent any money on actual debt retirement since the early 1960s.
U.S. Debt Reaches 100 Percent of Country’s GDP
http://tinyurl.com/3qs3kqb
Baseline accounting.
A case of liars figuring but figure not lying. This “agreement” ia less than a bandaid (the debt ceiling was half used up a day later). What is more disturbing that the compete ineptitude and reckless acts of this current poser-POTUS and his ivy league Commissars, is the open bias of a partisan left MSM who have so much credibility tied up in this disastrous administration.
The fawning sycophancy spewed by the MSM on even the greatest malfeasance of this administration is disgusting in its patent fraudulence.
Perhaps when the greenback weakens a cent at a time Chris Mathews has larger tingles running down his leg.
There’s a good reason that the G&M is the complimentary newspaper of choice at Hotels across Canada. It’s a grand deception trying to make you think you are paying what it’s worth – nothing, while its cost is actually built into your room rate. I always ask for the NP and hope that others do the same.
There should not have been a debt ceiling increase without real cuts to all federal agencies and programs. The visibility of this sham seems to be triggering a market crash and possibly a double dip recession. One hopes that by 2012, the left-liberal liars, looters, and thugs (including establishment Republicans) are driven back into the dark recesses of society where they belong. Otherwise it’s Mad Max time.
Apparently the stock market doesn’t agree with the G&M which used to be Canada’s business newspaper!
Fred: 160 trillion?? Ah yes, that pesky decimal point. Fred just made a 144 trillion dollar error. Hey, math is hard. If you’re an American, Fred, I suggest you run for Congress.
Trillion, schmillion, gazillion. George Bush is reputed to have thought that a gazillion was a citizen of Gaza. Fred, meet George. George, meet Fred.
Over to you, Fred.
“Tax reforms that would also have helped reduce the debt are entirely absent.”
Which “tax reforms”? The ones that would have taxed businesses and persons earning over 200k per year,and driven more jobs overseas?
Allah almighty,these “journalists” just CANNOT get over their infatuation with “The Great Pretender”,can they?
And Obama will have added ten trillion to the debt in said ten years, added to his already out of control deficit in ten years the US will owe twenty trillion dollars or more considering the interest rate.
Wow. In an Editorial none the less. What a bunch of maroons. The comment above about it being the freebie of choice at hotels is correct. I travel a lot and regularly I’m a recipient of this rag. Generally I use it as a bib when eating in my room ’cause I tend to be a bit sloppy…
WHAT?
I know the guy’s got a Greek name, but does he have to think like a Greek?
I’m referring to the Reuters’ writer, James Pethokoukis, whom you read if you click on the “debt” link …
“U.S. Debt Reaches 100 Percent of Country’s GDP”
I blame Reagan.
A rope, cut in half and joined at the other end, doubles the length of the rope!
from Davenport’s link:
“Obama inherited a collapsed economy when he took office. He hasn’t done much to help it, but he didn’t make the mess.”
Obama didn’t make the mess?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Sub-prime mortgages made the ‘mess’, President Jimmy Carter’s CRA was the plan for a bomb(housing bubble backed by Fanny and Freddie) that would blow up the U.S. economy, President BJ Clinton weaponized the bomb, and *lawyer/community organizer Barack Obama activated the timer.(forced sub-prime mortgage loans)
After the bomb blew up(housing bubble burst) the U.S. economy President Barack Obama has been running around looting the disaster zone(U.S. economy) and blocking the rebuilding efforts.
*
http://tinyurl.com/528mhf
Obama’s one and only job ever was, specifically, “making the mess”.
To be extremely kind to the folks at the Grope & Flail I can’t believe they are truly as dense as this editorial suggests. Rather, I think they, and the world’s politicians, are flat out terrified that the West has borrowed itself into a Crash of biblical proportions, and they haven’t a clue how to mitigate the coming disaster. Nor do they even have the will to try. So for now it’s “and the band played on” to keep the masses stupified.
It is indeed truly dismal. Just a one per cent increase in interest rates will entirely demolish the value of the budget cuts. Anyone who thinks that the US isn’t getting a credit downgrade over the next year or so is dreaming in technicolour, despite what the braniacs at Fitch said this week.
I think the mope and wail is simply parroting Obama. Obama said the same thing the day the debt ceiling was raised. It makes my head swim to realize that the president of the USA doesn’t know the difference between borrowing and repaying.
“Obama fails to fight for his values.” No, the truth is that Obama has no weapons anymore, aside from his veto pen.
The last couple of years has proven that Obama not only doesn’t get anyone elected, but his participation in an election produces a loss for the Dem that Obama is supporting. So, Obama can’t save anyone’s election.
And he also can’t shower gifts / pork on anyone either now, since the whole point of this exercise is to cut the budget.
So if he can’t swing an election, or give out goodies… what power does he have, aside from his veto pen, to “fight”?
It is largely irrelevant whether S&P, Moodys change their ratings.
This raising the debt ceiling amounts to permission to borrow….it is no guarantee that the lenders will lend.
With all the publicity involved will individuals buy T-bills….will institutional lenders lend if no one is interested in THEIR paper backed by toxic T-bills.
What happens if this issue of T-bills is not subscribed or not completely….it has occurred before.
Only the idiot limousine liberals will invest in T-bills….they are now toxic assets.
Is math really necessary?
Don’t worry the mop and pail will do their usual and change the article without noting it.
I used to work in a Fairmont hotel; the only useful or accurate thing I found in the G/M was the advert for my Dell computer. Yes I’m exaggerating but not by much. The only reason I bothered reading it was it allowed me to ignore the Goreshipping Liberal d-bags that seem to infest the service industry while in the cafeteria.
Mr. Silo sir, please tell us rubes, how much of a “cut” is $2.6 trillion over ten years. You know, given inflation, baseline budgeting, unfunded social programs, and etc.
Many “progressives” secretly (and not so secretly) desire the total economic destruction of the United States. Whether this is due to animosity over losing the cold war, a demented notion of wealth redistribution to the third world or something entirely different is immaterial. The key point is that most lefties gleefully support anything that burns their own house down.
My understanding is that we “saved” at least half a trillion dollars by forgoing an invasion of Canada. All the agreement did was to codify the unprecedented deficits.
The credit card limit has been reached, and exceeded, in the United States.
There are only two responsible economic directions.
A socialist one, in which one is willing to spend vast amounts of money, yet, cover it with taxes and revenue, and avoid going into deficit terroritory.
Or a small government approach in which one spends significantly less, yet still collects the revenue for what one is spending. Whether it be defence, entitlements, etc.
There is no moral or economic difference between a spendthrift socialist, or a spendthrift ‘conservative’.
A debt is a debt.
One day, the Chinese are going to say: “Cash only!”, and it will be a reality check to whomoever is in power.
“One day, the Chinese are going to say: “Cash only!””
Then what, do we have to make our own stuff again? What a disaster.
Yes, it does indeed matter, Sasquatch. As the US becomes less creditworthy, the rating agencies downgrade the debt, requiring higher interest rates to roll it over. Not just the new debt, all of it. A country’s paper can always be sold, even Greece’s. The question is how much the market will demand in interest for it.
Good point Tim, the wholesale destruction of industry was all part of the plan, in hindsight of the hivemind that’s gone full bore to destroy North American culture. I spent years working industrial labor after realizing that the “intellectual industry” was corrupt and morally bankrupt. Dropped out of University after spending 6 years and $50,000 of my credit rating and picked up my trade(s) and walked into a profession.etc etc.
My lawyer brother makes less than me. I don’t gloat as a personal policy, but my 2 years of philosophy (after science and engineering) means I argue him into the ground every time.
[d]
Bernie Maddoff was a small timer compared to the Ponzi scheme of deficit financing that the butcher’s bill is finally becoming due.
Perhaps only the Green racketeers come close.
Does anyone remember the episode of “The Simpsons” when Lisa gave all she had in her piggy bank to help a cash-strapped Springfield and Mayor Quimby noted that it was just what he needed to pay the Sky Caps?
Yeah….
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/1F08.html
“Mr. Silo sir, please tell us rubes, how much of a “cut” is $2.6 trillion over ten years. You know, given inflation, baseline budgeting, unfunded social programs, and etc.”
Well, Phantom, I suppose I could say: “not much”. I’m sure you would agree. So what? What’s the point of your comment?
My point was not that Fred made a $144 trillion dollar error in his comment or that Fred is stupid because he made a decimal point error. It was because his error went unnoticed. My larger point is that we are dealing in numbers that, while they are nearly incomprehensible, we should at least try to grasp their significance. If we are not willing to make the mental effort to do this then our complaints about the size of these numbers becomes reduced to a mindless carping.
I’ll tell you what, Phantom, have a go at posting an example of how we might grasp how large a trillion dollars really is and I will do the same. Deal?
They say there is no bottomless pit. I think Obama has proved the World wrong.
DJIA down over 500 points.
Maybe the G&M idiots will understand “voting with your feet”.
Grasping the size of a trillion dollars.
An old American silver dollar weighs about 1 oz. Sixteen of the them weigh a pound. If you filled a 15 ton dump truck with them it would hold about 1/2 a million dollars (30,000 x 16). Two of them would hold a million dollars.
Now, quickly, ask youself how many of these dump trucks you would need to carry a trillion dollars worth of these coins?
The answer: Surprise! You would need 2 million of these trucks. T.W.O. M.I.L.L.I.O.N. That’s a lot of effing trucks. Let’s try to conceptualise how many trucks this is.
For the sake of convenience, I will specify that each truck is 26′ long. Parked bumper to bumper, it would take 200 of these trucks to have a length of one mile.
Now, quickly, ask yourself what would be the length of two million trucks?
The answer: 10,000 miles long. (2 million divided by 200)
This line would stretch from NY city to San Francisco four times over. This year’s Obama deficit will be about 1.5 trillion so we can multiply our figures by 1 1/2. The line of trucks with this much money would go from NY city to San Francisco six times over.
Can you imagine a line of 15 ton dump trucks parked bumper to bumper, six trucks wide, from N.Y. city to San Francisco, each carrying 500 thousand dollars worth of silver coins? No? Neither can I but that line of trucks, laden with silver, represents what the Obama administration wants to borrow this year.
If one has to resort to these kinds of examples to try to grasp the amount of money involved in the American deficit then we are in very strange territory indeed.
Do you think that the Obama administration has any idea of what they are doing? I don’t. Truly, I don’t.
Posted by: mikhail silo at August 4, 2011 7:09 PM
Kate posted a neat link to just how much mass of paper or gold is a $USD trillion.
It was a month or two ago, and I didn’t bookmark.
Heh Google found it. Well the paper part anyways.
http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/calculations.html
As it happens, 114 trillion is the amount of the unfunded mandates if I remember right.
Visualizing the national debt:
//usdebt.kleptocracy.us/
How is an increase in spending a “cut”?