How is it the US is in such financial trouble ?

[ironglow]

... Perhaps this one example among thousands, will help to explain it !
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu6ok5ykyuQ&feature=share
 
    And the Washington politicians tell us we should be ashamed that we are unwilling to put our children and grandchildren in lifelong debt.. in order to follow this stupid spending..
   As the Tea Party says.." we don't have a revenue problem..we have a spending problem"..
 
  IT'S THE SPENDING STUPID !!!

[mauser98us]

It's called radical liberalism.

[DDZ]

Pretty nice huh? I think I'm going to quit my job. Why get up at 5:00 every day to go to work when you can get stuff like that from people who do work. Of coarse I would have to jump on the band wagon that rails against rich guys that don't pay enough taxes. I would also have to change how I vote. No problem there though. I would just have to pay attention to who is saying they are going to give me stuff, and vote for them. It would probably work to just pull the democrat lever. 
I wonder why I don't feel good now. I guess it might have been that video.   

[mauser98us]

Social Security has long ago been raided to pay for social programs. That money has been long gone for years thanks to LBJ and his Great Society.

[The Hermit]

The Social Security "Trust" Fund does not exist. It is a line item book entry of the US Gov..  Funds from payroll deductions go directly to the general fund. (please ignor that man behind the curtain pulling chains, trust us..) Think Ponzi scheme, you know, like Bernie Madoff, only bigger.
Misuse of taxpayers money, unchallenged fraud, freedom suppressing laws, arrogant politicians,unprotected borders,millions to study the sex life of tetse flies, etc etc, ON BORROWED MONEY, = "financial trouble".
 
What happens to an individual who lives like that? Bankruptcy !! Ron Paul is regretfully right... There is still a lot of garbage on the books of major banks that is being ignored. Look for a forgiveness plan funded by taxpayers. Good grief. 
Where's my little pills..??  Clutches chest...
 
The Hermit

[Junior1942]

Question: "How is it the US is in such financial trouble ?"
Answer: Eight years of GWB signing every spending bill which crossed his desk in order to get his tax cuts for the wealthy through.  It's like buying a new car when your salary has been cut.  Put another way, our outgo exceeded our intake so our upkeep became our downfall.
 

[BUGEYE]

Question: "How is it the US is in such financial trouble ?"
Answer: Eight years of GWB signing every spending bill which crossed his desk in order to get his tax cuts for the wealthy through.  It's like buying a new car when your salary has been cut.  Put another way, our outgo exceeded our intake so our upkeep became our downfall.

who originated those spending bills?    or was GWB the only person in washington for 8 years?

[magooch]

Okay, lets blame GWB for everything that has gone wrong.  Let's also ignore how two years of obama and the dumbycrat Congress has made it ten times worse.  Now, if the fix is to continue with even greater profligate spending, over regulation, job killing taxation and mindless lies, we've got the right man in office.  So what's the problem.

[45-70.gov]

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the  U.S.
income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000         
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to.
Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and compare household budget for the fictitious John Q. Public, an American Taxpayer.

Total annual income for John’s family: $21,700
Annual dollars John’s family spends: $38,200 
New debt added to John’s credit card: $16,500
Outstanding debt on John’s credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from John’s family budget: $385

Surreal huh? 
Our Congress has worked this out to our benefit, don’t you think?

[magooch]

Am I missing something, or is my computer unable to work through all the clutter?

[Dee]

Thread title: HOW IS IT THE U.S. IS IN SUCH FINANCIAL TROUBLE?
 
An easy, and most obvious answer. SPENDING MORE THAN THEY BRING IN! It ain't complicated. Works the same with any household.

[45-70.gov]

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the  U.S.
income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000         
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to.
Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and compare household budget for the fictitious John Q. Public, an American Taxpayer.

Total annual income for John’s family: $21,700
Annual dollars John’s family spends: $38,200 
New debt added to John’s credit card: $16,500
Outstanding debt on John’s credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from John’s family budget: $385

Surreal huh? 
Our Congress has worked this out to our benefit, don’t you think?

took  me a few minutes to fix it
the copy and paste didnt work right

[powderman]

Thread title: HOW IS IT THE U.S. IS IN SUCH FINANCIAL TROUBLE?
 
An easy, and most obvious answer. SPENDING MORE THAN THEY BRING IN! It ain't complicated. Works the same with any household.

 
YEP, and mostly waste, in my opinion. The lou Courier journal had a story about how govt subsidises airlines. Over $200 million wasted for just one example. For the amt of tickets sold the tickets cost over $4,000 apiece. POWDERMAN. 

[BUGEYE]

ya know,  the libs talk like social security and medicare are the only thing the guvment spends money on.   they don't mention useless bureaucracies, acorn, nea etc. which means they have no intention of cutting spending.

[Junior1942]

ya know,  the libs talk like social security and medicare are the only thing the guvment spends money on.   they don't mention useless bureaucracies, acorn, nea etc. which means they have no intention of cutting spending.

So why so much talk from the tp about cutting Social Security and Medicare?  How about a moratorium on federal grants?  That includes Pell Grants.  Every city in the USA operates on Federal Grants.  End it.  Let the residents of Monroe, Louisiana, buy their own new water meters and return their $10,000,000 Federal Grant.
PS: the problem with ending Federal Grants is that YOUR town/city depends on them for new cop cars, cop overtime, radar sets, communication systems, water systems, sewer systems--Urania Louisiana just got a free $2,500,000 for a new sewerage treatment plant. The list goes on and on.  Billions of dollars borrowed from China and given away while you tp fools want to kick old people out of hospitals and nursing homes.  Shame on you.

[SwampThing762]

The US has gotten into trouble by spending more money than it collects in revenues.  the libs on GBO and in Congress blame the tea party and GWB for the whole mess.    The tea party movement does not get any money from the feds, unlike the liberal orbs such as Planned Parenthood, the Nat Endowment for the Arts, CPB/PBS, NPR, and a few other things.   When GWB left office, the total debt was a bit over $8 trillion.   Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have added another 6 trillion, and just guaranteed another $3 trillion to the debt.   The Obummer regime now can claim credit for 50% of the national debt -- now THAT's a legacy!!

One component of this crisis is all the fact that nearly 51% of American households pay no federal income tax, but get government benefits.   Marco Rubio is correct in saying we need more taxpayers, not more taxes.    I think we should lower income tax rates across the board, and institute a federal sales tax that would also catch online purchases.   A key to the solution of tax revenues would be to expand the taxbase to include those people who pay no income tax, and a federal sales tax would accomplish that goal.

ST762

[BUGEYE]

ya know,  the libs talk like social security and medicare are the only thing the guvment spends money on.   they don't mention useless bureaucracies, acorn, nea etc. which means they have no intention of cutting spending.

So why so much talk from the tp about cutting Social Security and Medicare?  How about a moratorium on federal grants?  That includes Pell Grants.  Every city in the USA operates on Federal Grants.  End it.  Let the residents of Monroe, Louisiana, buy their own new water meters and return their $10,000,000 Federal Grant.
PS: the problem with ending Federal Grants is that YOUR town/city depends on them for new cop cars, cop overtime, radar sets, communication systems, water systems, sewer systems--Urania Louisiana just got a free $2,500,000 for a new sewerage treatment plant. The list goes on and on.  Billions of dollars borrowed from China and given away while you tp fools want to kick old people out of hospitals and nursing homes.  Shame on you.

I have not heard a single "tp fool" mention throwing old people out of hospitals and nursing homes.  that was your messiah, imam obama, who wanted to stop SS and medicare payments.
we are not supposed to call people fools (per God) but I realize that you and your messiah are ignorant of Gods word.

[moorepower]

OK, entitlements account for around 60% of govt. spending.
The "budget" is $3.8T
60% of the "budget" is $2.28T
The taxes collected are $$2.1T
You can not tax people enough to even balance the annual budget, let alone pay down the debt. The social utopia is done. The house of cards are falling all over the world. And what happens IF the health care cluster mess ever goes into effect? Add $1T a year to the $3.8T. Until the majority of the population figures out that SS is a ponzi scheme, and the the average person can not take out 3 times more than he puts in, I feel we are really FUBAR. Poverty in the U.S.A. is a cell phone, 2 color tv's, cable, and all appliances. Poverty in alot of the world is no food or clean water to drink. Life is not fair, and the world is not fair. Welfare and Medicare were supposed to be a safety net, not a lifestyle. When the retirement age was set for SS at 65, people did not live much longer than that. Now if I die, SS pays my son a check every month so he can go to school, make car payments ect. Gosh, I wonder why I thought I was responsible for life insurance to cover that. There is so much more to SS and Medicare than keeping granny from eating dog food. Heck, Medicare in the U.S. will buy her a new hip at 95. When the half of the population that pays NO Federal Income Tax, "most get a credit" figures out that by voting for the right guys that they can control the check book, the country is done. Oh wait, they figured it out. 

[ironglow]

  Obama's toadies say the conservatives are trying to cut funds for medicare...                
  Let's not forget he already robbed Medicare of $500 billions and stuffed it down the drain into Obamacare..    
 
   Hard to believe, there are STILL some of his original voters looking for their dose of "change" and "Hopium"...       

[JustaShooter]

Spending problem....sure. Please note that the Cantor brokered debt agreement did not reduce mil-intel spending ONE CENT....not touched and agreed on by so-called commie Prez and and party....not a cent; and this represents over half of our national expenditures. 

Sigh.  Once again, TM, you've gotten it wrong.  The Military budget is no where near "over half of our national expenditures" - in reality, it is about 25% of total US expenditures: (As of 2011, http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/budget_gs.php)

United States Government Spending
FY 2011 in $ billion

Pensions	793.2
Health Care	882.0
Education	129.8
Defense	964.8
Welfare	495.6
Protection	60.7
Transportation	94.5
General Government	33.2
Other Spending	158.4
Interest	206.7
Total Spending	3,818.8

 

So, 964.8 / 3818.8 = 25.26% - As usual TM, you are off just a bit...

Kind of makes you wonder, with all of the things you can be so easily proven to be wrong about, how accurate you can be with the things that can't be so easily proven?

Just Sayin'

Just a Shooter

[BUGEYE]

Spending problem....sure. Please note that the Cantor brokered debt agreement did not reduce mil-intel spending ONE CENT....not touched and agreed on by so-called commie Prez and and party....not a cent; and this represents over half of our national expenditures. 

Sigh.  Once again, TM, you've gotten it wrong.  The Military budget is no where near "over half of our national expenditures" - in reality, it is about 25% of total US expenditures: (As of 2011, http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/budget_gs.php)

United States Government Spending
FY 2011 in $ billion

Pensions	793.2
Health Care	882.0
Education	129.8
Defense	964.8
Welfare	495.6
Protection	60.7
Transportation	94.5
General Government	33.2
Other Spending	158.4
Interest	206.7
Total Spending	3,818.8

 

So, 964.8 / 3818.8 = 25.26% - As usual TM, you are off just a bit...

Kind of makes you wonder, with all of the things you can be so easily proven to be wrong about, how accurate you can be with the things that can't be so easily proven?

Just Sayin'

Just a Shooter

[SwampThing762]

Shooter,

Good call.   And also notice that Pappy Obammy did not even metion taking away welfare gimmes which are nearly $500 billion dollars.  We could trim a bunch of fat right there.  Make the moochers get a job and start paying taxes!!

ST762

[ironglow]

TM worries about spending for the military.  The US govt is REQUIRED to support the military and most other programs should be cut before even thinking about cutting the military budget.  The preamble to the US constitution explains what the federal govt is authorized to do..beyond that are just political "power grabs"..
 
       The Preamble to the US constitution:
**********************************************************************************************
   " We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America".
 ****************************************************************************************
 
   So TM; did you see that phrase in there.."provide for the common defense"..?  That TM is the military...and the primary  expense in running our nation...
   Did you see anything in that preamble OR the constitution...about giving million$ or billion$ to ACORN, The ACLU, PBS, pell grants, WIC, food stamps, Nat Endowment for the Arts..or changing NASA to a Muslim self-esteem society ? .....Or a thousand other give-away programs tha feds sponsor..with OUR tax money ?
 
  At least when we are funding the military, we are staying within the bounds of the US Constitution..and doing as real patriots have done since 1776..

[magooch]

Much to take into consideration here, but the idea of instituting a national sales tax is just more of the same tax and spend, spend and tax that got us into this mess.  However, the problem isn't going to get fixed without some kind of action.  A sales tax is a way to get everyone in the game, but the only way that it has any chance of actually working is if it is totally restricted by a Constitutional Amendment to paying off the debt.  The amount of the tax must be set by Constitutional Amendment and a balanced budget must also be Constitutionally mandated. 
Is any of the above possible?  No; we're screwed.

[SwampThing762]

magooch,

I only mention a national sales tax as a component of tax reform, and we must have more taxpayers to have sufficient revenue to pay down the debt beyond current levels.   If you don't believe me on expanding the tax base, email my Senator.  His name is Marco Rubio.   A national sales tax has a much better chance of passage than a constitutional amendment, but the legislation much accompanied by a measure that reduces income tax rates by an identical, or slightly higher, percentage.     

Is any of it possible? Yes.

Is any of it possible with Obama in the White House? No, that is is the circumstance under which we are screwed.

ST762

[Junior1942]

Spending problem....sure. Please note that the Cantor brokered debt agreement did not reduce mil-intel spending ONE CENT....not touched and agreed on by so-called commie Prez and and party....not a cent; and this represents over half of our national expenditures. 

Sigh.  Once again, TM, you've gotten it wrong.  The Military budget is no where near "over half of our national expenditures" - in reality, it is about 25% of total US expenditures: (As of 2011, http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/budget_gs.php)

United States Government Spending
FY 2011 in $ billion

Pensions	793.2
Health Care	882.0
Education	129.8
Defense	964.8
Welfare	495.6
Protection	60.7
Transportation	94.5
General Government	33.2
Other Spending	158.4
Interest	206.7
Total Spending	3,818.8

 

So, 964.8 / 3818.8 = 25.26% - As usual TM, you are off just a bit...

Kind of makes you wonder, with all of the things you can be so easily proven to be wrong about, how accurate you can be with the things that can't be so easily proven?

Just Sayin'

Just a Shooter

Speaking of "accurate," do you have data from a site whose purpose for existing isn't to elect Republicans?

[lakota]

Question: "How is it the US is in such financial trouble ?"
Answer: Eight years of GWB signing every spending bill which crossed his desk in order to get his tax cuts for the wealthy through.  It's like buying a new car when your salary has been cut.  Put another way, our outgo exceeded our intake so our upkeep became our downfall.

who originated those spending bills?    or was GWB the only person in washington for 8 years?

Another question-Is GWB still the one signing the spending sprees err I mean bills?

[streak]

Government is way to big! Cut way back on size of government, alot of it is not necessary anyway and is nothing but a parastic plague!

[JustaShooter]

Spending problem....sure. Please note that the Cantor brokered debt agreement did not reduce mil-intel spending ONE CENT....not touched and agreed on by so-called commie Prez and and party....not a cent; and this represents over half of our national expenditures. 

Sigh.  Once again, TM, you've gotten it wrong.  The Military budget is no where near "over half of our national expenditures" - in reality, it is about 25% of total US expenditures: (As of 2011, http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/budget_gs.php)

United States Government Spending
FY 2011 in $ billion

Pensions	793.2
Health Care	882.0
Education	129.8
Defense	964.8
Welfare	495.6
Protection	60.7
Transportation	94.5
General Government	33.2
Other Spending	158.4
Interest	206.7
Total Spending	3,818.8

 

So, 964.8 / 3818.8 = 25.26% - As usual TM, you are off just a bit...

Kind of makes you wonder, with all of the things you can be so easily proven to be wrong about, how accurate you can be with the things that can't be so easily proven?

Just Sayin'

Just a Shooter

Speaking of "accurate," do you have data from a site whose purpose for existing isn't to elect Republicans?

Sure, try http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy11/pdf/summary.pdf - hopefully, the US Government Printing Office is good enough for you.
Or maybe you prefer the Office of Management and Budget: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/tables.pdf

A bit more difficult to read (and I'll expect a thank-you for drilling down to the the summary for you), but the numbers are there. Actually, both of these put the percentage a tad lower: Total expenditures for 2011: $3,819 billion, total security spending, $891 billion, or 23.33%.

Just a Shooter

[JustaShooter]

IG....yeah, it says promote the common defense,,,,not world security forces, or to promote GWOT, etc. it also says to promote the general welfare....

Actually, it says "provide for the common defense": "provide" - Equip or supply someone with (something useful or necessary) - indeed, a mandate to do it, and "common defense" can certainly mean beyond our borders if it is in our national security interests.  But before you go branding me with one of your derogatory acronyms or terms, I think we do take it a bit too far at times.

And "promote the general welfare" - "promote" - To urge the adoption of; advocate - very different than "provide".  Far from being mandated to equip or supply the general welfare, the US gov't is to advocate or urge the adoption of.  Too bad our gov't doesn't understand the difference.

Just a Shooter