Federal Budget Deficit is Large......

Bush has destroyed the country's ability to recover, he has created a debt that will hinder the country's future. We have a National Debt that is dependent on foreign countries to buy the bonds, a National Debt that keeps growing due to a created war of occupation, and a National Debt that keeps growing due to the worst president in US history.

 

It's not "our" money that they are loaning back. It's their money that we gave to them in trade. They didn't steal it from us; no one made us do it. You can scream and complain about the fairness of their tactics and protectionist markets, but at the end of the day we willingly hand over the money to buy their goods. We either have to change our ways or wait for global economics to level the playing field (which might not be much fun for us).

Tom

 

Hmm, you're concerned about the trade deficit. You know the single largest item we import is petroleum, which at 9.8 million barrels/day is now 55% of our trade imbalance, and climbing? URL, URL

I'd rather be sending my money to Japan than to Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Angola, Nigeria (among the top 6 oil importers).

 

Quick!!!

1. Go through your house and throw out absolutely everything that was not entirely manufactured in the US of A.

2. Put it all by the curb (under a tarp, if you don't mind).

3. PM me your address.

4. I'll be over to pick it up later.

We live in a global market now.

Your little bit of naïveté has grown a bit long in the tooth.

 

Huh what? Did you say the house is on fire? F it, we're all gonna continue to sit on the couch, stuff our pie holes with potato chips and switch the remote control between survivor and american idol.

 

I like pie.

 

You need to cast your net a little wider. Bush doesn't actually create the budget, or the debt for that matter. Congess does. Granted, the Bush administration suggests a budget to Congress, and Bush holds some influence in Congress, and some of Bush's actions, such as the Iraq War, require money from the budget to be spent, but Bush doesn't actually create or pass the budget. This year it will be the Democrat controlled Senate and House that will create and pass the budget. Not one penny will be spent that hasn't been blessed by the Democrats (and Republicans) in Congress.

So, if you direct all your anger about the budget at Bush, then your aim is off. You're ignoring the people who actually wield the budgeting power. The ones who will still be in office 8 months from now.

 

And to think we had a large budget surplus only 7 years ago! I say, tax the passive income higher than earned income, no 'special treatment for capital gains, and make a huge inheritance tax on estates over some large amount (1,000,000,000?). People who then begin to shelter money overseas? Rescind their US citizenship and freeze their assets. Corporations claim to be nothing more than individual citizens so tax them at the same rates on GROSS income. There is a diabolical reason for these deficits. It ties the hands of presidents who want to do good for the majority of the population, like rebuild schools, roads, hospitals etc.. We need TWO budgets. One for when Rs are in power and one for when Ds are in power. That way you cut the diabolical thinkers off at the knees.

 

I'm actually very frustrated with the budget deficit and trade imbalance.

The United States as a country is sort of like a sub-prime borrower getting an interest only ARM for a house they couldn't afford. It's going to blow up in our face in a big way in the coming decades.

The sort of phenomenon we see now were never inevitable, they're just the result of corrupt, short-sighted "leaders" adjusting policy to favor the social elite. Be it massive tax cuts on the rich or the destruction of trade barriers which allow corporations to close shop in America and run sweatshops in China, we've seen our country slowly dismantled for the profit of a few.

If you think the trillion dollars flowing out of our country is scary, just wait until China grows thirsty for the dwindling supply of oil that is America's lifeline (thanks to government policy favoring oil and auto companies). Maybe China will get a chance to use all the equipment they're buying up in their explosive military build-up we financed with our trade dollars and debt.

 

Who's stoopider? The borrower who borrows more than he can afford? or the lender who lends to this idiot borrower who obviously is going to default on the loan?

And WHEN(not if) we default, what's China gonna do, send Vinny over here and bust some skulls? Nope. Nothing will happen.

They'll certainly have a lot of financial leverage and the deck stacked in their favor to replace us as the next world power. Hell they are already laying the groundwork to do so ala resource extraction in Africa:

China's Influence in Africa: Implications for the United States

Good for them. Let's become the next outdated british empire. They are doing just fine without all the empire bs.

 

Saudi Arabia was ranked #4 in Parade's top ten world dictators.

Japan didn't even make the list.

Who would I rather do business with?

And.....it's all BUSH's fault. Let us all, please, remember the leadership of the GOP for the next 16 years at the very least. It will take us that long to clean up the mess.

Malorn is getting monotonous.

 

You are correct, I don't know where my first link got the numbers that were used. By December though, it had increased to about 45% of the trade deficit, so 55% is non-petroleum as of the last monthly report.

Still, petroleum is our largest single import by dollars. I agree, our trade deficit is definitely something to be concerned about, but we see different targets.