World Politics

[Anonymous]

US National Debt, January 30, 2009 >>>>> $10,632,005,246,736.97

US National Debt, May 27, 2011 >>>>>>> $14,345,428,204,844.19

I’ve called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad . This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans.

—President Obama, State of the Union Address, January 27, 2010

Obama spending plan criticized for avoiding deficit commission's major proposals

Erskine Bowles, the Democratic chairman of the fiscal commission, said the White House budget request goes "nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare."

"I would have preferred to see the administration get out front on addressing the entitlements and the tax reform that we need to reduce long-run deficits," said Alice Rivlin, a commission member who served as budget director in the Clinton White House. "But they clearly made a tactical decision that this is not the best way to get to a positive result."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/13/AR2011021302969.html


Edit: I forgot to add this.... Obama's 2012 Budget proposal failed in the Senate 97 - 0. Not a SINGLE vote for it.

 

[redtreviso]

US National Debt, January 30, 2009 >>>>> $10,632,005,246,736.97

US National Debt, May 27, 2011 >>>>>>> $14,345,428,204,844.19

gee how'd that happen?

 

[Anonymous]

gee how'd that happen?

Dubya is still the Prez?? Where have I been....?

 

[redtreviso]

Dubya is still the Prez?? Where have I been....?

at a bar? Your refrigerator? That's your (drunk) Bush writing a check for something else not paid for..

 

[redtreviso]

suppose he drinks much?


""He is a far-right Republican in California, and toes the GOP stance of climate change denial. Recently, he made a statement that’s pretty bizarre, and it’s making the rounds on the internet. There was a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee (which he chairs) about UN climate policies and the US contributions to it. On the stand as a witness was the "top U.S. climate diplomat" Todd Stern… and Rohrabacher asked him this:

"Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rainforests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases? … Or would people be supportive of cutting down older trees in order to plant younger trees as a means to prevent this disaster from happening?"


...

Unsurprisingly, Representative Rohrabacher’s statements are getting him lambasted across the web, so I decided to go to his site and see if he had a followup to it. He does, and oh my, it’s a beaut:

Once again those with a global agenda have created a straw man by misrepresenting the position of their critics. I do not believe that CO2 is a cause of global warming, nor have I ever advocated the reduction of CO2 through the clearing of rainforests or cutting down older trees to prevent global warming. But that is how my question to a witness during my subcommittee hearing on May 25th is being reported. I simply asked the witness, Dr. Todd Stern, who is a supporter of a global climate treaty that would dramatically hurt the standard of living for millions of human beings, if he was considering a policy that would address naturally emitted carbon dioxide, which makes up over 90% of emissions.""

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/05/31/dana-rohrabacher-r-ca-on-climate-change-makes-wrong-even-wronger/#more-32559

 

[rhubroma]

Scott, all ideology aside, at the end of the Clinton administration we had a surplus. After two terms of the republican Bush administration, which is always calling for less taxes and government spending (evidently, though, only in regards to social and welfare things) the next president was left with the highest federal debt in the history of the nation.

This was caused by outrageous government spending on multi-front wars and a fiscal policy that expected (because of ideology) that taxes wouldn't have to be exorbitantly raised to pay for them. Then there was the myopic policy of banking and financial market deregulation, which has been born in the years of Reaganomics, that led to the bubble that burst at Wall Street and the collapse of the US housing market. All of which Ron Paulson waisted no time in asking the American citizens to pay for out of pocket to save those colossal financial banks that were too big to fail.

Objectively this is where the majority of that debt was racked up, while the military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan has not been totally eliminated. By contrast due to high chain of command pressures had to initially be increased before it is able to be decreased.

The problem with all of this, of course, is that while the private banks, oil corporations and construction contractors like Halliburton have all either made out sweet on the deal, or been saved by us for there disastrous excess; the type of cuts people like yourself would like to see placed into effect now will only hurt the weakest in society, the public schools, medical assistance, the very programs which try to help and stimulate the collective well-being in an modern democracy that was supposed to defend the needs of the greatest number of citizens and not merely those of a few rich and powerful in the corporate plutocracy and military classes.

Sad and tragic really.

 

[Anonymous]

at a bar? Your refrigerator? That's your (drunk) Bush writing a check for something else not paid for..

Wait up... Did Dubya have to pay for Bill not paying attention to Bin Laden and al Qaeda?

Or did the world only start when the Supreme's stole the 2000 election from the inventor of the interwebs?

 

[Anonymous]

Scott, all ideology aside, at the end of the Clinton administration we had a surplus.

I stopped reading right here.

How much debt has been added under the current administration. Why did the current Presidents 2012 budget proposal garner exactly ZERO votes in the US Senate? When was the last time the US Senate unanimously agreed on anything regarding fiscal policy?

Bush is the boogeyman. I get it.

 

[Anonymous]

at a bar? Your refrigerator? That's your (drunk) Bush writing a check for something else not paid for..

Wait up... Did Dubya have to pay for Bill not paying attention to Bin Laden and al Qaeda?

Or did the world only start when the Supreme's stole the 2000 election from the inventor of the interwebs?

 

[rhubroma]

I stopped reading right here.

How much debt has been added under the current administration. Why did the current Presidents 2012 budget proposal garner exactly ZERO votes in the US Senate? When was the last time the US Senate unanimously agreed on anything regarding fiscal policy?

Bush is the boogeyman. I get it.

Let me know why I'm wrong about the first statement, after which you refused to read on.

Then please read the rest and see what's perverse in America.

That's right Bush (and his staff) was the boogyman and much, much more.

 

[rhubroma]

Wait up... Did Dubya have to pay for Bill not paying attention to Bin Laden and al Qaeda...?

What, after he was armed by the Saudis in Afghanistan against the Soviets at the instigation of the Regan-Bush administrations?

You are a citadel of imbecility.

 

[redtreviso]

What, after he was armed by the Saudis at the instigation of the Regan-Bush administrations?

You are a citidel of imbecility.

and an ultra maroon.. to quote a great american philospher

 

[Anonymous]

Let me know why I'm wrong about the first statement, after which you refused to read on.

You are not wrong.

Who is the president now?

When GWB dealt with both the immediate and long term effects of 9/11, would you have argued that to be the fault of Clinton?

Try not to be disengenuous with your response.

 

[redtreviso]

You are not wrong.

Who is the president now?

When GWB dealt with both the immediate and long term effects of 9/11, would you have argued that to be the fault of Clinton?

Try not to be disengenuous with your response.

You mean.. while no one is looking LOOT LOOT LOOT.....Terra terra terra hiccup....

 

[Anonymous]

What, after he was armed by the Saudis in Afghanistan against the Soviets at the instigation of the Regan-Bush administrations?

You are a citidel of imbecility.

Oh my, the lesser of two evils argument rears it's oh-so-ugly head.

I guess we got what was coming to us, eh professore?

 

[Anonymous]

You mean.. while no one is looking LOOT LOOT LOOT.....Terra terra terra hiccup....

So how would you characterize Clinton signing welfare reform??? Balancing the federal budget on the backs of poor black people?


I await your response with bated breath

 

[patricknd]

What, after he was armed by the Saudis in Afghanistan against the Soviets at the instigation of the Regan-Bush administrations?

You are a citidel of imbecility.

i think that's citadel

 

[redtreviso]

So how would you characterize Clinton signing welfare reform??? Balancing the federal budget on the backs of poor black people?


I await your response with bated breath

Welfare reform did not balance the budget..

 

[rhubroma]

i think that's citadel

Touche!

 

[Hugh Januss]

You are not wrong.

Who is the president now?

When GWB dealt with both the immediate and long term effects of 9/11, would you have argued that to be the fault of Clinton?

Try not to be disengenuous with your response.

Except that Shrub didn't really "deal" with shit. In fact he ignored intelligence that may have tipped off the plot.

 

[Hugh Januss]

i think that's citadel

It's probably citidel in Eytalian.

 

[rhubroma]

It's probably citidel in Eytalian.

Nope, that's cittadella.

 

[Anonymous]

Except that Shrub didn't really "deal" with shit. In fact he ignored intelligence that may have tipped off the plot.

Kinda like BO is doing with the debt now, eh?

4 trillion in 2 years. That's amazing. Add another 1.5 Trillion next year.

BTW, did you see the added private sector jobs report?

Employment increased by 38,000 last month, the smallest increase since September, from a revised 177,000 in April, according to figures from ADP Employer Services. The median estimate in the Bloomberg News survey called for a 175,000 advance for May.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-01/adp-estimates-u-s-companies-added-38-000-employees-in-may.html

U.S. private-sector payroll growth slowed sharply in May, falling to the lowest level in eight months and prompting some economists to lower forecasts for job growth in Friday's U.S. government report.

The ADP Employment Services report is the latest in a string of data suggesting economic growth remained sluggish early in the second quarter after hitting a soft patch in the first months of the year. The economy grew at a tepid 1.8 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, softer than analysts originally anticipated.

"This only adds fuel to the argument that the slowdown story is here in the U.S.," said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

"This is exactly what we do not want when other significant data shows things are slowing down as well."

The ADP report showed private employers added a scant 38,000 jobs last month, falling from a downwardly revised 177,000 in April and well short of expectations for 175,000. It was the lowest level since September 2010.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43234521

W's fault I suppose.

Govt to lose $14B of auto bailout funds

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110601/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_autos_2

My initial reaction was.... only 14 billion??


US Manufacturing Growth Slowest Since Sept 2009

The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector tumbled in May, slackening more than expected to its slowest since September 2009, according to an industry report released Wednesday.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 the month before. The reading missed economists' expectations for 57.7.

A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector, while a number above 50 means expansion.

New orders fell to 51.0 from 61.7 in April, the lowest since June 2009. The index for prices paid fell to 76.5 from 85.5, below expectations of 82.0.

GWB?? I guess so....

 

[patricknd]

It's probably citidel in Eytalian.

isn't that eyetalian?

 

[redtreviso]

Kinda like BO is doing with the debt now, eh?

4 trillion in 2 years. That's amazing. Add another 1.5 Trillion next year.

BTW, did you see the added private sector jobs report?



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-01/adp-estimates-u-s-companies-added-38-000-employees-in-may.html




http://www.cnbc.com/id/43234521

W's fault I suppose.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110601/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_autos_2

My initial reaction was.... only 14 billion??


US Manufacturing Growth Slowest Since Sept 2009



GWB?? I guess so....

We may never recover from GWB... Thanks