[vision-master]

[AgentR11]

VM.. you're posting stuff that I think most people know. Is there a point, are are you just posting random stuff for entertainment value?

[dinopello]

There is one, sure thing that any individual can do to reduce the national debt

[Adelaidewonderer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he U.S. government recorded a budget shortfall of $188 billion in March, the Treasury Department said Tuesday in a report likely to add new fuel to the raging political debate about government debt and spending.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ARCH DEFICIT: The federal government recorded a $188.2 billion deficit in March, bringing the red ink to $829.4 billion for the first six months of the budget year.

RECORD PACE: The deficit is on track to set a new record, with economists at the Congressional Budget Office forecasting an imbalance of $1.5 trillion this year, exceeding the old record of $1.41 trillion in 2009.

SPENDING CUTS: Analysts say the $38 billion in spending cuts that negotiators agreed to last week to avert a government shutdown won't prevent the deficit from climbing to a record this year because most of those cuts will either not take effect until future years or amount to accounting gimmicks that won't reduce actual spending.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financia ... ICQ2O0.htm

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')
Good God, that's almost $200 billion in the hole for just one month -- so that would be a trillion dollars added to the debt every five months. With no end in sight.

[Adelaidewonderer]

Well i guess it costs alot to import paper to print dollar bills on.

[Sixstrings]

Turns out the $38 billion cut is a big lie. They didn't cut anything.. the cut was all accounting gimmicks, or offset by INCREASES in Defense:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')BO Says Budget Deal Will Cut Spending by Only $352 Million

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the fiscal 2011 spending deal that Congress will vote on Thursday concludes that it would cut spending this year by less than one-one hundredth of what both Republicans or Democrats have claimed.

A comparison prepared by the CBO shows that the omnibus spending bill, advertised as containing some $38.5 billion in cuts, will only reduce federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending rates. The nonpartisan budget agency also projects that total outlays are actually some $3.3 billion more than in 2010, if emergency spending is included in the total.

The astonishing result, according to CBO, is the result of several factors: increases in spending included in the deal, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from recissions, cuts to reserve funds, and mandatory-spending programs; and writing off cuts from funding that might never have been spent.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/budget/c ... n-20110413

[eXpat]

Well, that was fast!
Here We Go Again: US To Breach "Transitory" Debt Ceiling On Monday
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is hard to believe that the last time the US had breached its debt ceiling was a whopping one month ago. Courtesy of much toil, tears and televized theater (not to mention fake compromises), the Obama administration managed to get an accordion-feature extension of the debt-ceiling-cum-target, whereby it is currently at $14.694 trillion, and can be extended in $500 billion increments, for a total of $1.5 trillion provided congress and senate do not vote down such an expansion. The reason we bring this up is because as the data below demonstrates, the US Treasury will breach its brand new debt ceiling... on Monday.

That's right: as of yesterday, total US debt was $14.717 trillion (obviously an all time record, and every day closer to parity with US GDP), while debt subject to the ceiling was $16.772 trillion, or just $22 billion below the total before someone has to go ahead and commence the whole debt ceiling fiasco from scratch. And since as the Treasury is auctioning off another $32 billion in 3 Year bonds on Monday, that process better scramble or else all that rhetoric about Social Security being nothing but a plundered ponzi scheme will be proven true yet again. And while we see flashing headlines that Obama's proposal is now set to be a bullshit $450 billion (bullshit because republican will absolutely not go ahead with it), we are positive that not one word will be uttered to inform the public that as of this moment Harry Reed has already started the process of the next $500 billion debt ceiling expansion, one which will bring total US debt-to-GDP to over 100% for the first time since the post-WW2 period.

[Cog]

In one month, after the rancorous debate about the debt ceiling,we are ready to breach it again. Tell me again how spending is not the problem?