The National Debt

Sunday Reading

Trump's Tax Cut Is Failing Spectacularly As The GOP's Prediction Go Down In Flames
The Solution To The Country's Debt And Deficit Problem
The Oceans We Know Won't Survive Climate Change
The Cost Of America's Oligopoly Problem
43 Percent Of White Students Harvard Admits Are Legacies, Jocks Or The Kids Of Donors And Faculty
Bernie Sanders Proposes A Wealth Tax: 'I Don't Think That Billionaires Should Exist'
A New 'Report Card' On America's Diet: It's Not An 'F' But...
Beer Made Milwaukee Famous. Can Water Quality Keep The Legacy Alive?
Rethinking State Economic Policies
Comparing Wisconsin And Minnesota

Republican Deficit Hypocrisy

Republican Deficits

Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments

Obama’s Top 50 Accomplishments, Revisited

1. Passed Health Care Reform 

After five presidents over the course of a century failed to create universal health insurance, signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. More than twenty million Americans have gained coverage since the passage of the law, which provides subsidies for Americans to buy coverage, expands Medicaid eligibility, and prohibits insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions. The uninsured rate has dropped from 16 percent in 2010 to 9 percent in 2015. The law also mandates free preventive care, allows young people to stay on their parents’ policies up to age twenty-six, and imposes a ban on annual and lifetime caps on benefits. 

2. Rescued the Economy 

Signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 to spur economic growth amid the most severe downturn since the Great Depression. As of October 2016, the economy had added 15.5 million new jobs since early 2010 and set a record with seventy-three straight months of private-sector job growth. The unemployment rate, which hit a sustained peak of about 10 percent in 2009, has dropped to 4.6 percent as of November 2016. 

3. Passed Wall Street Reform 

Signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010 to re-regulate the financial sector after its practices caused the Great Recession. The law tightens capital requirements on large banks and other financial institutions, allows the government to take them into receivership if they pose a threat to the economy, and limits their ability to trade with customers’ money for their own profit. Dodd-Frank also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to crack down on abusive lending and financial services. By the end of fiscal year 2016, the CFPB had handled nearly one million consumer complaints and taken actions that resulted in $11.7 billion in relief for more than twenty-seven million consumers. 

4. Negotiated a Deal to Block A Nuclear Iran 

Led six nations in reaching an agreement with Iran that requires the country to end its nuclear weapons program and submit to a rigorous International Atomic Energy Agency inspections regime in exchange for lifting global sanctions. The deal—which resulted from first toughening sanctions against Iran—also blocked Iran’s pathways to building a bomb, slowing down the development time for a weapon from three months to one year if Iran were to break its commitments. 

5. Secured U.S. Commitment to a Global Agreement on Climate Change 

Provided key leadership to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which produced the 2015 Paris Agreement, a commitment by 197 nations to reduce global carbon emissions and limit the global rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius. 

6. Eliminated Osama bin Laden 

In 2011, ordered the Special Forces raid of the secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which the terrorist leader was killed and a trove of al-Qaeda documents was retained. 

7. Ended U.S. Combat Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan 

After an initial troop surge in Afghanistan, brought home 90 percent of the nearly 180,000 troops who were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan when he took office, leaving only a small contingent of forces to assist the Iraqi and Afghani militaries against insurgents and the Taliban. The withdrawal from Iraq created the vacuum that ISIS has filled. But, recently, without redeploying ground troops, the U.S. has helped the Iraqi military in reversing ISIS’s gains. 

8. Turned Around the U.S. Auto Industry 

In 2009, injected $62 billion (on top of the $13.4 billion in loans from the George W. Bush administration) into ailing GM and Chrysler in return for equity stakes and agreements for massive restructuring. By December 2014, the car companies had repaid $70.4 billion of the funds, and the Center for Automotive Research estimated that 2.5 million jobs were saved. 

9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ 

Ended the 1990s-era restriction and formalized a new policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for the first time. 

10. Supported Federal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages 

Decided in 2011 that the federal government would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricted federal marriage recognition to opposite-sex couples. In June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key portions of the law as unconstitutional, allowing married same-sex couples to finally receive federal protections like Social Security and veteran benefits. 

11. Reversed Bush Torture Policies 

Two days after taking office, signed an executive order banning the so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques used by the CIA under President Bush and considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. Also released the secret Bush administration legal opinions supporting the use of these techniques. 

12. Established Rules to Limit Carbon Emissions from Power Plants 

Finalized a “Clean Power Plan” in 2015 through new EPA regulations, setting the first-ever carbon pollution standards for existing power plants. When fully implemented in 2030, the new rules will result in a 32 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to 2005. 

13. Normalized Relations with Cuba 

In 2014, took steps to open diplomatic and commercial ties with Cuba, ending the failed Cold War policy of isolation. In March 2016, direct mail flights to Cuba resumed for the first time in fifty years. American tourists may also now freely visit the country. 

14. Put Medicare on Sounder Financial Footing 

Slowed the growth of health care spending through cost-saving measures enacted as part of the ACA, ensuring the solvency of Medicare’s principal trust fund through 2028. 

15. Protected DREAMers from Deportation 

Took executive action in June 2012 to protect undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children (so-called DREAMers) from deportation and allow them to apply for work permits. 

16. Established Net Neutrality 

Directed the Federal Communications Commission to issue a rule classifying internet service providers as a public utility and forcing them to treat all web traffic the same, regardless of source. After years of litigation, a federal court upheld the FCC’s rule, meaning providers can’t favor certain websites or block others. 

17. Protected Two Liberal Seats on the U.S. Supreme Court 

Nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor (the first Hispanic person and third woman to serve on the Court) in 2009 and Elena Kagan (the fourth woman) in 2010. They replaced David Souter and John Paul Stevens, respectively. 

18. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards 

Released new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will increase fuel economy to the equivalent of 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by model year 2025. 

19. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Funding 

As part of the 2010 health care reform bill, signed a measure ending the decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans. As a result, all students began getting their federal student loans directly from the federal government. More than half of the savings ($36 billion over ten years) is dedicated to expanding Pell Grants to lower-income students. 

20. Improved America’s Image Abroad 

With new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush years. Favorable opinion toward the United States rose during Obama’s first term in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an average increase of 26 percent, and have stayed high ever since. 

21. Left His Mark on the Federal Judiciary 

Appointed more than 300 judges to federal district and appeals courts, in line with other two-term presidents, tipping the balance to majority Democrat appointed. A majority of judges on nine of the thirteen appeals courts are now Democratic appointees—compared to just one when Obama took office. Appointed a record number of female (138) and minority (120) judges to the federal bench, as well as eleven openly gay or lesbian judges. 

22. Diversified the Federal Bureaucracy 

Appointed women and people of color to fill more than half of appointments to policy positions requiring Senate confirmation, including seventeen of thirty-one Cabinet positions. 

23. Passed Fair Sentencing Act 

Signed 2010 legislation that reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine possession from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1. Successfully lobbied the United States Sentencing Commission to apply those measures retroactively, which contributed to the largest decrease in the federal prison population in over thirty years. 

24. Revived the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division 

Through then Attorney General Eric Holder, announced a major overhaul of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in 2009 to bring back federal civil rights enforcement, which had atrophied under President Bush. Among other priorities, the division stepped up its efforts against housing and employment discrimination, strengthened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, and put renewed focus on cracking down on discriminatory policing practices. 

25. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection 

Signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, which designates more than two million acres as wilderness, creates thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protects over 1,000 miles of rivers. By designating new national monuments and other measures, permanently protects over 548 million acres, more than any other president. 

26. Gave the FDA the Power to Regulate Tobacco 

Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009. Nine years in the making and long resisted by the tobacco industry, the law mandates that tobacco manufacturers disclose all ingredients, obtain FDA approval for new products, and expand the size and prominence of cigarette warning labels. It also bans the sale of “light” cigarettes and tobacco sponsorship of entertainment events. 

27. Trimmed and Reoriented Missile Defense 

Cut the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010, and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of a sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North Korea. 

28. Kick-started Clean Energy Investment 

As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion in research on smart grids, energy-efficient electric cars, renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels. Launched a clean energy incubator within the Argonne National Laboratory and encouraged $4 billion in commitments by foundations, institutional investors, and other private-sector stakeholders to boost their investments in clean energy technology. 

29. Reduced the Threat from Nuclear Weapons 

Initiated the biannual Nuclear Security Summit to address the global threat posed by nuclear terrorism and advance a common approach to strengthening nuclear security. As a result, weapons-usable highly enriched uranium has been removed from sixteen countries. Signed and won ratification of a 2011 treaty with Russia to limit each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400). The treaty also reestablished a monitory and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009. 

30. Passed Credit Card Reforms 

Signed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification, mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits overdraft and other fees. 

31. Cut Veteran Homelessness by Half 

In 2010, launched the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, Opening Doors, which has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans since 2010 and aims to end youth homelessness by 2020. 

32. Enacted Government Surveillance Reform 

Signed the 2015 USA Freedom Act, which bans the governmental collection of bulk data, creates a special panel to provide technical and legal advice to the court administering the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and provides greater transparency for FISA court opinions. The ACLU noted that the legislation marked the first time since 1978 that Congress has “taken steps to restrict, rather than expand, its government surveillance authority.” 

33. Expanded Overtime Pay 

Updated a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act to ensure overtime pay for employees making up to $47,476 a year, thereby expanding overtime protections to 4.2 million workers. The new rules were set to go into effect in December 2016, but were blocked in November by a federal judge in Texas. 

34. Cracked Down on Bad For-Profit Colleges 

Through the Department of Education, issued “gainful employment” regulations in 2011, cutting off commercially focused schools from federal student aid funding if more than 25 percent of former students aren’t paying off their loans or if former students spend more than 12 percent of their average total earnings servicing student loans. In June 2016, regulators voted to shut down the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit colleges, cutting off federal aid to hundreds of for-profits. 

35. Cut the Deficit 

Reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016, one benefit of a strengthening economy. 

36. Created the College Scorecard 

Through the Department of Education, developed a comprehensive database in 2015 that allows prospective college students to compare potential schools based on costs, graduation rates, debt, and post-college earnings. 

37. Improved School Nutrition 

Signed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010, championed by Michelle Obama, mandating a $4.5 billion spending boost and higher nutritional standards for school lunches. New rules double the amount of fruits and vegetables, and require only whole grains, in foods served to students. 

38. Expanded the Definition of Hate Crimes 

Signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, applying existing hate crime laws to crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, or disability, in addition to race, religion, or national origin. 

39. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide 

Through 2009 EPA regulations, declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production. 

40. Strengthened Women’s Right to Fair Pay 

Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about the discrimination, even if it happened years ago. Under previous law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the statute of limitations on such suits ran out 180 days after the alleged discrimination occurred, even if the victims never knew about it. 

41. Secured the Removal of Chemical Weapons from Syria 

Forced an agreement by Syrian leader Bashar Assad in 2013 to destroy the country’s stockpile of chemical weapons in accordance with the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention. In 2016, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed the destruction of thousands of tons of mustard gas and other toxic chemicals. (There is evidence, however, that Assad has recently continued to use chlorine gas against rebels and civilians in Aleppo.) 

42. Protected LGBTQ Americans From Employment Discrimination 

Signed an executive order in 2014 prohibiting federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating against their workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

43. Reduced Discrimination Against Former Prisoners in Federal Hiring 

Signed an executive order to “ban the box” in federal hiring and contracting. Government employers can’t ask about criminal records at the beginning of the application process, giving applicants with a criminal history a fairer shot. 

44. Won Major Victories Against Housing and Mortgage Discrimination 

Through the Justice Department, reached a record $335 million settlement against Countrywide Financial Corporation and a $175 million settlement against Wells Fargo for their practices of charging higher interest and fees to African American and Latino borrowers prior to the financial crisis, in addition to numerous other suits pursued on behalf of borrowers. In 2015, the administration successfully argued before the Supreme Court that victims of housing discrimination suing for bias only need to show “disparate impact,” not an intent to discriminate, to win their case. 

45. Expanded Broadband Coverage 

Obtained approval from the FCC to shift $8 billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband internet access for lower-income rural families. By 2016, 98 percent of Americans had access to fast 4G/LTE broadband. 

46. Expanded Health Coverage for Children 

Signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act in 2009, expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover an additional four million children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products. 

47. Improved Food Safety 

Signed the 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which increased the Food and Drug Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expanded its regulatory responsibilities to include increasing the number of food inspections, issuing direct food recalls, and reviewing the safety practices of countries exporting food products to the U.S. 

48. Let the Space Shuttle Die and Killed the Planned Moon Mission 

Allowed the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed, and dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011. Cut off funding for the even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program to build a moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary rover ever launched, designed to investigate Mars’s potential to support life. 

49. Rebuilt and Fortified the Gulf Coast post-Katrina 

Completed a $14.5 billion system in 2011 to rebuild the levees in New Orleans and protect it from a 100-year storm. 

50. Avoided Scandal 

Became the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to serve two terms with no serious personal or political scandal.

Wisconsin Reading

State [Wisconsin] Spending On Outside Services Soars
Walker's Wisconsin Borrows Just Like They Do In D.C.
Walker Bypasses Gas Tax Hike, Wants $1.3 Billion In Transportation Bonds
Bogus Claims On Right To Work
Potential Effects Of A Right To Work Law In Wisconsin

U.S. Deficit Fell 37 Percent In 2013

From Neil Irwin, at the Washington Post:

The federal government's 2013 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, though most of us were so busy focusing on the government shutdown that accompanied the new fiscal year that there wasn't much time to reflect on the year that had passed. 

Now the Treasury and Office of Management and Budget is out with the final budget results. Surprise! The deficit fell quite a bit in 2013. The federal government took in $680 billion less revenue than it spent, or about 4.1 percent of gross domestic product. In 2012, those numbers were $1.087 trillion and 6.8 percent of GDP. That means the deficit fell a whopping 37 percent in one year. 

This is the first sub-$1 trillion and sub-5 percent of GDP deficit since the 2008 fiscal year, which ended the very month that Lehman Brothers fell and a deep crisis set in. 

What's behind it? 

Most of all, there was more revenue. Government receipts totaled $2.774 trillion, up $325 billion from 2012, and rising to 16.7 percent of GDP from 15.2 percent. That reflects in part a stronger economy that increased income and payroll taxes. It also includes the expiration of a payroll tax holiday that increased tax receipts, and higher rates for upper-income Americans agreed to for this calendar year. 

There was less spending, amid the drawdown of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, lower unemployment insurance benefits due to an improving economy, and the enactment government enacted budget cuts called for in the 2011 debt ceiling deal, including the sequestration automatic spending cuts that began in March. Overall outlays were $3.454 trillion, the treasury said, falling $84 billion compared with the 2012 fiscal year. That fall moves government outlays from 22 percent of GDP to 20.8 percent. 

It remains true that there are longer-term challenges facing the U.S. government finances, particularly around rising health-care costs. But the reality is that much of the conversation around debt and deficits is missing this basic fact: Deficits are, for now, falling fast. If anything, too fast. Just Wednesday, the Federal Reserve concluded a policy meeting with a statement that asserted, as it has in the past, that "fiscal policy is restraining growth" and that its forecasts are "taking into account the extent of federal fiscal retrenchment over the past year." Independent economists outside the government have reached similar conclusions, and now worry that deficits will fall so fast as to undermine the recovery.

7 Biggest Economic Lies

[source]

Weekend Reading

The Deficit Is Shrinking

Don't Blame Apple For Keeping Its Money
Austerity Does Not Help Unemployment, Stimulus Does
Subsidies - Good News And Not So Good
Wisconsin Lags Neighboring States In 12-Month Job Growth
Why We Need The Corporate Income Tax
Ben Bernanke, Force Of Nature
Hannity's Flip-Flopping On NSA Surveillance
Ron Johnson: 'Restoring Faith In Government' Is Wrong Solution
America's Worst Charities
College Costs Are Skyrocketing

U.S. Budget Cuts Too Fast, Slowing Recovery

Sunday Reading

Tear down this icon: Why the GOP has to get over Ronald Reagan
The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? It's Barack Obama
The Death of a Class Warrior – Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

An Obituary from Below

Treasury Analysts Highlights Risk of Corporate Tax Reform Trap

From a Deficit to a Surplus and Back Again

Where Have All the Jobs Gone?

Weekend Reading

Why Not Worry About The Deficit Right Now?

Government Interest Expense on Debt Outstanding Relative to GDP

Myths About A New NBA Arena

Eight Facts About Terrorism In The United States

George W. Bush Was A Bad President

George W. Bush's Presidency In 24 Charts

Wisconsin Republican Aides Deleted Thousands Of Redistricting Files

The Great Tax Cut Experiment

Spending Cuts Already Made

The Deficit Reduction We've Achieved So Far
Obama Has Already Agreed To Spending Cuts
Republicans Forget Cuts Obama Has Already Made
The Spending Obama Already Cut

Romney's 10 Most Baseless Claims

"And these businesses -- many of them have gone out of business. I think about half of them, of the ones have been invested in, they’ve gone out of business." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

Businesses that got government clean energy loans failed at a rate of about 1.4 percent at the end of 2011, according to The Washington Post.

"My plan is not to put in place any tax cut that will add to the deficit." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

Romney's tax plan would cost the country $4.8 trillion over the next 10 years, according to Tax Policy Center data, cited by NBC News.

"You never balance the budget by raising taxes." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

President Bill Clinton managed to balance the budget during his time in office with a tax boost for those in the top 2 percent of earners, according to Duke professor William Chafe.

"The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more -- if you will, trickle-down government would work." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

President Obama's proposed budget is estimated to cut about $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years and, so far, Obama has signed $2 trilion worth of spending cuts into law, according to Democratic Party Pollster Bernard Whitman.

"Up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next year." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

Some workers may switch from their employer-provided health plans, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but that number is more likely to be closer to between 3 and 5 million per year between 2019 and 2022.

Obamacare "puts in place an unelected board that’s going to tell people, ultimately, what kind of treatments they can have." – Mitt Romney, Oct 3 Presidential Debate

Though Obamacare does create an independent board, the law prohibits the board from making recommendations to "ration health care," or "otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility,” according to Bloomberg.

"The idea of cutting $716 billion from Medicare to be able to balance the additional cost of Obamacare is, in my opinion, a mistake." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

The indirect effects of Obamacare have yet to be determined, since the law has yet to be implemented. But as the law is written now, Obamacare doesn't cut seniors' benefits as part of its plan to curb health care costs, according to USA Today.
Obama's healthcare law would curb benefits to health care providers and insurers, but doesn't directly cut seniors' benefits. Critics allege however, that the cuts in payments would have the unintended consequence of hurting seniors because doctors would stop accepting Medicare patients, according to USA Today.

"It's hurt the housing market because Dodd-Frank didn't anticipate putting in place the kinds of regulations you have to have. It's not that Dodd-Frank always was wrong with too much regulation. Sometimes they didn't come out with a clear regulation." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

The Dodd-Frank regulations aim to prevent another housing crash like the one that helped to cause the 2008 financial meltdown by banning high-risk lending practices, according to CBS News. In addition, the housing market has been on a slow rebound since Obama took office.
If anything, it may be banks that are holding back the housing recovery. Many are slow to lend because they're concerned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will make them take back any bad loans, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"I just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the -- at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people. It has killed jobs." – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that healthcare reform will reduce the health care industry's workforce by only about 0.5 percent, largely because workers will decide to retire early or work fewer hours. And if Romney's Massachusetts health care reform law is any indication, job loss won't be a big problem; employment trends in the state have mirrored national trends since Romneycare took effect.

"The president said he’d cut the deficit in half. Unfortunately, he doubled it.” – Mitt Romney, Oct. 3 Presidential Debate

When Obama took office in 2009, the deficit was projected to be $1.2 trillion during that year, and it ultimately turned out to be $1.4 trillion, according to Congressional Budget Office data cited by The New York Times. The deficit is expected to be $1.1 trillion for fiscal year 2012.

Mitt Romney's 10 Most Baseless Claim

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Holiday Reading

All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup

How State Are Rigging The 2012 Election

How The U.S. Detoured To Massive Debt

Mr. Keynes & The Moderns

Overworked America

7 Things About Debt, Deficits, & The Dollar

Supply-side Nonsense

Tax Cuts Don't Pay For Themselves

The Illusions of Psychiatry

The Truth About Wisconsin's Budget, Taxes & The Phony Crisis

Who Doesn't Pay Federal Income Taxes

Selective Hearing

The Republicans like to use the phrase, "This is what the American people want."

Well...

Most Americans Say Tax Rich To Balance Budget.

Republicans, are you listening?

[h/t Blogging Blue]

Spending Sham

"Government expenditures have grown about as fast for the past two years as they did during the Bush administration's final term," notes Kevin Drum.

Government Spending
Hey, Small Spender
The Non-Surge In Government Spending
Obama's Stimulus Did NOT Raise Government Spending
Special Bulletin: Fractions Have Denominators
What's Really Behind That $1.3 Trillion Deficit

Deficit Origins

For Further Reading:

Where Today's Large Deficits Come From

The Liability Con

Some enlightenment concerning recent deficit hysterics:

1994
Baselines, Counterfactuals and the Stimulus
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Deficits
No Exit
Notes on the Dollar Panic
The Budget Deficit Crisis

The meme that deficit spending, always, crowds out private investment and is, in general, morally wrong, is both short-sighted and misleading. We are a country - private citizens, business, and government - that has used debt to live a better standard of life, grow companies, and finance operations, especially since WWII. During recessionary episodes, the government accumulates debt to restore employment, fix crumbling bridges, improve water and air quality, provide health care, etc. All quite worthy and important causes for investment.

This false debate about rates, deficits, and "big," "bad" government is deceptive drivel. Just more smoke and mirrors of class warfare. The rich in this country have slowly lowered their tax burden, frozen wages for laborers, and methodically steered more of the country's wealth toward their own pockets. As public money (which would have been used for public goods) finds it's way into private pockets, less of the public commons is maintained. We all end up worse off. As is evidenced by the continually decreasing standard of living for most Americans.

America Without a Middle Class
Household Debt Service
Poverty Facts and Stats
U.S. Business: The American Way of Debt

Sunday Reading

America's sea of red ink was years in the making
Arizona economy may be worse than Michigan
State and local budget cuts a time bomb for jobs
State and local budget relief needed
Steele's fuzzy math
Who's to blame for the deficit numbers?