It's not just Detroit!
Submitted by mad4clark on November 15, 2005 - 12:47pm.
A 'fiscal hurricane' on the horizon
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The comptroller general of the United States is explaining over eggs how the nation's finances are going to hell.
"We face a demographic tsunami" that "will never recede," David Walker tells a group of reporters. He runs through a long list of fiscal challenges, led by the imminent retirement of the baby boomers, whose promised Medicare and Social Security benefits will swamp the federal budget in coming decades.
The breakfast conversation remains somber for most of an hour. Then one reporter smiles and asks, "Aren't you depressed in the morning?"
Sadly, it's no laughing matter. To hear Walker, the nation's top auditor, tell it, the United States can be likened to Rome before the fall of the empire. Its financial condition is "worse than advertised," he says. It has a "broken business model." It faces deficits in its budget, its balance of payments, its savings — and its leadership.
Walker's not the only one saying it. As Congress and the White House struggle to trim up to $50 billion from the federal budget over five years — just 3% of the $1.6 trillion in deficits projected for that period — budget experts say the nation soon could face its worst fiscal crisis since at least 1983, when Social Security bordered on bankruptcy.
Without major spending cuts, tax increases or both, the national debt will grow more than $3 trillion through 2010, to $11.2 trillion — nearly $38,000 for every man, woman and child. The interest alone would cost $561 billion in 2010, the same as the Pentagon.
From the political left and right, budget watchdogs are warning of fiscal trouble:......
More at USA Today
And it'll be a Democrat who'll be left holding the bag and will have to raise taxes........perpetuating the meme........'I vote republican because democrats raise my taxes'
This drives me crazy!
George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up.
...In each case, cutting the deficit backfired at the polls. The elder Bush lost re-election, the Democrats lost Congress, and Republicans' obstinacy helped Clinton win a second term. "The choices you have to make are almost exactly the opposite of what wins political elections," Panetta says.
The problem is also easy for Congress to postpone because the day of reckoning is years away. This year's deficit was $319 billion, down $94 billion from the year before. That's 2.6% of the nation's economy, an amount easily borrowed from foreign investors....
George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up.
Given these kinds of comments are coming out of the mouth of the Comptroller General of the United States! These are the types of statements they have always accused hysterical, "breathless" (their favored pejorative) Democrats of squealing about....and now--- the top financial cop is spewing them? How will they characterize this I wonder? Will he be called a Naysayer? A Doomsdayer? Or dismissed as a grumpy old man....
Very interesting. Further supporting my instinct to get mattress money set aside!
n/t
Steve's post on Washington Note.
I just hope that all this stuff hits next year before the elections so that we are in a stronger position to deal with things. Otherwise the thieves brigade will find some way of covering things up until after the 2008 election and I think if that happens we'll be doomed.
The irony here.
In the span of a week we have our own Government telling us 1) our voting systems are in need of serious help as they are insecure and hackable 2) our economy is in need of serious help as it's a fiscal tsunami on the horizon
These are strikingly familiar themes... Oh wait. It's because they are the same themes (along with dozens of others) that we have been tapping out on our keyboards for years now. And have been summarily labeled all sorts of derogatory names for it I might add-- from Conspiracy Theorists to Doomsdayers to wild eyed Librul Whiners. And look who is NOW chiming in? A little late to the party, but dressed up for the occasion. My my my my my....
What's next?
...as the administration for the unbelievable mess we're in.
I found it interesting that the chief auditor likened our situation to Rome before the fall of the Empire.......
Wes made the same analogy on an NPR interview back in 2003. I have it on tape.
George Bush has had his day and he's bollixed it up.
“When the autopsy of our democracy is performed, it is my belief that media silence will be given as the primary cause of death." -- Jonathan Simon, Exit Poll Analyst
It was $38,000 last year, this strikes me as odd. I wonder what the REAL figure is.
"An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself."
"Our Republic and its press will rise and fall together." --Joseph Pulitzer
1. Show up * 2. Pay attention * 3. Speak your truth, and * 4. Don\'t be attached to outcome -- Angeles Arrien
this to the guy handling my finances... This is so scary you guys. I so wish I had a f'ing clue about investments and how to prepare for this. I wonder if I would be better off to take part of my invested income $$ and pay off this house? That way if everything tanks at least I have a place to be... Even though it's not where I want to be... Otherwise if I lose my income $$ there's no way I could make enough $ to keep this house and pay the monthly bills. Being homeless (but with a killer truck/campershell) in CA is one thing - being homeless here is not good... Argh. :(
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right. - Hunter/Garcia
I think you need to cover. I don't have ANY faith in the market and money needs to be kept safe. I think you are right on track, don't keep all your $$$ in investments. Pay your house off, and keep your remaining investment in secure accounts. Its just to dangerous to play with the big boys. If you sell your house, good. If you don't and all goes to hell in a hand basket, you at least have a home. Really think about this...Hope the guy handling your finances is good. They don't like people selling their stocks...but do what you think is best...!!
And I don't just mean Bush. We all should be mad as hell at the right wingers that got us into this mess. The Federalists, the Herritage Foundation and the other anti-american foundations and think tanks. The whole administration and the Republican Party for allowing this to happen. I hold the republicans responsible as they have done noting to clean up their own act. They know what is going on and do nothing. I am sure I can find some tar if someone else can find the feathers.
This certianly is scary especially coming from the U.S. General Comptroller! We know we are in trouble!!! I knew from the article I posted about the Auto Industry, then the Housing bubble breaking, and the job situation ...all is killing the economy. Thanks Maddy for the backup to my blog. 10, 10, 10, people must realize how this is going to effect them.
Thank you Mad4Clark, for bringing this up. It seems there's no end in site: the light at the end of the tunnel is an economic FREIGHT TRAIN!
For more insight on this problem, please visit my blog:
Bernanke, The Fed and the Deficit: What to do?
Got GOLD?
@#$%!!