The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

[bronconick]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

It's pretty pathetic when the Pentagon even says "Hey, spend less on us and more on education and infrastructure."

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

It's pretty pathetic when the Pentagon even says "Hey, spend less on us and more on education and infrastructure."

I wonder if the tea party folks are ever going to figure out that we're collecting 15% of GDP in taxes and the middle class pays more than 15% of their income in taxes. That's not including the other federal taxes they pay like the gas tax.

 

[bronconick]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

I wonder if the tea party folks are ever going to figure out that we're collecting 15% of GDP in taxes and the middle class pays more than 15% of their income in taxes. That's not including the other federal taxes they pay like the gas tax.

Well, their next goal is to get rid of the gas tax, so there's that.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Well, their next goal is to get rid of the gas tax, so there's that.

Why is everyone focusing on the gas tax and not the larger issue, which is that come Sept. 30, we'll need either a new budget or a continuing resolution on the current one or we get a government shutdown. The gas tax is simply a symptom (also, are the Tea Partiers really going down the road of "states should pay for their own highways"? Really?).

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Why is everyone focusing on the gas tax and not the larger issue, which is that come Sept. 30, we'll need either a new budget or a continuing resolution on the current one or we get a government shutdown. The gas tax is simply a symptom (also, are the Tea Partiers really going down the road of "states should pay for their own highways"? Really?).

LOL. I don't think they know that the government builds and maintains roads and to do that it needs to collect taxes.

 

[bronconick]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Anything the government does can be done by private agencies better and cheaper. Duh.

How have you guys not caught on to this? Ignore the logical inconsistency.


Edit: And I'm ignoring September 30th, because I know **** well that the Democrats are going to take the blame for not bending over and taking the Ryan budget up their pansy-white liberal asses. I'd prefer to not think about that until sometime in September.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Anything the government does can be done by private agencies better and cheaper. Duh.

How have you guys not caught on to this? Ignore the logical inconsistency.


Edit: And I'm ignoring September 30th, because I know **** well that the Democrats are going to take the blame for not bending over and taking the Ryan budget up their pansy-white liberal asses. I'd prefer to not think about that until sometime in September.

Private Sector roads are awesome. I bet I've driven, oh, zero miles on them in my 20 or so years of driving to work.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Another deadline that the tea party can exploit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

LOL. I don't think they know that the government builds and maintains roads and to do that it needs to collect taxes.

Lets invent flying cars that run on hopes and dreams, then we wouldn't need roads or gas taxes.

 

[Handyman]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Edit: And I'm ignoring September 30th, because I know **** well that the Democrats are going to take the blame for not bending over and taking the Ryan budget up their pansy-white liberal asses. I'd prefer to not think about that until sometime in September.

I am sure they will buckle under and accept it now...they have no reason not to and we know they dont have the spine to stand up when challenged. The GOP should push it when Sept 30 is close, the Dems will give in.

Watching the Dems try and play politics is like watching a French person play chicken.

 

[MinnFan]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

As it should it should be. The international arms race is in worker, executive and business productivity. I have little doubt that education spending increases at best match international standards. If as the majority of conservatives would have it, we put that money into the military...unquestionably we will lose the arms race that matters and the marketplace battlefield with it.

We spend more on education than any other country, yet we are falling behind. Also, when you look around the country there is no link between money spent on education and results. Simply throwing more money at education will do little good.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

We spend more on education than any other country, yet we are falling behind. Also, when you look around the country there is no link between money spent on education and results. Simply throwing more money at education will do little good.

We throw more money at it because we educate everyone equally while many other nations do not. We need to do some targeted spending on education. Instead we passed NCLB which is a Black Hole. We also need to do a better job of determining kids interests and targeting their education at those interests that then can net them a productive and meaningful employment.

 

[XYZ]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

DIJA down 350 and counting. Should be interesting to see if this continues or whether we get a big afternoon rebound...

 

[walrus]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

. We also need to do a better job of determining kids interests and targeting their education at those interests that then can net them a productive and meaningful employment.

Can't do that everyone has to go to Harvard, we don't need welders, electricians or plumbers, we only need lawyers and MBAs.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

We throw more money at it because we educate everyone equally while many other nations do not. We need to do some targeted spending on education.

What exactly do you mean by this? Who exactly do you want to benefit from this targeted spending? Once you start playing favorites with different groups of students - no matter how reasonable your plan may be, it opens the door to lawsuits and would almost certainly draw a great deal of wrath from groups like the ACLU/NAACP/whoever else may represent the aggrieved parties who aren't getting their fair share of educational funds/attention.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Can't do that everyone has to go to Harvard, we don't need welders, electricians or plumbers, we only need lawyers and MBAs.

*sigh*

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

The market does a major tumble over a relatively mild attempt at modestly reigning in federal spending. Tells you what will happen when eventually we'll be forced to bring federal spending under control and stop juicing the economy bigtime by printing money.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

The market does a major tumble over a relatively mild attempt at modestly reigning in federal spending. Tells you what will happen when eventually we'll be forced to bring federal spending under control and stop juicing the economy bigtime by printing money.

It's almost like the market believes in Keynesian economics, even if the Teabaggers don't. Then again, the market tends to have a longer memory, so it probably recalls what happened in 1937-38 when government tightened its reins too soon into the recovery...

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

It's almost like the market believes in Keynesian economics, even if the Teabaggers don't. Then again, the market tends to have a longer memory, so it probably recalls what happened in 1937-38 when government tightened its reins too soon into the recovery...

If a horse is running out of control, at least a moderate tightening of the reins would seem to be in order, even if the horse doesn't like it short term. It never ceases to amaze me how short term the economic thinking in this country is. As long as what we do boosts the next quarter's earnings, nobody cares what it does to the nation long term.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

If a horse is running out of control, at least a moderate tightening of the reins would seem to be in order, even if the horse doesn't like it short term. It never ceases to amaze me how short term the economic thinking in this country is. As long as what we do boosts the next quarter's earnings, nobody cares what it does to the nation long term.

The time to tighten the reins was oh, 1995-2005. That we didn't do so (well, we did for about 2 years) doesn't mean that we need to do so now.

You're a religious man, Bob. Remember the story about the seven years of feast and seven years of famine? Just because we failed to save in the seven years of feast doesn't mean we should starve ourselves more than necessary in the seven years of famine.

 

[Almington]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

If a horse is running out of control, at least a moderate tightening of the reins would seem to be in order, even if the horse doesn't like it short term. It never ceases to amaze me how short term the economic thinking in this country is. As long as what we do boosts the next quarter's earnings, nobody cares what it does to the nation long term.

I also think that this is the result of continued general softness in the global economy. In the US, employment numbers have been poor for the last few months, economic growth has been anemic for the first 2 quarters of 2011, Europe continues to have concerns about the ability of some countries to repay there outstanding debts. Add to that the fact that the political theater of the debt ceiling clearly demonstrated that the impasse between the parties will just about absolutely prevent any actual meaningful action to address the larger economic problems in the US.

Basically people have realized that:
1.) Government isn't going to do anything meaningful to attempt to improve the economy and reduce unemployment.
2.) Business may have increased profits, but demand is such that they have no need to increase their workforce.
3.) Consumers are worried about falling housing prices, their job security, and are more interesting in deleveraging as much as possible because of the previous 2 concerns.

Basically, this low growth state is going to continue until the **** of pent up consumer demand breaks and gets everything moving again. When that will happen, I have no idea.