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So what exactly is short term debt, and when does it matter? In 2008 the short term mattered, it mattered a lot, it matter so much that Bush was "unpatriotic" and "irresponsible." But in 2012 it suddenly does not matter, even though we have added almost $6 trillion more? Does it only “not matter” when he is president? Will the debt from 2008 still not matter in 2016, when Obama runs it up to $21 trillion?
Although I think the official financial definition of short term debt is different, I believe the following is Mr. Obama's definition of short term debt:
short-term debt - Debt that does not matter until after I am out of office.
He did, no doubt. That should not excuse Barack here though. He's made a lot of these type of statements where he's done the same thing or worse than what he use to complain about.
The tax cuts, the wars, and the medicare drug expansion were all done on credit. Add on top of all that recessions drive up more government debt. Obama stuck his neck out to negotiate a deal on the debt ceiling, but Republicans couldn't overcome their ideology of tax increases and they didn't want to see Obama get any credit for deficit reduction.
So long as the Republican party stays as far to the right as it is now, what Obama does is largely irrelevant. The polarization, mostly due to the Republicans, has made it impossible for a majority of the voting population to jump ship.
How do you figure the polarization is "mostly due to the Republicans," when it was president Obama who shut down Republican suggestions to his stimulus bill with his "I won" comment. Then Obama went about 8 months without meeting with the Republican leaders.
One of the first scenes Woodward recounts is a meeting at the White House where Obama invited House Republicans over to talk about the stimulus. After then-Minority Whip Eric Cantor distributed a five-point Republican stimulus plan that differed from Obama's tax plan, Obama told Cantor, "I can go it alone. ... Look at the polls. The polls are pretty good for me right now. Elections have consequences. And Eric, I won. So on that, I think I trump you." (Bob Woodward, The Price Of Politics, 2012, p. 14)
"The bill was drafted by the Democrats and whenever any Republicans tried to make changes, Emanuel’s response was, more often than not, ‘We have the votes. F— ‘em.’ This was the bulldozing that Obama had promised to avoid.”(Bob Woodward, The Price Of Politics, 2012, p. 16)
So many Americans are high as a kite, as some seem to think our credit rating continuing to be downgraded and being 16,000 Billions in debt is not a big deal.
It will be a big deal once people stop buying our debt and our dollar crashes.
People want to keep the party going until they drop, but the party is over, the future of the country is on the line.
With all of this talk about debt and deficits, it makes me a little hopeful that Republicans will drop their ideology and compromise on taxes and spending to reduce the deficit. I don't think I will hold my breath, though.
One thing to keep in mind, is if Romney wins, and he wants to have a one year income tax holiday, to spur growth, Obama has added so much to our debt already, that adding significantly more on top of that may have unwanted consequences.
When Obama was sworn in the debt was only $10 trillion (LOL "only?") and so if he had done a $3 trillion stimulus in 2009, i.e. an 18 month tax holiday, huge tax incentives, relaxed some regulations to do infrastructure projects etc... the debt would only have been $13 trillion, and our credit rating would naot have been in question. But if Romney were to try a $3 trillion stimulus like that in 2013, we'd be at over $19 trillion in debt, and that may not go over too well, and that amount of debt may add other negative effects.
We have a sort of a reservoir of water to fight fires with, and Obama has wasted so much of it, with the fire is still raging, that if Romney tries to use that water, there may not be enough left to work with.
So many Americans are high as a kite, as some seem to think our credit rating continuing to be downgraded and being 16,000 Billions in debt is not a big deal.
It will be a big deal once people stop buying our debt and our dollar crashes.
People want to keep the party going until they drop, but the party is over, the future of the country is on the line.
We only bring in about $1 trillion a year in income taxes, and under Obama we have been borrowing and spending an additional $1.5 trillion. Even if we successfully raised taxes on the rich by 10%, there is no way on earth to raise another $1.5 trillion in taxes. We would have to raise everyone's taxes by 150%, and even the poor would owe thousands of dollars on April 15th.
According to the IRS, the top 1% of American earners (those with incomes over $344,000) received 17% of all income earned in 2009. They paid 37% of all federal income taxes that year.
The article suggests "higher taxes on the wealthy" would have helped pay down the debt, maybe you could tax the wealthy an extra 10% for awhile, and squeeze an extra $40 billion a month from them, but our deficit spending is like $120 billion a month.
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and our credit rating would naot have been in question. But if Romney were to try a $3 trillion stimulus like that in 2013, we'd be at over $19 trillion in debt, and that may not go over too well, and that amount of debt may add other negative effects.
