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Forget climate change and immigration - the debt is our biggest threat:
You Thought Monetary Policy Was Crazy…
David Stockman | April 08, 2019
I’ve been “face first” with Washington D.C.’s endless capacity for fiscal profligacy for nearly five decades now, starting with my time in Congress right up through my experience running the Office and Management and Budget (OMB) for Ronald Reagan.
I used to think I wasn’t easily surprised. Then I looked at spending and revenue numbers for the first five months of fiscal 2019. And I marvel…
During the month of February alone, our federal government spent $398 billion and collected just $171 billion. That means we borrowed 57 cents of every dollar spend. You can suggest timing anomalies. You can point to the fact that February isn’t a big month for revenue collections. And, still… you can’t make this stuff up…
February was month No. 116 of the current recovery. We’re just three months from matching the all-time-record. That previous run, 119 months, happened during the far more benign environment of the 1990s technology boom.........To our knowledge, there’s never been a textbook written – even by the most rabid Keynesian scribbler – that recommends borrowing such an ungodly share of outlays at this stage.
Let’s remove the short-term anomalies in the February figures. Let’s pull back and look at the full fiscal year to date. From October, Uncle Sam spent $1.819 billion and collected just $1.282 billion. That’s $537 billion of red ink. That’s 30% of outlays......
The details underscore the true disaster. Social Security/Medicare outlays were up by 5%. Defense spending was up 9.5%. Veterans care was up 10%. And the interest cost on the public debt was up 10.5%.
On the other hand, individual income tax collections were down by $20 billion, or 3%, from last year. Corporate receipts dropped by $14 billion. That’s a whopping 19.2%. These plunges happened notwithstanding a 4.5% increase in wage and salary incomes and flat pre-tax corporate profits during this year's first five months compared to last year.
Spending is more out of control than ever. And the Donald’s and the GOP’s tax cuts aren’t paying for themselves, and it’s not even close.....Embracing spending program at 21% of GDP while boasting about a revenue policy of 16% of GDP – with credit-card financed tax cuts – is irresponsible at any point in the cycle......Doing it while an old and weak recovery rolls over is madness.
Forget climate change and immigration - the debt is our biggest threat:
You Thought Monetary Policy Was Crazy…
David Stockman | April 08, 2019
I’ve been “face first” with Washington D.C.’s endless capacity for fiscal profligacy for nearly five decades now, starting with my time in Congress right up through my experience running the Office and Management and Budget (OMB) for Ronald Reagan.
I used to think I wasn’t easily surprised. Then I looked at spending and revenue numbers for the first five months of fiscal 2019. And I marvel…
During the month of February alone, our federal government spent $398 billion and collected just $171 billion. That means we borrowed 57 cents of every dollar spend. You can suggest timing anomalies. You can point to the fact that February isn’t a big month for revenue collections. And, still… you can’t make this stuff up…
February was month No. 116 of the current recovery. We’re just three months from matching the all-time-record. That previous run, 119 months, happened during the far more benign environment of the 1990s technology boom.........To our knowledge, there’s never been a textbook written – even by the most rabid Keynesian scribbler – that recommends borrowing such an ungodly share of outlays at this stage.
Let’s remove the short-term anomalies in the February figures. Let’s pull back and look at the full fiscal year to date. From October, Uncle Sam spent $1.819 billion and collected just $1.282 billion. That’s $537 billion of red ink. That’s 30% of outlays......
The details underscore the true disaster. Social Security/Medicare outlays were up by 5%. Defense spending was up 9.5%. Veterans care was up 10%. And the interest cost on the public debt was up 10.5%.
On the other hand, individual income tax collections were down by $20 billion, or 3%, from last year. Corporate receipts dropped by $14 billion. That’s a whopping 19.2%. These plunges happened notwithstanding a 4.5% increase in wage and salary incomes and flat pre-tax corporate profits during this year's first five months compared to last year.
Spending is more out of control than ever. And the Donald’s and the GOP’s tax cuts aren’t paying for themselves, and it’s not even close.....Embracing spending program at 21% of GDP while boasting about a revenue policy of 16% of GDP – with credit-card financed tax cuts – is irresponsible at any point in the cycle......Doing it while an old and weak recovery rolls over is madness.
I'm sure you care about the debt. Republicans preference for managing the nation's finances are:
1. Dine & Dash
2. Cut & Save (when someone else is in office)
3. Tax & Spend
If you were serious about your concern, you'd recognize tax & spend is a much better plan than what the GOP currently promotes.
Forget climate change and immigration - the debt is our biggest threat:
You Thought Monetary Policy Was Crazy…
David Stockman | April 08, 2019
I’ve been “face first” with Washington D.C.’s endless capacity for fiscal profligacy for nearly five decades now, starting with my time in Congress right up through my experience running the Office and Management and Budget (OMB) for Ronald Reagan.
I used to think I wasn’t easily surprised. Then I looked at spending and revenue numbers for the first five months of fiscal 2019. And I marvel…
During the month of February alone, our federal government spent $398 billion and collected just $171 billion. That means we borrowed 57 cents of every dollar spend. You can suggest timing anomalies. You can point to the fact that February isn’t a big month for revenue collections. And, still… you can’t make this stuff up…
February was month No. 116 of the current recovery. We’re just three months from matching the all-time-record. That previous run, 119 months, happened during the far more benign environment of the 1990s technology boom.........To our knowledge, there’s never been a textbook written – even by the most rabid Keynesian scribbler – that recommends borrowing such an ungodly share of outlays at this stage.
Let’s remove the short-term anomalies in the February figures. Let’s pull back and look at the full fiscal year to date. From October, Uncle Sam spent $1.819 billion and collected just $1.282 billion. That’s $537 billion of red ink. That’s 30% of outlays......
The details underscore the true disaster. Social Security/Medicare outlays were up by 5%. Defense spending was up 9.5%. Veterans care was up 10%. And the interest cost on the public debt was up 10.5%.
On the other hand, individual income tax collections were down by $20 billion, or 3%, from last year. Corporate receipts dropped by $14 billion. That’s a whopping 19.2%. These plunges happened notwithstanding a 4.5% increase in wage and salary incomes and flat pre-tax corporate profits during this year's first five months compared to last year.
Spending is more out of control than ever. And the Donald’s and the GOP’s tax cuts aren’t paying for themselves, and it’s not even close.....Embracing spending program at 21% of GDP while boasting about a revenue policy of 16% of GDP – with credit-card financed tax cuts – is irresponsible at any point in the cycle......Doing it while an old and weak recovery rolls over is madness.
Are you OK with Trump adding $2.6 trillion to the debt so far?
Are you ok with adding $3.2 trillion a year to the debt for UHC?
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