November 10, 2005
Bush amazes the US by borrowing more from foreign nations than all other US Presidents combined Throughout the first 224 years (1776-2000) of our nation’s history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions according to the U.S. Treasury Department. In the past four years alone (2001-2005), the Bush Administration has borrowed a staggering $1.05 trillion.
Let's not forget either the Heritage foundation, "the biggest think tank period—in Washington. . . provides "talking points" to conservative Congressmen who don't have time to do their own research. . . and very actively helps direct U.S. politics.
Heritage is very up-front about these goals. Paul Krugman and others have pointed out that the goal of the Bush administration seems to be to bankrupt the federal government; the Heritage Foundation indeed announces this vision up front: "Too many conservatives lose hope," writes Heritage president Edwin J. Feulner. "They doubt that the liberal welfare state can be brought to collapse.... In short, they doubt that The Heritage Foundation's Vision for America can be achieved." (emphasis added)
Visit The Yes Men for more family fun!
Go ShrubCo! Ruin that country! Yeee haw!
Oswald.
Wot?
"Bush is number 1! Bush is number 1!"
On the real, the Blue Dog link is kind of weak, and I'm sure it can be picked apart appropriately.
But, it looks like Grover Norquist is gettin' his dream. Does somebody recall the link posted earlier about yankin' student loans & federal housing subsidies to cover Katrina rebuilding?
It is kind of weak, granted. But this Business Week article by Comptroller General of the U.S. has plenty of teeth. You'll need a bugmenot to get in:
businessweekletmein
bugmenot
Also The blue is on it for more yes-it-is/no-it-isnt debate.
The upshot seems to be that while previous presidents (Clinton, natch example) borrowed, the interest wasn't eating us up so fast.
$400bil/yr from 89-93, slowing to $250bil/yr from 93-01. And then up to $500bil/yr from 01 to present.
and
Less well known, the federal government's long-term liabilities and net commitments, such as those relating to Social Security and Medicare, have risen from just over $20 trillion in fiscal 2000 to more than $43 trillion in fiscal 2004, in large part because of the passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill in December, 2003. This translates into a burden of more than $150,000 per American and $350,000 per full-time worker, up from $72,000 and $165,000 in 2000, respectively. Those amounts are growing fast because of continuing deficits, our aging society's longer lifespans, slower workforce growth, and compounding interest costs.
4 More years!
Seriously, if things keep going this way the revolution will come and I will finally have my chance at ruling as a tribal lord.
Tribal Warlord?!
Sorry for the dumb question, but why can't the U.S. just print more money? Wouldn't the effect be the same? And no pesky interest payments.
rolypolyman: Short answer: no.
The value of an American dollar is based on the total value of the United States divided by the number of US dollars in the world. Of course it's not quite as straight forward as this as there are markets and speculations and other forms of magic involved, but basically if the US printed printed twice as much money as exists currently, each US dollar would be worth half as much when compared to everyone else's currency. You can't get something for nothing, even if you're George W. Bush.
...unless you were being facetious (sp?).
No, no... serious question... I have always had difficulty understanding banking & economics. I have been trying to grasp the concepts for awhile. Thanks for the explanation; that makes sense.
ah yes i saw the florida reps making this point the other night on cpsan. kendrick meek, debbie wasserman schultz, et al. it's always great to hear real progressives dropping science on the house floor. sadly, that whore, katherine harris, was nowhere to be seen. (perhaps she was busy getting an extreme makeover with tammy faye baker in the powder room? or fixing election results? something important, i'm sure.)
And yet we do print more and more money every year, the rate of which is governed by the Federal Reserve's interest rate. It's called "growing the economy" (I'm being a tiny bit sardonic there). Here's a good Fed primer for you, if you're interest-ed.
Yesterday I tossed a penny in the trash. I wondered if the Fed was counting on that penny to remain in circulation. They're gonna be awfully upset when they find out.
rolypolyman: a bizarre coalition of the IRA and the North Koreans tried that recently, in part as a way to hurt the US economy: Superdollar, so you'd guess it is a bad thing.
Sean Garland wasn't IRA. He was a Labour activist.
Well, he definitely was a senior figure in the Official IRA back in the day if this this biography on the site campaigning against his extradition is to believed. It also mentions him building links with the DPRK.
I'm no expert on the man or his history by any means, but what I've read makes him still having an active role with the OIRA seem a credible possibility.
Are you saying it's a fit-up Livewire?
US Trade Deficit Hits New Record
y'know . . just sayin'.
To put this into perspective, the 60 most in debt "third world" countries owe a combined total of just over $500 billion.
We owe twice that, and we're a superpower? Right. Stupid asinine fuckwit, I hope there is a hell so this bastard idiot prince can rot in it.
Thanks for the superdollar link, Abiezer_Coppe. Very interesting.
Wish I could remember the site that I read that mentioned if all the money the Saudis have invested in the US banking system were pulled out, the country would go bankrupt within a month.
Google-fu challenge!
« Older Nevermind this bollocks. | seabread Newer »
To post comments to a thread you must login or create a profile.
