Odious debt.
"US revenue from taxes rises, but not enough" May 12, 2011|By Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A decade ago, it seemed the federal budget was heading in the opposite direction. The government had an annual surplus of $127 billion in 2001 when Bush took office and was projected to run surpluses totaling $5.6 trillion over the next decade.
But by 2002, the country was back in the red.
The deficits grew after Bush won approval for the broad tax cuts, pushed a major drug benefit program for seniors — which was not offset with revenue to pay for it — and embarked on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Translation: the wealthy, pharmaceutical corporations, and war-profiteers did fine.
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Of course, he's been gone a while. Surely the Democrats have reversed the trend.
"Clock starts ticking as US hits limit on federal borrowing" May 17, 2011|By Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United States reached its $14.3 trillion limit on federal borrowing yesterday, leaving Congress 11 weeks to raise the threshold or risk a financial panic or another recession.
When did we come out of the last one?
Related: Rich splurging, others scrimping, report says
Haven't I been saying that?
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally notified Congress that the government would halt its investments in two federal pension plans so it will not exceed the borrowing limit.
So the work-a-day grunt gets penalized while the wars rage on and the luxurious political lifestyles continue?
Geithner said the government could get by with bookkeeping maneuvers like that through Aug. 2. After that, the government could default on its debt for the first time, threatening the national credit rating and the dollar.
Bernanke has already killed the dollar buying back the fraudulent mortgage securities, and the subtle message is the central bankers will wreck the economy unless you borrow more money (at interest) from them.
Geithner sent Congress a letter saying he would be unable to make the pension investments in full. He urged Congress to raise the debt limit “in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic economic consequences for citizens.’’
First of all, the economy Geithner and geniuses like him have presided over has been a catastrophe.
And I fail to see hoe digging a deeper hole helps us get out of one.
End the frikkin' wars, the corporate giveaways to the well-connected, and the foreign aid for Empire and Israel.
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If it does not raise the limit, Congress would have to come up with $738 billion to make up for what it planned to borrow through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The options are drastic: Cut 40 percent of the budget through September, which might mean defaulting on payments to investors in government bonds; raise taxes immediately; or some combination of the two.
Oh, those "investors" can't be put out even if you are, set-upon American.
“In the economic area, this is the equivalent of nuclear war,’’ says Edward Knight, who was the Treasury Department’s general counsel during a standoff over the debt ceiling in the mid-1990s.
If you ask me, the US economy is melting down faster than a Fukushima reactor (which we now learn three of them melted down within days and we have been -- once again -- lied to by the corporate media). I'm out in it and the thing is dead in the water.
Congress created the debt limit, a ceiling on how much debt the government can pile up, in 1917. It is unique to the United States. Most countries let their debts rise automatically when government spending outpaces tax revenue. Raising the debt ceiling does not usually create much of a stir. Congress has raised it 10 times since 2001.
A refusal to raise the debt ceiling would not mean that Congress had begun to solve the budget problems. It would just mean that lawmakers were refusing to let the government borrow more money to finance programs and tax cuts already approved....
Do you give an alcoholic a drink?
An arsonist a match?
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Also see: MSM Monitor Ready to Hit Roof
If the bankers want you to borrow more money it can not be a good idea.
