Throwing Stones
By on Apr 20th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Throwing Stones
George W. Bush, 4/20/05:
If someone doesn’t pay his or her debts the rest of society is left paying for them.
Amount added to the federal debt during the George W. Bush presidency:
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Bush
Business
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Education
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Glenn Beck
Global Warming
Guantanamo
Health Care
Immigration
International Relations
Justice
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Politics
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Technology
Terrorism
Veterans
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
Good post. The bankruptcy bill is simply a disgrace.
April 20th, 2005 at 3:53 pmThe federal debt they are racking up now is nothing to worry about, but Social Security running a deficit starting in 2041 is a crisis?
April 20th, 2005 at 4:10 pmMy guess is that Bush doesn’t live among any mirrors.
April 20th, 2005 at 4:12 pmMy guess is the Shrub doesn’t live in REALITY.
April 20th, 2005 at 4:45 pmI guess “Deficits don’t matter” because Treasury Bills are nothing but “worthless IOUs” anyway.
It’s a simple equation folks. People want something for nothing. The guy who can convince 51% of the country that we can have a war, tax cuts, big business profits, free prescription drugs, and not have to pay for any of it, is the winner.
And you know when these bills all come due they’ll be blaming the liberal press for everything.
April 20th, 2005 at 5:42 pmBush compartmentalizes easily. To him the federal deficit does not count because it is “opm” (other peoples’ money).
April 20th, 2005 at 6:09 pmNo, the problem is that bush thinks ita ALL his money. Its like he won a quadruple platinum credit card that he can just get China to recharge each time he exceeds his credit limit. Of course his credit’s good. He’s a real straight shooter, ya know. Besides, once all those oil royalties start coming in from Iraq, this war will have paid for itself, with interest. And then won’t we feel silly for mocking our little War Profiteer In Chief?
April 20th, 2005 at 8:38 pmIsn’t it about time for Jeb Bush’s daughter to declare bankruptcy?
April 20th, 2005 at 8:43 pmI didn’t know trillion was an actual number.
April 20th, 2005 at 9:52 pmit has 12 zeros after it – $2,200,000,000,000.
And they borrow $2billion – 2,000,000,000 – a day just to keep going.
And 45% of the aprox. $7+trillion – 7,000,000,000,000 – debt is owed to the rest of the world, the top two creditors being Japan & China.
April 20th, 2005 at 11:28 pmhttp://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20050318-fri.html#anchor0
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/charting/2005/0302.html
http://www.gao.gov/cghome/intergovchallenge.pdf
Do you think they and the rest of the creditors feel comfortable that Dubya is saying the money owed to them are nothing but worthless meaningless IOUs that aren’t worth a cent?
Bearing the Burden
April 21st, 2005 at 2:39 amPresident Bush signed the new bankruptcy law today, making it much harder for people crippled by medical costs to get a fresh start. He made some hilarious statements during the signing ceremony. I mean, the guy was on fire. If…
Trust me, true conservatives/libertarians like myself are just as outraged as the left at Bush’s budget deficits. Our view is that he should cut (largely unconstitutional) spending to fix the problem.
April 21st, 2005 at 9:40 amLamontCranston and tom:
Regarding your treasury debt/IOU comments. Treasury bills bought by 3rd parties from the US treasury are a promise from the US to pay them interest and then give them the principal back at the end of the term. So these are quite meaningful IOUs. The treasury can pay the interest from 1) increased tax money 2) spending cuts 3) issuing more treasury notes. Since the budget is in deficit, the treasury pays by issuing more treasury notes.
“Trust fund” treasuries are bought by the SSA from the US treasury. Since the SSA is funded by the treasury, these bonds represent a promise from the treasury to pay themselves future interest and then principal. The treasury can pay itself from 1) increased tax money 2) spending cuts 3) issuing more treasury notes.
So the trust fund bonds are meaningless assets in this case, because there is no real money in the trust fund. It’s not a trust fund at all. When the time comes to draw on the “trust fund”, the government will have to get the money from tax increases, spending cuts (which may include SSA benefit cuts) or issuing more public debt.
An analogy would be for you to say to yourself: I am loaning myself a billion dollars right now. I will pay myself back in 10 years. So now you have a billion dollar trust fund. Hooray, except you are a billion dollars in debt as well, and you need to get that money from somewhere to actually pay out from your trust fund.
April 21st, 2005 at 10:36 amPriceless. We really are living in a post-irony era…
April 21st, 2005 at 10:42 amLamontCranston and tom:
The trust fund IOUs are indeed meaningless, since they are a debt that the government owes itself. There is no actual worth to the trust fund.
Here’s an analogous example. You say to your self: I am loaning myself $10 billion. I will pay myself back in 10 years. You now have a $10 billion trust fund. Hooray, except you are also $10 billion in debt. In order for someone to draw from the trust fund, you will have to get the money from somewhere. In the government’s case, it would be from tax increases, spending cuts (possibly including SSA benefit cuts), or issuing more public debt.
April 21st, 2005 at 10:50 amObviously we was referring to the bankruptcy law, but did anyone ask him what happened when the several companies he headed went bankrupt?
April 21st, 2005 at 11:31 amWho is going to pay the ecological debt? Society.
April 21st, 2005 at 12:06 pmAndros, don’t you know what happened his bankrupt companies? His buddies gave him a major league ball club for them and then the state built him a new stadium, he then sold the whole works and zowey he is a millianair. If he can do it any C average student can do it.
April 21st, 2005 at 2:39 pmLamontCranston and tom:
The trust fund IOUs are indeed meaningless, since they are a debt that the government owes itself. There is no actual worth to the trust fund.
Here’s an analogous example. You say to your self: I am loaning my self $10 billion. I will pay myself back in 10 years. You now have a $10 billion trust fund. Hooray, except you are also $10 billion in debt. In order for someone to draw from the trust fund, you will have to get the money from somewhere. In the government’s case, it would be from tax increases, spending cuts (possibly including SSA benefit cuts), or issuing more public debt.
April 21st, 2005 at 3:11 pmBush’s fiscal bankrupcy pales greatly in comparison to his moral bankrupcy. Conservative compassionism–it’s a joke. Continue tax breaks on the rich and rob the poor. Bush’s reverse Robin Hood disgusts me.
April 21st, 2005 at 3:13 pmOops, sorry for the dup posts…there was like a 4 hour lag before the comments were posted.
April 21st, 2005 at 3:48 pmI am ashamed that Democrats voted for this bill. What is this world coming to? Bill Gates and Warren Buffet get a huge tax cut but some poor guy who had a medical emergency and got deep into debt cannot get help to start his life over again.
These right-wing nuts make me sick. Take money from the poor and give it to the wealthy. Would Jesus do this? Of course not. The empty piety of the Religious Reich is utterly disgusting.
April 21st, 2005 at 3:52 pmHey you don’t think China would use all that debt against us do you?
April 21st, 2005 at 4:56 pmGMNotYet-
April 21st, 2005 at 5:06 pmWhere/when has the government taken increased money away from the poor? The government actually takes money from the rich and uses it to give handouts to the poor.
Tony you are such a BS artist you should be working for the administration.
April 21st, 2005 at 11:07 pmAl:
April 22nd, 2005 at 9:16 amHow is what I said BS? Please give an example and we can discuss. Thanks.
ristorante casoli ..
January 25th, 2007 at 7:57 pmAccounting Financial Calculators Bad Credit Credit Cards…
I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me…
August 27th, 2008 at 10:24 amPaying Debts…
That’s pretty cool, thanks….
September 4th, 2008 at 10:57 pmpublic debt…
This is similar to comment spam but avoids some of the safeguards designed to stop the latter practice. Six Apart started a working…
September 8th, 2008 at 9:08 pmselect car tires…
. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Six Apart started a working group in February…
September 9th, 2008 at 3:03 amEric…
Learn all you can by reading the following article…
September 9th, 2008 at 2:42 pm