Refinancing the Mortgage on Our Children’s Future
By on Aug 3rd, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Refinancing the Mortgage on Our Children’s Future
Yesterday, the Bush administration announced that the Treasury would bring back the 30 year bond. This is great news for investors: 30-year bonds are safe long term way to store savings. Unfortunately for the government, though, these bonds signal an acceptance of significant budget deficits over the medium and long term.
And while the administration applies for a new credit card, Congress has approved another bloated transportation bill full of pork barrel projects. As we, and Alan Greenspan, have pointed out before, the budgetary path this administration has led us down is dangerous. President Bush’s policies have ensured we will be spending plenty of tax dollars on interest payments for many years to come.
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You can’t blame the transportation bill all on Bush. Plenty of dems voted for it too.
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:26 pmThe economic debt we are creating means that every American baby owes $150,000 at the time of birth, most of it to Chinese and Japanese babies. No wonder babies cry!
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:41 pmLee we can blame the bloated bill on the republican leadership.
Let’s see, the last time we had any meaningful Democratic control of any of the 3 pillars we had government surpluses. I have yet to see dumbya produce anything remotely like it.
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:46 pmKindness,
Well, maybe its time for the democrats to regain contol of one or more of those pillars. Just how is that going to happen, may I ask?
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:49 pmWake up and vote Democratic next time Del. Thats how long it will take.
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:51 pmTell me why I should vote democratic?
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:53 pmIt answers your question #4 if you can’t figure it out Del.
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:55 pmRepub has really turned the country and world for the better, correct Del?
August 3rd, 2005 at 3:56 pmRepublicans don’t control the world. As for the country, apparently more Americans thought so and re-elected Bush to a second term. No I am waiting to hear what grand plan democrats have to turn things around if they are so bad (that is their opinion). It must be a secret plan because I can never get a dem to open up. All they seem to do is bash Bush and look where that got them.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:02 pmYou’re not biased against Dems now are you Del?
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:09 pmWhat part of Kerry’s comments during the Presidential debates was so secret Del?
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:11 pmDel didn’t hear Kerry’s comments. When Fox News was covering the debate, they overdubbed Kerry’s comments with the “Flip-flop” chant.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:15 pmAs for the country, apparently more Americans thought so and re-elected Bush to a second term.
No matter how many times you repeat the lie, it still isn’t true. Diebold and Ken Blackwell gave Bush a second term, not Americans.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:26 pmSkid, don’t give us that “Kerry’s comments” crap. Kerry was down the line with Bush on the Patriot Act, corporate welfare, health care, drug war, free trade, education testing and Palestine. He was silent on the environment and global warming. He had so many positions on Iraq that even he lost track, but now we know he’s right there with Lieberman, Reid, Pelosi and Rodham-Clinton for more of the same. We true lefties don’t support him for one minute. Del’s right, if he had a plan it was a big secret. The Dem Party has become Repub-lite, and they won’t let any other progressive party get on the ballot, so we’re stuck with them (or we just don’t vote, because here’s little real choice).
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:32 pmIt wasn’t secret, whether you like it or not Don. That’s the point.
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:40 pmDon,
Do you vote for “lesser of two evils” or for “not a snowball’s chance in Hell”?
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:42 pmI vote for the ’sometimes evil’ of the DLC/Democrats over the ‘always evil’ of the right wing whack jobs that currently run the Republican party…
As for republicans not ‘controlling’ the world - well that’s kind of ’spin propaganda’. The world is somewhat under the control of the WTO and any number of other corporate influences - and this administration is largely under the control of those interests. So while the US government itself is not controlling most of the world’s policies - the same schmucks who control our goverment are a part of the same schmucks that do control most of the world’s policies. It’s all semantics when you deal with republican idiot propagandists like Del…
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:47 pmThe problem with CONservatives in general is that they disregard all facts that don’t fit their delusions. The largest period of economic expansion in american history had a 75% tax rate as the top bracket. Ironically the largest recession periods (1920s, 1980s, early 2000s) all occurred after tax rates on the wealthy were slashed. When Clinton increased taxes on the wealthiest americans (and cut them on poorer americans - the opposite of bush), the economy boomed.
Reliable and truthful economists all know this statistical correlation between taxes on the wealthy class coupled with capital flight controls and economic prosperity. The wealthy propagandists who run the CONservative spin machine always get some stupid dupe like Del who doesn’t do his research, doesn’t know squat about the subject he talks about, but who’s willing to be a cannon fodder foot soldier because in his stupid greed he thinks someday he’s gonna get rich because he’s a fascist…
It’s really sad to see people so stupid that they’ll let themselves be so easily manipulated - I feel for you Del that your parents would be so inept in their rearing of you…
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:52 pmKerry would have been a ‘better’ choice than Bush - but I am no fan of John Kerry or many of his voting choices. Too much of the democratic party has swung so far to the right they look right of Eisenhower. They’ve lost their way as the right wing fascists have dragged the media and the american public into a fascist mentality. It’s really disappointing to see so few democrats who are willing and/or able to stand up to the lying fascist doctrine that has overcome the american ‘mainstream’ of politics…
As the 2004 exit polls showed - more americans are wise to this than the media would have everyone believe, but still the fact that so many americans are/were duped by these CONservative con men is really sad…
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:01 pmI voted for Kerry. I would have preferred to vote for Dean. Kerry was a lousy candidate. He should have attacked the swifty panty veterans every single day instead of acting like nothing was there.
Now this isn’t saying that bush & co aren’t a bunch of lying, plundering, fascist child molesters. They are. Well, everything but the child molester part, we have to leave something for Michael Jackson.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:08 pmKindness,
I so agree with you! I would have been happy to vote for dean - that swiftboat smear of him using the directional microphone was scandalous! Although when he said one of his goals as president would to be to break up the media monopoly - I suspected they would sabotage him through some smear campaign. The ‘myth’ of the liberal media is perhaps one of the biggest proganda lies that both liberals and conservatives alike seem to believe all too often.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:20 pmI concur with both of your assessments, Ryan and kindness. I voted for Kerry, but would rather have voted for Dean. I thought Clark had his finer points as well. Its too bad that instead of a brutal primary, they couldn’t just form a coalition of Dems and work together at defeating BushCo, for as the saying goes, “Together we stand, divided we fall”. With one given the Presidential “nod”, the others could form the administration.
Pipe dream? Maybe, but the way it went didn’t seem to work (barring voting corruptions).
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:35 pmSkid, no, I don’t buy it, you implied that Kerry had a different program. Anyhow, I guess we agree that he didn’t.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:40 pmAs for voting, I went with snowball this time, and I have no regrets. First, Kerry was a disaster as a candidate and so why do we think a Kerry Presidency would be any different. Secondly I just wanted to stick it to him in my own small way for abandoning us in a time of need. I know it’s petty but I think I needed to send a message that Bush-lite doesn’t qualify for my vote. Thirdly, an amplification of the above, Kerry’s position on the war — agreeing with Bush a year ago that ‘I’d have done the same thing’ — was not only stupid (as was his vote on the war) but a repudiation of his earlier anti-war activism of which he had a right to be proud but wasn’t. It was like he went through a character liposuction. I would never vote for no-character Bush so why vote for no-character Kerry? I’m no spring chicken any more, and I have a right to vote my conscience, snowball or no. Everyone does, for that matter. Particularly when it involves war, with which I am somewhat familiar. So it wasn’t so petty after all, was it.
I think Clark would have made a better national campaign. I think instead of 6 months of primaries they should have 3 or 4 regional superprimaries 2 or 3 months before the elections & then have the elections.
The system as it currently stands sucks.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:41 pmSkid,
Don’t feel bad, your vote did make a difference in that Kerry actually won the popular vote.
http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/73/howTheGrinch.htm
Small excerpt here.
Exit polls and final counts in Missouri, Louisiana, Maine and Utah, for instance, varied by 1% or less. In non-paper-trail states, however, there were significant differences. Florida saw a shift from Kerry +1% in the exit polls to Bush +5% at evening’s end. In Ohio, Kerry went from +3% to -3%. Other big discrepancies in key states were: Minnesota (from +10% to +4%), New Mexico (+4 to -1), Nevada (+1 to -3), Wisconsin (+7 to +0.4), Colorado (-2 to -5), North Carolina (-4 to -13), Iowa (+1 to -1), New Hampshire (+14 to +1) and Pennsylvania (+8 to +2). Exit polls also had Kerry winning the national popular vote by 3%. (See additional information and weblinks on Professor Steven Freeman’s research in the accompanying article this issue, “Bush Lost” by Margie Burns.)
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:46 pmDon,
Kerry was much more workable than obviously Bush, so I don’t see your point overall. Did you vote “Snowball in Hell” just to be able to bitch at everyone else? Don’t get me wrong, if Nader (or whoever you wrote in) had a chance, I’d concider them, but this is reality.
August 3rd, 2005 at 5:57 pmKerry tried to sway Repub voters with his “I’d have done the same thing” comment, but he also admitted that he and the rest were duped by the BushCo faulty pre-war intelligence.
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:04 pmyou can’t blame a guy for being duped by fixed intelligence after 9/11. But you know fool me once… ummm… we won’t get fooled again!
And the Russians also agreed with the faulty intelligence. It’s not like Russia would have any interest in seeing our power in the world weakened, would they?
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:13 pmcynical,
My recollection was that russia didn’t agree with our intelligence - but they agreed that saddam ‘might’ still possess WMDs. And why did they believe this? Because Reagan had sold Saddam the WMDs and the expertise to create new WMDs in the 1980s and they full well knew this…
I was mixed on whether I believed they had WMDs or not - but I was convinced that containment was a better strategy than invasion. And the main reason I knew this is that historically CONservatives have been HORRIBLE nation builders…
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:21 pmKerry wasn’t my first choice as candidate - I saw him as very smart and cerebral - which I generally appreciate - but a candidate like that today can’t win. In some small perverted way, I am almost glad that Kerry didn’t win because he would have had no cooperation in Congress and the Republicans would be standing on his neck regarding Iraq, the economy and everything else that Bush screwed up. For Four years, they blamed Clinton; if Kerry had won, they would spend the next four years blaming Kerry.
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:28 pmDon’t misunderstand, I think Bush is the worst president in my lifetime and I am pretty old - the man should be hung - but watching him twist in a wind as his party deserts him one by one may be a little consolation.
He stole the election - TWICE - but when Dems say that, they are called Whiners and dismissed with a sniff. We are in such deep doo-doo now because of him, it’s going to be real hard for Reps. to continue to back this cretin.
Oops! This topic is about taxes, right. If a Democrat had ruined the economy to this extent with nothing to thow for its debt, the howls would be heard around the world. As it is, Bush’s tax cuts resulted in drastic cuts in all programs of all sorts, reduced states’ budgets, increasing the $$ that people have to pay for all other services from schools to health. But, Bush’s friends did real good — they get their write offs, their off-shore companies, their defense contracts, their pork bills, and the rest of us can observe. If you put Bush’s tax cut to the average American on one hand and you spit in the other - which one gave you more?
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:33 pmOur grandchildren will be paying for this insane fiscal policy - not to mention that we will pay for this until the day we die!
Marie,
Well they can get over it - I’ll whine all I want about the fact that the election was stolen. CONservatives always accuse people who point out the truth to them of ‘whining’, but that’s just their anxiety and insecurity showing. I don’t care if they whine about voting rights violations by some democrats - frankly I’m as appalled as they are if a democrat does this. I personally believe that the Kennedy election was probably stolen from Republicans, and I think that’s sad - but I’m not going to close ranks around the mob just because they did this ‘for me’, in the same way I’d hope an honest and moral republican wouldn’t want their fascist radicals to steal an election for them. If it takes this kind of dishonesty, then you’re doing something wrong! It’s too late to reverse the last election - period, but if we don’t honestly and openly admit the election was rigged, then we don’t actually live in a democracy!
Now as for the specifics of the election being stolen - here are two great sites!
http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=181
http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/73/howTheGrinch.htm
August 3rd, 2005 at 6:36 pmWe have entirely too much debt, and the world’s willingness and need to sponsor that debt will go away. The scenario we’re in is what financial planners freak out about. Once an individual (or country) has acquired too much high risk debt, then the debt crushes their ability to function properly.
But this is unfortunately EXACTLY what the fascists want. Their approach is to so crush the system so much that the government will no longer be able to afford social programs, so their grubby/greedy little selves will no longer have to pay for these things. The cynical, self serving and foolishness of this gamble is beyond irresponsible - it’s clinically insane!
The facts are there, liberalism works, and CONservatism is the policy of the wicked, selfish, clueless and greedy. Here’s a great excerpt from a recent EJDionne article that lays it out licely!
The fact is that every year 27 million Americans are lifted from poverty by our system of public benefits. More than 80 million Americans receive health insurance through a government program — Medicaid, Medicare or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP. Without these programs, tens of millions would be unable to afford access to medical care. As the center notes, government programs reduce both the extent and the depth of poverty.
Does all this cost a fortune? Not by any fair reckoning. Federal spending on Medicaid and SCHIP represents 1.5 percent of gross domestic product. Federal financing for the rest of the low-income programs consumes just 2.3 percent of GDP. For a sense of comparison, consider that defense spending consumes 4 percent of GDP and interest on the national debt gobbles up 1.5 percent. President Bush’s tax cuts — which go in large part to the wealthiest Americans — will consume roughly 2 percent of GDP.
And federal spending for the poor does a huge amount of good. Food stamps, the center notes, “help more than 25 million people with low incomes afford an adequate diet.” The school lunch and breakfast programs provide free and reduced-price meals to 22 million schoolchildren from low-income families. The supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children known as WIC helps about 8 million pregnant and postpartum women and their children under 5. One of its effects has been to reduce the incidence of low birth weight among infants. Think of WIC as one of our most important pro-life programs.
Or take the earned-income tax credit, which supplements the incomes of the working poor. Census data show that in 2002 the EITC “lifted 4.9 million people out of poverty, including 2.7 million children.” Without the EITC, the center notes, “the poverty rate among children would have been nearly one-third higher.”
The report cites conservative economist and Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker, who once wrote that the earned-income tax credit “rewards rather than penalizes poor families with working members.” Yes, government programs can fight poverty while decreasing dependency.
Without government, our health care mess would be much worse. Just imagine how many more Americans would lack health coverage if 50 million of our fellow citizens — many of them children — did not have access to Medicaid.
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:07 pmI think Republicans should pay for their own policies. The national debt increased $2 trillion under Bush. He got 60 million votes in 2004. That comes out to $33,000 each, plus interest.
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:30 pmCynical,
That would be nice, but CONservatives never pay their own way. Wealthy americans benefit the most from Airports, infrastructure and other public works - yet they pay less and less of the costs each year. Jared Diamond in Collapse talks about how the Myan elite became increasingly parasitic on the working class, and that eventually crushed the society and it collapse. Ironically this is the most common reason why civilizations collapse - and if we don’t find a way out of the cycle, ours will follow suit.
But there I go again using my brain instead of falling in line with some jacka$$ dogma from the school of relentless untethered capitalism…
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:36 pmIf anyone here was concerned about our chidrens’ future they would support Soc Sec reform or at least have a solution. Has this site ever offered a solution and actively supported it?
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:38 pmShit Steed, how many times does someone have to repeat it before you’ll remember? Pay attention next time.
August 3rd, 2005 at 10:34 pmHey Steed,
The Director of the Social Security program has already publicly stated that Social Security is not in fear of going bankrupt or in need of reform and that it is only the NeoCons saying that to freak people out. So, nobody needs to give you a solution to Social Secruity reform, because it doesn’t need reform.
“Hey everybody, the Social Security program is going bakrupt. DOn’t pay attention to the illegal war in Iraq. Look at the monkey! just look at the cute little monkey.”
Go do some research and learn something. Stop trying to change the topic to a another empty arguement.”
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:06 pmSocial Security will not go broke as long as there are working people. Even King George has admitted that his plan to privatize SS will not provide the solution. There are many solutions; among them - raise the cap on taxable wages — and do a spread sheet on payables to retirees. Benefits are now paid according to what was earned, but benefits would then be paid on a declining scale after reaching a prescribed figure.
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:35 pmSteed,
There’s no social security crisis you idiot. We have IMMEDIATE problems that are far more pressing. And if you’re interested in the welfare of your children, then
1) you should care about autism caused by vaccines.
2) you should care about underfunded education.
3) you should care about funding health care.
4) you should care about food stamps for families.
5) you should care about global warming.
6) you should care about the insidious debt being racked up because of irresponsible and mismanagement.
7) you should care about getting medicare costs under control instead of turning it into a piggy bank for pharmaceuticals.
Also the ‘crisis’ at worst means that there’s no problems for 40 years, and that point it means that people simply receive 85% of their benefits with NO CHANGES to the current system. If you remove the cap on the wealthy wage earners so they pay the SAME percentage as poor workers do (ironically poor workers are least able to afford their rates!) - then 100% of the issue is solved with social security.
So basically the social security issue is an idiot issue for idiot CONservatives - and hence why you were obviously drawn to it!
August 3rd, 2005 at 11:42 pmI heard about the Thimerosol used in vaccines that is actually mercury based. Years ago, contact lens solutions were preserved in thimerosol, and the reactions by some people was remarkable. Some had to give up contact lenses. Bobby Kennedy has been trying to get this word out on vaccines, but he has met obstacles along the way. I think it may have been covered recently on a TV show (60 minutes?) but the general public is terribly uninformed. The pharmaceutical companies like it that way — “keep ‘em ignorant” seems to be their motto.
August 4th, 2005 at 12:24 amR.F.Kennedy Jr. was talking about it on the Daily Show two weeks ago. By the way, does anyone know why his voice is so scratchy? It sounds like its painful for him to speak.
August 4th, 2005 at 12:55 amI saw Robert Kennedy Jr. on Real Time with Bill Maher. He seems like a very well educated guy, with a lot to say. He was talking about the same topic. I would take it that maybe he has had some experience with the Health Care Industry, which may be related to his voice. That would explain why he’s mad as hell.
August 4th, 2005 at 2:00 amYea it’s his baby at the moment. His voice is odd.
Thimerosol is a combination of Some mercury compounds w/ formaldihyde. Yes those things will kill any bacteria in them, but they are also not very good for our bodies either.
An adult can handle them OK cause our livers are bigger and better developed (that is where the formaldehyde is removed, broken down & stored by your bodies). Mercury isn’t good for anyone, adult or infant. But an infant, especially a newborn has such a tiny liver that doesn’t really function at peak performance, that is why they think it effects kids more. Plus look at all the vaccines they give kids today vs. how many we had when we were kids. In Japan they don’t start vaccinating their children until they are 2 + years old. Their incidence of autism is way less than ours. There is definitely a link even if the AMA won’t admit it.
August 4th, 2005 at 10:07 amFDA I mean. Oops.
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