From the White House? Nothing, which the Wall Street Journal characterizes as a “leadership default” reflected in Mr. Obama’s Monday night speech, reiterating the kind of partisan rhetoric the president himself has criticized on a number of occasions. The Journal characterized it as “more like a DNC fund-raiser than an Oval Office address,” in which Mr. Obama’s demands for tax increases “have already been abandoned by Members of his own party in the Senate.” The paper then gets to the big picture:
Apart from shifting blame for any debt default, the speech was also an attempt to inoculate Mr. Obama in case the U.S. loses its AAA credit rating. He cleverly, if dishonestly, elided the credit-rating issue with the debt-ceiling debate. But he knows that Standard & Poor’s has said that it may cut the U.S. rating even if Congress moves on the debt ceiling. Mr. Obama wants to avoid any accountability for the spending blowout of the last three years that has raised the national debt held by the public–the kind we have to pay back–from 40% in 2008 to 72% next year, and rising. This will be the real cause of any downgrade.
Who does the public hold accountable? Everybody involved, with Republicans and the president getting equally blamed for the lousy economy, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. When it comes to a lack of jobs, more Americans blame Republicans than Obama, by 65-52 percent. Yet among his liberal base, Mr. Obama’s approval on job creation has dropped from 53 to 31 percent.
Will the United States default on its debt? Only if the president and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner consciously decide to do so. That they have both attempted to scare the American public with such a scenario, along with a media sympathetic to their ideology, is shameful. In reality, a failure to raise the debt ceiling would force both men to prioritize government outlays. Ironically, whether it has been sold as tax-and-spend liberalism, or “compassionate” conservatism, it is precisely the effort to avoid prioritizing government outlays time and time again that has led us to trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits, and $14 trillion of national deb t– both of which are unsustainable.
This long-term unsustainability is what the ratings agencies are looking at. And despite all the heated rhetoric emanating from both Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C., neither plan as currently proposed comes close to getting our financial house in order. Other than 87 House Republicans who are standing on principle — and getting absolutely hammered for doing so — members of both parties demonstrate a politically motivated lack of desire to make the hard choices that would accrue to the country’s economic benefit in the long run.
Why? Because many Americans, long used to a level of socialistic policies they can’t imagine living without, would find such choices abhorrent. It would take an extraordinary level of leadership to point out the painful truth that such abhorrence must be measured against the reality of crushing debt, anemic growth, and millions of un- and under-employed Americans, with no realistic end in sight.
Will the United States’ credit rating be downgraded? S&P gives that a one-in-two chance of occurring in the next three months. A downgrade of the largest economy in the history of mankind. That’s a bipartisan failure of monumental proportions.
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Let’s hear the excuses from the head muslim. Its Bush’s fault, racism and the republicans are out to get him. No, the head mooslim is a true loser. He spending is totally put of control making government bigger everyday. 2012 can’t come fast enough. One and done. The “great one” then can play golf more that he does now, if that’s possible. The best is that we don’t have to continue to listen to his bs. and look at the ugly lying puss.
Of course it is possible to raise taxes sufficiently, but not by taxing the rich alone. All combined tax take of all tiers of government in the US is about 30% of GDP. Many developed countries are closer to 40%. I would posit that you can't run an effective developed country on a tax take of 30%. The best evidence for this is the case of the United States, which has been run by the Republics for eight of the last ten years. (You can run a developing country on that take, but the U.S. is not a developing country).
So you need to massively increase taxes for everyone on average incomes and above. And then you need to slash defence spending and the total cost of the health care system as well. Note I said total cost of the healthcare system, not just Medicare. Private health insurance also needs to get much cheaper, so that middle class Americans will be able to afford it out of smaller after tax incomes. This can be done because American healthcare is grotesquely inefficient: the Japanese get twice as much bang for their healthcare buck.
The standard of living of most of the U.S. population is going to fall, there is no way around that, but you should do it in a way that doesn't terminate the investment you need to make to be competitive in the future. This isn't the 19th century, when a sparsely populated country could get rich by the low standards of the time through private exploitation of abundant natural resources. Today, no country can remain globally competitive without a high level of tax-funded investment in education, science and infrastructure.
What percentage of your income does it take to ADMINISTER the protection of your home and conduct business for your family? If that takes more than 30%… you’re doing it wrong!
Hello Philip! Please research the FAIR TAX. Neal Boortz has lots of information on his website.- http://www.boortz.com. The U.S. needs a self-limiting tax approach that severely limits the IRS's scope of activity and staff. The U.S. needs a method to keep politicians from getting into everyone's pockets. Again FAIR TAX. BTW…How do you explain Hong Kong, Singapore, etc success? Do those countries invest a lot of money in education? We taxpayers get hit for a lot of money for education, but it seems we get no bang for our bucks. Bring back TRADE SCHOOLS…everyone DOES NOT need college in this age of specialization.
StephenD, you are on the right track. If you're speaking about Fed government, it really needs to max at 15%. States and local governments can handle most functions but they cannot print money, thus, they are restricted to what their residents will tolerate. Private or personal expenditures vary, but the one big thing is Mortgage / Rent and that should not be higher than 24% – 25% of Take-Home $$$. That is usually FIXED and the rest of the outlays are VARIABLE.
Re education in a non-19th century environment, there are so many ways to achieve an education that will not cost you $30K – $50K per year. Do the research into that as well as PROFESSIONAL LICENSES for various professions…lots of options out there.
Let it happen and see what we get?
"Tax and spend liberalism or compassionate conservatism", my big toe, why not
"bleed and steal". Obama who knows he will not be around to long knows to
get it all now and not work the beast (us) but cut the throat and drain it all and
when done sell the hide. Like all politicians after it is all done and said, they can
blame each other, walk away and count their ill gotten gains while the citizen is
left holding the bag, Uncle Sam in rags, the ideal for leftists, Republicans will
gladly sell everything we loose back to us for another cycle of rebuild and default.
Americans can you not think of and honest way to run government and handle
finances?. Shovel ready jobs are in criminal prosecution, Washington D.C. is ripe
for cleansing and we can build enough prisons to hold all of the vermin.
William
An inferior health care plan that no one wants and CANNOT afford to pay. The threat to jail and/or fine those who don't purchase the government enforced plan.
Massive spending as if there is no tomorrow. Fighting wars we have no money for. Massive borrowing. The Massive giving away of Billions of dollars every year to other countries, including the oil-wealthy Middle East, Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Palestinian Authority organization who fill their war chests, build mansions and laugh all the way to the bank with free infidel money. Whilst in America, homeless shelters are filled to capacity; tent cities have sprung up all over the U.S. filled with desperate, jobless, homeless, NEGLECTED Americans.
Massive debt. The massive printing of paper money out of thin air to DELIBERATELY create out-of-control inflation. There is no question that the total DESTRUCTION of America's economy is planned. The results will be horrifying. In the once wealthy and great nation of America, millions of Americans will become destitute, hungry and homeless with no money or resources to help them.
Organic, non-gmo avocado, fruit and nut trees and berries must be planted in all of our nation’s cities’ and towns’ parks to help the many millions of Americans who will soon be in a desperate struggle to survive.
Watch it. And weep for our great nation and people:
FALL Of The Republic – The Presidency Of Barack H Obama – The Full Movie HQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8LPNRI_6T8&fe…