Go to PDF Version | Go to Recent Issues
To save time in the future, you may select one of the preferences below. You may update your eIBD preferences at any time by going into My IBD and selecting Update Your eIBD Preferences.
Set Web-Based Version as Default Set PDF Version as Default Set Recent Issues as Default
Get QuoteSearch Site
Daily Graphs Online
View Enlarged Image
Spending: According to two separate Government Accountability Office scenarios, America's long-term fiscal outlook is "unsustainable." No surprise, since Uncle Sam is spending like a drunken sailor.
The GAO, Congress' in-house think tank, warns that in "little over 10 years, debt held by the public as a percent of GDP" will hit a record high, exceeding the debt-to-GDP ratio seen after World War II. Then it will "grow at a steady rate thereafter," according to the government forecasters.
"Social Security cash surpluses, which have been used to help finance other government activities, are projected to turn to cash deficits by 2016," the GAO warns.
The agency's fall update of its "Long-Term Fiscal Outlook" adds that "the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2037, 4 years earlier than estimated last year." The Medicare trust fund's day of reckoning, meanwhile, "was also moved forward by 2 years to 2017."
The GAO used two simulations, an optimistic one making the assumption of historically lower-than-average nonentitlement spending and higher-than-average tax revenues, and a second model assuming that spending and revenues would keep to historical averages. But "both simulations show that the federal government is on an unsustainable fiscal path."
The non-optimistic simulation "shows persistent annual budget deficits in excess of 7% of GDP â?? levels not seen since the aftermath of World War II." Under that scenario, "roughly 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue will be spent on the major entitlement programs and net interest costs by 2019."
Even if revenue remains constant at 20.2% of GDP â?? higher than the historical average â?? by 2030 there will be little room for "all other spending," which includes "national defense, homeland security, investment in highways and mass transit and alternative energy sources, plus smaller entitlement programs such as Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and farm price supports."
It sounds like doomsday. But the politicians who run Washington are ignoring the dire warnings.
This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is convening a gaggle of ideologically friendly economists with the aim of getting cover for yet another stimulus â?? even though the last one of $787 billion made no discernible dent in unemployment, which threatens to reach double digits.
And Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., appearing on Fox News Wednesday, spoke for lots of his fellow liberals in blithely proposing a brand-new, massive entitlement in the form of a government-run health scheme, claiming that "a public option helps bring down the costs."
Also appearing on Fox Wednesday, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., after accusing Democrats on the Senate floor of a "Bernie Madoff approach to (health care) funding," warned that when disguised funding is tallied up, the true cost of Congress' proposed government health takeover â?? even without the public option â?? is $1.8 trillion.
Government spending is burning our children's futures to the ground, yet our "leaders" in Washington think it's time to spray the kerosene of still more spending on the fire.
USSR, 1959: I am a "young pioneer" in school. History classes remind us that there is a higher authority than their parents and teachers: the leaders of the Communist Party. The story of young pioneer Pavlik Morozov is required reading. Pavlik reported his father to the secret police for disobeying ...
First Amendment: Diversity czar Mark Lloyd's FCC votes Thursday on the issue of net neutrality. Advertised as providing access to all, it will do to the information superhighway what Lloyd proposed for talk radio. ...
Disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer went on a rant last week. Hurling half-truths and red herring arguments in an article for Slate, he advocated jeopardizing public workers' retirement security for political ends. Spitzer is miffed at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for opposing the major ...
Media: As newspapers and TV networks struggle and the administration presumes to define a proper news organization, what does the journalism establishment demand? No fair if you guessed a government bailout. ...
Axis Of Evil: So who mourns when a terrorist dies by his own bomb? Apparently the U.S. and the U.N. do, given their condolences to Iran after Sunday's attack on its Revolutionary Guard. Iran is the father of this terrorism. ...
Posted By: getplaning(190) on 10/22/2009 | 12:32 AM ET
40% of the fiscal deterioration we're seeing-the single largest contributing factor-can be attributed to Bush policies. Another 12% comes from Bush's financial rescues, while 20% are the result of the economic crisis. What's President Obama's share? Just 16% of the total, most of which is the result of new spending that was necessary to prevent a depression. IBD wants to make sure the GOP isn't held responsible for the budget mess. It's an argument that is not borne out by the record.
Posted By: getplaning(190) on 10/22/2009 | 12:29 AM ET
The Obama administration policies that are beginning to give the economy a needed jumpstart - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in particular - place a distant third in contributing to the 2009 and 2010 deficit numbers. Bush approved tax cuts, but didn't pay for them. Bush expanded Medicare, but didn't pay for it. Bush launched two expensive wars, but didn't pay for them. Bush took a quarter-trillion-dollar surplus, and then handed off a $1.3 trillion deficit to his successor.
Posted By: Ellman(60) on 10/21/2009 | 11:48 PM ET
All references to Uncle Sam should be replaced with "Uncle Karl". This uncle's full name is Karl Marx. He has killed Uncle Sam and donned his clothes to confuse the po***ce. With socialized medicine on the way, with an egotistical banana republic President, with major wealth distribution on the horizon, the time has come to recognize that it is not Uncle Sam, but Uncle Karl, who now symbolizes America.
Posted By: dwdrury(10) on 10/21/2009 | 11:45 PM ET
Not a problem! All one needs do to change the equation is to reduce life expectancy. And now you know the administration's big health care push. To call them sociopaths understates the problem.
Posted By: zenga(185) on 10/21/2009 | 11:02 PM ET
Fire all the Dems. At every opportunity. And every Republican that supports the Dem tax-and-spend agenda.
To participate in Community areas, please Sign In or Register
Register
Prepare, then pull the trigger at buy points.
Get QuoteSearch Site
Read Full Article »