Deficit Aid

Geithner Says Deficits Aren’t Crowding Out Private Borrowing

2010-03-11T14:40:35Z

March 10, 2010, 5:00 PM EST... Business Week

By Rebecca Christie

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said U.S. budget deficits, while “unsustainably high,” are helping the economy recover from recession without hurting private borrowers.

When asked in testimony today before a House Appropriations subcommittee whether Treasury borrowing is crowding out private investment, Geithner responded “No, it’s not.” As evidence, he noted that the government is still able to borrow at rates that are “really remarkably low,” showing that Treasury debt isn’t pushing interest rates up and making it harder for others to get credit.

Geithner reiterated his view that the U.S. needs to spend money to fight the recession and financial crisis, and then focus on narrowing deficits once a recovery is entrenched. The U.S. had a $1.4 trillion shortfall in fiscal 2009, and the Obama administration is predicting a $1.6 trillion deficit in fiscal 2010, which ends Sept. 30.

A solution to Bring the National Debt to $7 Trillion in Ten Years

2010-03-09T17:40:28Z

One way or another, this country is going to be faced with making tough decisions on cutting services, benefits and jobs. The current rate of debt expansion is going to lead to bankruptcy in the future. This will lead to harsh cuts and worse - revolts. Think Greece

Read the article on one solution to avoid the fiscal collapse.

Spending Cuts Aren’t the Only Way to Reduce the Deficit

2010-03-05T16:42:00Z

An increase in revenue would be just as effective as spending cuts in reducing the federal deficit.

By Stan Collender The Fiscal Times

The phrase “death tax” was one of the most impressive public relations stunts of all time. Using it instead of the actual name — estate tax — almost immediately transformed a tax that applied only to a comparatively small group into a tax that everyone seemed destined to pay. After all, few people think they have an estate but everyone is sure they’re going to die. The new name instantly changed the politics of the estate tax by making increases much tougher to enact and reductions far more popular than had been the case before.

CNN Reports - America's hidden debt bombs

2010-03-04T16:08:08Z

By Jeanne Sahadi, senior writerMarch 1, 2010

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- America's total debt load is on pace to top $13 trillion this year, and $22 trillion by 2020 -- and that's just the debt we're counting.

What's not being counted: potential debt bombs that don't get factored into most budget analysis.

US Debt in 2008

2010-02-24T23:00:00Z

Between September and October 2008, the Total U.S. National Debt increased by nearly one trillion dollars, or about 10% of the outstanding debt. Most of this increase is due to public borrowing to finance the Wall Street Bailout plan. The additional borrowing on top of the mandatory increases in programs such as Social Security (which will increase payout by 5.8% in January of 2009) represents a significant loss in financial flexibility which makes the problem of persistent deficit spending even more difficult to solve.

At the current rate, the national debt is increasing by nearly 4 billion dollars every day! See our National Debt Clock.

Deficit - What is it and How Much is it?

2010-02-22T15:03:10Z

Get the Yin Yang T-ShirtThenationaldebtcrisis.com

So what is the deficit anyway?

Each year, Congress and the President approve a budget outlining projected tax revenues for the year and projected expenditures for the year. The Budget of the United States Federal Government is a massive document detailing taxation and spending in the trillions of dollars.

Fix The Deficit?

2010-02-12T11:07:51Z

Get the tee-shirt at our storeBy Richard J. Burns February 12, 2010 DeficitAid.com

For one brief moment, imagine that the United States government was a company called Blue 'n' Red. The board-of-directors are discussing strategy to fix Blue 'n' Red's fiscal problems. The company made $2.4 trillion in sales but needed to borrow an additional $1.6 trillion to pay for its bills. Balancing the budget would be the first priority of the new strategy. The obvious approach would follow something along the lines of massive layoffs, selling assets, restructuring debt and putting in a team of mangers who are qualified to fix bloated company.

Do Deficits Matter?

2010-02-05T17:12:30Z

Moody's yesterday warned the United States that the rate of deficit spending could down grade the credit rating on the United States. Bush double the National Debt with excess spending. Obama is going to double the National Debt under his administration. Republican and democrats have a track record of not being able curtail spending deficit spending. The justifications is always some import issue, need or sparking growth with the promise the spending will actually reduced the deficits in the long-term. Clinton claims he had a surplus in revenue during his administration, but if you take out the money from taken from Social Security bank account, Clinton never had a surplus.

I can remember when Senator Monahan fought vigorously against using the savings for Social Security to pay for the U.S budget. Today, Social Security’s bank account is empty, thus, the government has to borrow money to cover every penny of every Social Security check written. This is an example of misappropriation of funds which is a crime in the private sector that the guilty serve time behind bars.

Here’s the skinny on the

Is this the beginning of the end for U.S. deficit spending?

2010-02-04T18:45:40Z

According to the Associated Press, Moody Investors Services said the public finances of the United States is "deteriorating considerably and may therefore 'test the Aaa boundaries' in the future. This in response to record deficit levels in 2009 of $1.42 trillion.

How Big is $9 Trillion? – Willful Omissions From Paul Krugman

2010-01-12T16:47:30Z

Political Math - August 25th, 2009

You may have seen the Paul Krugman post “How Big is $9 Trillion” in which he attempts to defend the Obama administration’s recent announcement that they expect that their policies will increase the national debt by $9 trillion. His tack is to “explain” that $9 trillion isn’t really all that much when you understand it in context.