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This is the Democratic Party.

Looked it up. Raising Estate tax to 2001 levels would raise around $150B. Not an insignificant amount but nowhere near the sum needed to offset the record increases we’ve seen in spending over the past few years. Hell….barely covers half of the increase in debt service cost from 2022 to 2023. Going to need more revenue along with cutting expenditures.
Every dollar counts.
 
Every dollar counts.
Can you make our elected officials aware of this idea. They continue to pass spending measures with little regard of such a novel concept. If they were forced to find revenue sources for new expenditures in non crisis times they would at the very least prioritize spending. What they’re currently doing is beyond irresponsible. It’s criminal. You or I would be put in jail if we acted in a similar manner with a publicly held company.
 
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Looked it up. Raising Estate tax to 2001 levels would raise around $150B. Not an insignificant amount but nowhere near the sum needed to offset the record increases we’ve seen in spending over the past few years. Hell….barely covers half of the increase in debt service cost from 2022 to 2023. Going to need more revenue along with cutting expenditures.
At current spending levels, that’s about twenty days worth of debt. And $150B is barely significant in DC in any context. There are 30 year olds directing budgets that size.
 
Oh…. So you’re only willing to service the debt and make cuts that are painful when they’re painful to other people? That’s what I thought.….
You are the one proposing pushing them off on dead people without realizing you are grifting their kids. How about we not incur the debt in the first place then we don’t have to worry about how to cover or finance it?
 
At current spending levels, that’s about twenty days worth of debt. And $150B is barely significant in DC in any context. There are 30 year olds directing budgets that size.
The most significant thing we can do to decrease spending levels is obviously getting inflation and interest rates under control. While you point at spending being key driver in that, I have repeatedly pointed out that our spending habits now are less bad than they were when Reagan was fighting the same inflationary problem. You can’t simply cut off spending or you’re going to cause a severe depression. Not a recession, but a decade long (or longer) depression.
 
The most significant thing we can do to decrease spending levels is obviously getting inflation and interest rates under control. While you point at spending being key driver in that, I have repeatedly pointed out that our spending habits now are less bad than they were when Reagan was fighting the same inflationary problem. You can’t simply cut off spending or you’re going to cause a severe depression. Not a recession, but a decade long (or longer) depression.
Inflation and interest rates are important but does not address the real issue…explosive growth in spending. We had total outlays of $4.45T in 2019. This year our total outlays are $6.88T. That increase is half of our total outlays in 2019….half. That number is almost impossible to comprehend. We are spending almost $7T without a crisis. Something disingenuous about throwing $7T into the system and claiming we’re trying to bring down inflation. Zero additional significant revenue sources have been brought online since 2019.

Aston…do the damn math We cannot continue down this road without experiencing a collapse of our economic system. It’s a certainty. The Reagan reference is nonsense. We had $1T in total debt to service. We now have almost 40x that with a GDP increase of 9x. Those numbers don’t work. Do the math 15 years from now. Are you being obtuse or do you truly not understand the certainty of where this leads?
 
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I’m thinking 30 days in the cooler might do Aston some good.


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Inflation and interest rates are important but does not address the real issue…explosive growth in spending. We had total outlays of $4.45T in 2019. This year our total outlays are $6.88T. That increase is half of our total outlays in 2019….half. That number is almost impossible to comprehend. We are spending almost $7T without a crisis. Something disingenuous about throwing $7T into the system and claiming we’re trying to bring down inflation. Zero additional significant revenue sources have been brought online since 2019.

Aston…do the damn math We cannot continue down this road without experiencing a collapse of our economic system. It’s a certainty. The Reagan reference is nonsense. We had $1T in total debt to service. We now have almost 40x that with a GDP increase of 9x. Those numbers don’t work. Do the math 15 years from now. Are you being obtuse or do you truly not understand the certainty of where this leads?
I have looked at the numbers, i understand the situation. What I’m telling you is that you’re not going to be able to just cut your way out of this. If you try that, with the current interest rate regime the economy is already feeling significant downward pressure. If you make significant cuts you will undermine the economy and it will collapse with little ability to recover.

What this honestly reminds me of is Hoover who thought he had everything figured out… right up until he didn’t.

Current Republican “balanced buget” advocates do have a plan to make drastic cuts to discretionary spending…. But the success of their plan is largely based on projections of 3% GDP growth per year.… if they cut discretionary spending in such a way, there is no way we will see that growth, and likely we will see regression in the GDP. So you will have cut your expenditures, but you will also have significantly reduced your income.
 
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I’m thinking 30 days in the cooler might do Aston some good.


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Arrogance. You care about the debt right up until the next GOP stooge promises you a tax cut….. then suddenly you forget all about the problem. Trickle down clown.
 
I have looked at the numbers, i understand the situation. What I’m telling you is that you’re not going to be able to just cut your way out of this. If you try that, with the current interest rate regime the economy is already feeling significant downward pressure. If you make significant cuts you will undermine the economy and it will collapse with little ability to recover.

What this honestly reminds me of is Hoover who thought he had everything figured out… right up until he didn’t.

Current Republican “balanced buget” advocates do have a plan to make drastic cuts to discretionary spending…. But the success of their plan is largely based on projections of 3% GDP growth per year.… if they cut discretionary spending in such a way, there is no way we will see that growth, and likely we will see regression in the GDP. So you will have cut your expenditures, but you will also have significantly reduced your income.
I think you could do a lot to improve deficits by fundamentally overhauling the healthcare and insurance industries. Yes, there would be some adverse effects to quality of care, but you would at least control spending, instead of just cutting people off of Medicaid using work requirements (Which would be especially difficult to achieve if the economy started to see rising unemployment due to receding GDP’s)
 
Inflation and more importantly debt service costs isn’t going down anytime soon. Fed can only do so much. $7T a year in expenditures is difficult for even the Fed to overcome. Remember….we were spending $4.5T a year in 2019.

I get a chuckle at those worrying about a recession or rising unemployment if we weren’t spending $7T a year. Those issues are going to be the least of our concerns as we barrel toward this fiscal cliff. Going to take additional revenue and decreased spending to avoid the looming economic meltdown. Has the Admin even addressed the math associated with the debt and service costs?

 
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I think you could do a lot to improve deficits by fundamentally overhauling the healthcare and insurance industries. Yes, there would be some adverse effects to quality of care, but you would at least control spending, instead of just cutting people off of Medicaid using work requirements (Which would be especially difficult to achieve if the economy started to see rising unemployment due to receding GDP’s)
Your suggestion to cut spending is to spend more?
 
One thing that I do think everyone should note is that spending as a percentage of GDP is high, but it’s still lower than it was during the Reagan or Obama years. (Don’t confuse this with debt vs GDP)

And some of this spending is targeted at similar growth as it was for Reagan…. Technology, defense and infrastructure… now if only Biden (or Trump) could execute an oil price crash like happened in the 80’s we might be in business.

It was a combination of large exploration, but also more fuel efficient vehicles that drove down US fuel consumption in the 80’s.That might have something to do with the push for electrics and hybrids….keep driving fuel prices down.
Reagan wanted to crush the soviets source of hard currency so he gave the Saudis F15s.. they kicked open the taps and the price collapsed worldwide.. the soviets oil was worthless and they eventually collapsed undrr the weight of military spending.. Schweizer details the plan in "Victory".. domestic oil production was relatively flat in the 80s and collapsed starting in 88..
 
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Your suggestion to cut spending is to spend more?
No, I suggest not whipsawing into a depression because you have pulled the chair out on the economy. Get inflation under control. Raise taxes to try and get more income, make some smart, targeted cuts. When inflation is controlled, make more cuts.
 
Inflation and more importantly debt service costs isn’t going down anytime soon. Fed can only do so much. $7T a year in expenditures is difficult for even the Fed to overcome. Remember….we were spending $4.5T a year in 2019.

I get a chuckle at those worrying about a recession or rising unemployment if we weren’t spending $7T a year. Those issues are going to be the least of our concerns as we barrel toward this fiscal cliff. Going to take additional revenue and decreased spending to avoid the looming economic meltdown. Has the Admin even addressed the math associated with the debt and service costs?

We were spending 4.5T in 2019 when interest rates were lower…. And if I’m not incorrect that was right around the time that tax cuts were going through? Correct?

No problems inflating the deficit to line billionaire’s pockets….
 
Inflation and more importantly debt service costs isn’t going down anytime soon. Fed can only do so much. $7T a year in expenditures is difficult for even the Fed to overcome. Remember….we were spending $4.5T a year in 2019.

I get a chuckle at those worrying about a recession or rising unemployment if we weren’t spending $7T a year. Those issues are going to be the least of our concerns as we barrel toward this fiscal cliff. Going to take additional revenue and decreased spending to avoid the looming economic meltdown. Has the Admin even addressed the math associated with the debt and service costs?

Unemployment will absolutely rise if we cut our GDP normalized spending. The only question is how high?
 
Unemployment will absolutely rise if we cut our GDP normalized spending. The only question is how high?
Increasing spending from $4.5T to $7T in five years is not normalized spending. It’s out of control spending with no new revenue sources to offset the $2.5T in increased spending. Again…you can’t throw over $7T into the system and expect inflation to come down to the Fed’s 2% target. It’s utter madness.

I find it hilarious you’re worried about rising unemployment and not the complete collapse of our economic system. You do realize debt service will reach a point where we either can’t afford to provide basic benefits OR are forced to print money triggering hyper inflation. There will be pain. The question is do we suffer a little pain now or a lot of pain 10-15 years from now. Raise revenue and cut spending back close to the 2019 level inflation adjusted.

Did Biden really just propose a $7.3T budget? 😂😂😂😂😂😂. These either aren’t serious people or can’t do simply math $50T x 5%. #clownshow. Surely you can’t support this knowing the debt service numbers ? This can be real life…right ?
 
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obviously BS doesn't own a company. My pay and benefits were protected by my ability to be an asset to the company
 
This would certainly be a positive in the fight to lower inflation 😂😂😂😂. The fact that we continue to elect these people is remarkable

Utah state agencies went to a 4 day work week. Though they scraped it after a couple of years because it saved far less money than projected and worker feedback was generally poor. Non-management supervisors in measured production offices expressed frustration at hitting goals. Workers coasted on Thursdays whereas before they got roughly uniform production five days a week. Workers didn’t mind the 4 10’s. Though many believed they deserved a pay raise for “working longer hours”.

On the other hand, the public and even a surprising number of state workers expressed frustration that state services were not available on Fridays. Some agencies were only open Tuesday to Thursday. They switched back to 5 8’s but allow a day of telework in most cases. Which is really a paid day of house arrest with minimal or no productivity.

Sanders knows this. I don’t understand why Congress tolerates senior members wasting so much time and money.
 
Can you make our elected officials aware of this idea. They continue to pass spending measures with little regard of such a novel concept. If they were forced to find revenue sources for new expenditures in non crisis times they would at the very least prioritize spending. What they’re currently doing is beyond irresponsible. It’s criminal. You or I would be put in jail if we acted in a similar manner with a publicly held company.
Speaking of criminal …

If America still had newspapers, this scam should have been on the front page.

Nearly $5 billion spent to build 8 electric vehicle charging stations like the ones Tesla has built by the thousands. In rural areas. Where people aren’t buying the vehicles not just due to range concerns, but reliably and suitability concerns tied to their lifestyle.

I would say $5 billion is a lot of “walking around money”, but less than half of the states haven’t applied and many won’t due to the requirement to hire union labor and the lack of availability of those workers in the areas where the chargers must be built.

What a scam.

Pray for our Republic.

“The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provided $5 billion for the NEVI Formula Program ($1 billion annually from FY22-FY26), and a total of $2.5 billion from FY22-FY26 for the CFI Discretionary Grant Program. Despite recent award announcements, little progress has been made in the buildout of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure. On December 15, 2023, the Department of Energy and Department of Transportation announced the opening of America’s first EV fast charging stations funded through the NEVI Formula Program: in Ohio and New York. This announcement for merely eight charging stations comes more than two years after the passage of the IIJA.“

 
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Utah state agencies went to a 4 day work week. Though they scraped it after a couple of years because it saved far less money than projected and worker feedback was generally poor. Non-management supervisors in measured production offices expressed frustration at hitting goals. Workers coasted on Thursdays whereas before they got roughly uniform production five days a week. Workers didn’t mind the 4 10’s. Though many believed they deserved a pay raise for “working longer hours”.

On the other hand, the public and even a surprising number of state workers expressed frustration that state services were not available on Fridays. Some agencies were only open Tuesday to Thursday. They switched back to 5 8’s but allow a day of telework in most cases. Which is really a paid day of house arrest with minimal or no productivity.

Sanders knows this. I don’t understand why Congress tolerates senior members wasting so much time and money.
I've worked several places with the 10/4 system. it was successful. also it provided for alternate 4 day weekends.
 
Increasing spending from $4.5T to $7T in five years is not normalized spending. It’s out of control spending with no new revenue sources to offset the $2.5T in increased spending. Again…you can’t throw over $7T into the system and expect inflation to come down to the Fed’s 2% target. It’s utter madness.

I find it hilarious you’re worried about rising unemployment and not the complete collapse of our economic system. You do realize debt service will reach a point where we either can’t afford to provide basic benefits OR are forced to print money triggering hyper inflation. There will be pain. The question is do we suffer a little pain now or a lot of pain 10-15 years from now. Raise revenue and cut spending back close to the 2019 level inflation adjusted.

Did Biden really just propose a $7.3T budget? 😂😂😂😂😂😂. These either aren’t serious people or can’t do simply math $50T x 5%. #clownshow. Surely you can’t support this knowing the debt service numbers ? This can be real life…right ?
$3.1 trillion in new spending for new initiatives. Even when they cut spending in one area, they add back more.
 
Nobody knows outside select members of Congress and the executive branch what the IC owes and efforts to do a forensic audit on the Pentagon were destroyed during 9/11 and have never fully resumed. They owe so much with such poor record keeping they were doing debt “estimates” and “obligation projections” during the war. They owe so much, they don’t know how much they owe or who they owe it to.
Nobody is tracking how much is being stolen in Ukraine.

 
Increasing spending from $4.5T to $7T in five years is not normalized spending. It’s out of control spending with no new revenue sources to offset the $2.5T in increased spending. Again…you can’t throw over $7T into the system and expect inflation to come down to the Fed’s 2% target. It’s utter madness.

I find it hilarious you’re worried about rising unemployment and not the complete collapse of our economic system. You do realize debt service will reach a point where we either can’t afford to provide basic benefits OR are forced to print money triggering hyper inflation. There will be pain. The question is do we suffer a little pain now or a lot of pain 10-15 years from now. Raise revenue and cut spending back close to the 2019 level inflation adjusted.

Did Biden really just propose a $7.3T budget? 😂😂😂😂😂😂. These either aren’t serious people or can’t do simply math $50T x 5%. #clownshow. Surely you can’t support this knowing the debt service numbers ? This can be real life…right ?
You keep acting like the increase in spending is mostly related to us simply buying more things or employing more people…. It’s the same GDP or similar GDP normalized spend as 2019 with the addition of outeageous servicing costs related to increased interest rates. Our expenditures minus the service costs are not that different when normalized between 2019 and 2024.
 
$3.1 trillion in new spending for new initiatives. Even when they cut spending in one area, they add back more.
Which new initiatives have cost 3 trillion? Which ones are you willing to cut given their importance to future growth of the economy or important for national security? Do you want to claw back money on chip production? How is that going to detriment us in the future?

The reason the country isn’t worse off than it could be is partially because of the infrastructure spend we have going on right now…. Which again is important to the future.
 
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Utah state agencies went to a 4 day work week. Though they scraped it after a couple of years because it saved far less money than projected and worker feedback was generally poor. Non-management supervisors in measured production offices expressed frustration at hitting goals. Workers coasted on Thursdays whereas before they got roughly uniform production five days a week. Workers didn’t mind the 4 10’s. Though many believed they deserved a pay raise for “working longer hours”.

On the other hand, the public and even a surprising number of state workers expressed frustration that state services were not available on Fridays. Some agencies were only open Tuesday to Thursday. They switched back to 5 8’s but allow a day of telework in most cases. Which is really a paid day of house arrest with minimal or no productivity.

Sanders knows this. I don’t understand why Congress tolerates senior members wasting so much time and money.
Aah because one experiment “failed” we should never consider its potential again…..

I wish the Republican Party would try the same logic with their inane tax proposals…..

Unlike trick down economics, that 4 day work week actually was quite popular among workers and did see actual benefits, though they were admittedly smaller than targets… that schedule was also tried more than a decade ago prior to many of the efficiencies that have been gained related to file sharing, remote work, etc….
 
Aah because one experiment “failed” we should never consider its potential again…..

I wish the Republican Party would try the same logic with their inane tax proposals…..

Unlike trick down economics, that 4 day work week actually was quite popular among workers and did see actual benefits, though they were admittedly smaller than targets… that schedule was also tried more than a decade ago prior to many of the efficiencies that have been gained related to file sharing, remote work, etc….
You understand the inflationary effect of reducing laborers hours worked from 40 to 32 hours a week but keeping their pay the same…right?
 
Aah because one experiment “failed” we should never consider its potential again…..

I wish the Republican Party would try the same logic with their inane tax proposals…..

Unlike trick down economics, that 4 day work week actually was quite popular among workers and did see actual benefits, though they were admittedly smaller than targets… that schedule was also tried more than a decade ago prior to many of the efficiencies that have been gained related to file sharing, remote work, etc….
People working for a living don’t want to be told to come back Monday so public employees can have three day weekends every week.
 
You understand the inflationary effect of reducing laborers hours worked from 40 to 32 hours a week but keeping their pay the same…right?
He's referring to the experiment, not Sanders proposal. The experiment was four 10 hour days not four 8 hour days. With my business I have worked 12h days frequently. Not that big of a deal. 14 or 15h days is a big deal.
People working for a living don’t want to be told to come back Monday so public employees can have three day weekends every week.
That should never have been done with a business that had public access affected.

That extra pay for working longer hours is a lark. I'd write two or three sentences about getting three days off per week, and hand a copy to them every time they started complaining bout it.
 
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Clinton, Obama Treasury official, as well as Harvard University President in his spare time, says maybe Biden spending is to blame for inflation.
 
Clinton, Obama Treasury official, as well as Harvard University President in his spare time, says maybe Biden spending is to blame for inflation.
how did it get access to the debit card? According to the Constitition that is for congress.
 
The blood bath continues. Biden doing paid Spanish language ads in swing states. That isn’t unusual a month out to boost turnout. It’s unheard of in April. New York Times reporting Trump is at least +6 above the margin of error amongst Latinos in PA, MI, and Ohio.

It’s early but if these numbers continue, I don’t know that he makes it to the convention.
 
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The blood bath continues. Biden doing paid Spanish language ads in swing states. That isn’t unusual a month out to boost turnover. It’s unheard of in April. New York Times reporting Trump is at least +6 above the margin of error amongst Latinos in PA, MI, and Ohio.

It’s early but if these numbers continue, I don’t know that he makes it to the convention.
So who are the dems going to come up with for the convention, to nominate? Kennedy? I think you are hallucinating.
 
Its brutal dude. I mean you hurt for the guy almost its so bad. You wouldn't want to be President and be treated this way by your devoted followers.

"Only 28 percent of Democrats in a new survey by The New York Times and Siena College expressed enthusiasm about his candidacy and 38 percent said flatly that Mr. Biden should not be their nominee."

I had a friend on the other side tell me the other day that they are about to call it, in April, in Arizona and Georgia. Pull out. Basically no money. The numbers are that bleak. Yes, I am well aware he could be floating info to me, knowingly or unknowingly. But the data almost supports no other possible inevitable conclusion.

If you are scoring at home, if they essentially concede AZ and GA, that means it is impossible for him to win unless he wins all of the following or he will lose: Michigan, Wisconsin, and PA. He has a chance in PA. And Wisconsin could turn around with focused money and a sound strategy for the working class and farmer vote. Michigan looks bleak. But it does make you wonder if our international relations policy is being influenced by domestic political concerns. The sizable Middle Eastern community in MI could be the margin of any win there.
 
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