great

great

just great

3/16/2006 12:22:00 PM

It's a small price to pay for killin' sand niggers.

3/16/2006 12:25:22 PM

Bush: At least it's not 10! Yee-haw!

3/16/2006 12:26:23 PM

BUT DON'T WORRY

THEY WERE ABLE TO TRIM 38 BILLION FROM THE DEFICIT LAST YEAR FROM STUDENT LOANS AND MEDICARE AND MEDICAID

SO I'M SURE THIS IS ALL TURNING AROUND SOON

3/16/2006 12:27:26 PM

Think about it, man.

People who don't go to college are poor.

Poor people need Medicaid.

Cut student loans. Cut Medicaid. In one or two generations, you've cut the whole damn problem.

3/16/2006 12:30:23 PM

DON'T YOU MEAN 8.9 TRILLION?

3/16/2006 12:34:11 PM

oh and don't worry about the cost of war

we'll pay for that by stretching our VA money more

its not like we're adding to the population that needs the very assistance and care we're cutting

3/16/2006 12:37:43 PM

oh man

this sucks

i really hope we can default on some of this

i mean, fuck the japanese and chinese, seriously

3/16/2006 1:14:44 PM

Has the latest extension of the national debt been approved by Congress? There was some talk last week about Bush asking for more credit.

[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 2:38 PM. Reason : ^we will most certainly default]

3/16/2006 2:37:31 PM

What is that as a percentage of GDP (this is the deficit right?).

3/16/2006 2:42:08 PM

I am amazed that TWWers actually take the "no death threats against the President" policy seriously. Like, that's the one place where no one has strayed.

3/16/2006 2:45:54 PM

^ It's very easy to get a visit from the SS by making threats against the president.

That visit also goes on your permanent record, and a lot of TWWers are engineers that will one day have to get a security clearance.

3/16/2006 2:47:18 PM

hey, less people going to college = more cannon fodder

everybody wins!

3/16/2006 2:50:58 PM

I'm absolutely amazed that no American has really tried to assasinate him. It took some European dude to have the balls to toss a grenade at him.

3/16/2006 2:54:25 PM

Quote :

"Has the latest extension of the national debt been approved by Congress? There was some talk last week about Bush asking for more credit."

Passed today 52-48. Raised the ceiling by $781 billion. Hurray for conservatism.

3/16/2006 3:02:37 PM

Quote :

"Pyro: [Edited on March 16, 2006 at 2:38 PM. Reason : ^we will most certainly default]"

haha wow. just...wow...

3/16/2006 3:07:21 PM

first thing that popped into my head

3/16/2006 3:08:30 PM

the debt is not the issue.. its the spending

we can either have huge debt, or huge taxes, either way we'll end up paying for it. but the spending is what we need to get under control.

3/16/2006 3:30:08 PM

Borrow and Spend Republicans

3/16/2006 3:34:02 PM

hahahahahaha

i'd rather be a tax & spend democrat than a borrow & spend republican

anybody seen the figures lately on what we pay yearly just to service the debt?
last i saw it was like two times the VA budget, and definitely more than VA and DOE together

[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 3:38 PM. Reason : `]

3/16/2006 3:38:33 PM

^ Welfare for bankers.

Quote :

"e will most certainly default"

3/16/2006 4:02:34 PM

We ain't asking you to love us.
You may place yourself up high above us.
But Mr. President...have pity on the working man.

3/16/2006 4:08:15 PM

Well...this is sure awesome. I'm a big fan of ginormous interest payments...

3/16/2006 4:38:05 PM

As a percent of GDP, the current debt is not that impressive.

Sure, 9 trillion sounds like a lot, but we could sell the state of Colorado and pay it all off in one instant.

3/16/2006 4:44:52 PM

yeah lets sell colorado

3/16/2006 4:49:44 PM

TRY HAVING OMMELETTES NOW DENVER

3/16/2006 4:55:19 PM

According to Google, the US GDP is "only" $11.75 trillion. A $9 trillion deficit seems to reflect a very significant amount of that.

3/16/2006 5:48:17 PM

compare it to you or your parents when they first bought a house and new car. its not that big of a deal.

3/16/2006 6:01:26 PM

except my parents only bought that house because the gov't gives out a tax credit if you're a homeowner

and they get this little thing called "equity"

and its smarter than just throwing money away to landlords

so actually
this is like the inverse of what you've suggested

and thats just the house aspect

i'd hate to get snide about the "new car" comment

[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 6:08 PM. Reason : tax credit, equity, landlords - oh boy!]

3/16/2006 6:07:01 PM

^^ I don't see your point.

3/16/2006 6:09:00 PM

I usually get some pretty ugly charges when i overdraw my checking account that much.

3/16/2006 6:10:32 PM

^^9 trillion dollar debt, not deficit.

There's a difference.

[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 6:12 PM. Reason : 4]

3/16/2006 6:11:46 PM

I was wondering how long it'd be till someone pointed out that debt != deficit.

Quote :

"As a percent of GDP, the current debt is not that impressive."

O RLY?

$9 trillion / $11.75 trillion = 76.6%

Not impressive at all.

But then again, I know that's not what you meant anyway.

3/16/2006 6:51:13 PM

Quote :

"$9 trillion / $11.75 trillion = 76.6%"

FUZZY MATH

3/16/2006 7:45:03 PM

Ok, for the house analogy.
It is not odd for someone earning $60k a year to buy a house at $200k. As such, it shouldn't be shocking for the government to owe $9T on a with an annual income of $11T.

You scream "owe, but it didn't increase our assets!"

True, the debt didn't, but we as a people do have assets. Try adding up the value of all the property in America and compare that to our national debt. Trust me, asset to debt ratio will be far better than 10 to 1, possibly as high as 100 to 1.

3/16/2006 8:31:47 PM

Solution: Legalize weed, tax the shit out of it.


Bam!

3/16/2006 8:52:55 PM

every time lonesnark posts an economist loses his competitive advantage

3/16/2006 8:59:42 PM

Lets cut education, healthcare, student loans, destroy the environment and start a world war, and give all the money to Halliburton!





[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 9:11 PM. Reason : .]

3/16/2006 9:07:10 PM

^^Do you mean comparative advantage?

3/16/2006 9:20:48 PM

Quote :

"It is not odd for someone earning $60k a year to buy a house at $200k. As such, it shouldn't be shocking for the government to owe $9T on a with an annual income of $11T. You scream "owe, but it didn't increase our assets!""

Yeah, but that person is usually actively working to pay off that debt, in the hopes that one day, they can actually save for retirement, and be able to live comfortably.

Through the current policies, nothing is actively being done to set up a plan for when the gov. can comfortably start giving back to the people, instead of borrowing from elsewhere, and pretending they are giving back to the people.

I don't know how the car/house/whatever analogy is suppose to make the debt issue more palatable. People, when buying anything, aren't suppose to plan to be in debt indefinitely.

3/16/2006 10:20:50 PM

^ unless you didn't notice, governments are not people. They do not get old and become incapable of working.

Our government is not undebted up to the hilt quite yet.

That said, Bush can rot in hell for trying to make it just that.

3/16/2006 10:57:28 PM

Quote :

" unless you didn't notice, governments are not people."

Yeah, I noticed... I think i was trying to point out in my post that gov. and people are different.

Quote :

" They do not get old and become incapable of working. "

They do get old, but they don't become decrepit from age. However, they can become incapable of working due to any flaw in their "anatomy," one of which could be a high debt, or the way of dealing with/not dealing with that debt.

3/16/2006 11:13:37 PM

wish I could spend 9 trillion dollars that I don't actually have

3/17/2006 12:19:08 AM

We should just default on the 9 trillion...


It will disappear in 7 years anyway.


ive had friends that have done this and they're fine now.

3/17/2006 2:46:25 AM

Quote :

"yeah lets sell colorado"

Only is we sell it to Dubai. Those U.A.E. cats build some crazy stuff.

3/17/2006 2:58:49 AM

Quote :

"However, they can become incapable of working due to any flaw in their "anatomy," one of which could be a high debt, or the way of dealing with/not dealing with that debt."

Well, ok then, let me try it another way.

If the United States raised its tax levels until they were about the same as those found in France, this nations debt would be completely payed off in under 10 years (states tax about 20%, so Fed rates would go from 17% to about 38%, more than doubling Federal Receipts).

Remember, while America may owe a lot, it has a smaller government than its peirs and therefore much more room to maneuver. France owes about 70% GDP, but it is already taxing almost 60% of GDP and is still borrowing more. The U.S. Federal Government is only taxing about 17%, which was as high as 23% just a few years ago.

[Edited on March 17, 2006 at 10:34 AM. Reason : stats]

3/17/2006 10:30:13 AM

No. Thats not how it works at all.

Look, stop spewing half assed economic forcecasts. Everyone agrees that the debt we're gaining isn't good for the country.

3/17/2006 11:08:20 AM

topic title should've been:

9,000,000,000,000.00

3/17/2006 11:15:21 AM

Don't worry, guys! They'll just PRINT the money to cover this!

...for real, what's scary is that this is probably true... I think they've already started doing this, too, on account of prices going up across the board a few months back...

3/17/2006 11:15:51 AM

that's called inflation. And it's nowhere near out of control. If they printed it, the currency would tank and we would be as poor as nigeria.

that won't happen.

3/17/2006 11:17:08 AM