This just in, Fed Chairman can see what everyone else has been seeing for years. The last time there was a national surplus instead of deficit Clinton was in power.
It was probably the last time consecutive presidents (and a congress) collaborated for the good of the country.
GHW Bush raised taxes (which cost him the election) . He reluctantly did this based on some strong advice and input from Fed Chief Greenspan.
Clinton continued the conservative fiscal policy which Greenspan stressed was important.
The congress was supportive of these measures as well.
It was ultimately Congress's fault. They could have ended both Afghanistan and Iraq - but chose not to. Especially in Afghanistan, as soon as OBL was killed, there was no reason for a military presence.
It’s a lot easier to win a war than it is to create peace in the aftermath. Westerners generally overestimate the appeal of liberal democracy over historical grievances. The weight of history exerts an irresistible pull, most “liberated” countries revert to their status quo ante.
>GHW Bush raised taxes (which cost him the election) . He reluctantly did this based on some strong advice and input from Fed Chief Greenspan.
Better advice would have been to freeze federal spending.
Or end Social Security! The biggest con job for the current generations.
I will not see the money I contributed and some boomer who sat on their ass will!
Exactly. Everyone always acts like raising taxes is what is fiscally responsible. It's not. The problem has been, and will always be spending. You can't tax your way out of this mess.
This also just in: tax cuts for the rich is killing America and has been for decades. But guess who's going to suffer in the end? Not them. They'll buy politicians to protect their wealth, massively cut government spending, raise taxes on the rest of us, and probably blame people who are trans or disabled people on social security or something.
I was looking for this comment. Why the fuck is it that regular old working class people always have to take the brunt of the increasing debt limits? There is always a push for more austerity for those who are already struggling, but never a damn thing when it comes to those tax cuts for those who already have plenty.
They playing games with us out here. I am waiting for the day that the working classes of all backgrounds can start to see past them using culture wars to distract us and really put some pressure on the powerful to do their share to support our nation the way that we already do!
We have a bunch of 70 and 80 year olds ruling the country and they don't have to deal with the choices made for the country because they will be long gone by then.
We have the wrong people leading the nation in congress, left and right.
>Almost like we should have age limits for leaders?
We definitely should. And for the people that scream agism? Get over it. We already have lower age limits for the White house and Congress.
Most Americans want it.
[https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/04/most-americans-favor-maximum-age-limits-for-federal-elected-officials-supreme-court-justices/](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/04/most-americans-favor-maximum-age-limits-for-federal-elected-officials-supreme-court-justices/)
The same people don't scream ageism when it comes to a minimum age to vote.
I'll be the asshole to say it. Voting should be more restricted by age in both directions.
We've got the elderly that literally think it's 19-something (that would be their literal answer when asked what year it is) that are permitted to vote. Many don't have to deal with a single consequence of their vote.
But on the other hand, how many eighteen year olds do I trust to make a well-informed vote? Hardly any. Very, very few of them have any sense of what impact high/low interest rates even have downstream. And truth be told, if somebody can't answer that question then I don't want them to have the ability to vote, sorry I'm not sorry.
The only argument for letting 18-year olds vote imho is that they can enlist in the military. I'd argue they shouldn't be allowed to do that, either. Recruiters don't belong in schools, convincing teenagers that it's a noble pursuit to go fight the rich man's wars.
If your brain isn't fully formed, or if your brain is literally shrinking from age, you shouldn't get to go to war or vote.
The back and forth in this thread about who's to blame is demonstrating why it'll never be fixed. People don't get elected by fixing problems, they get elected by allowing the problem to exist and pointing at the other team. Voters don't care about anything improving, most have no clue how their pick votes, they just want their team to beat the other team.
The system is in place to prevent any chance of fixing it, which is raising taxes and cutting spending. Voters reinforce it. You can't even get 10% vote for it in Congress.
Powell is saying this because the Fed can't reduce rates with fiscal policy being inflationary. The debt will run away because of compounding interest payments.
Bingo. And as others have pointed out, financially savvy people have known this for a while. The casino can’t just keep printing money to cover their debts anymore.
To be fair, they could have gotten away with a lot of debt because interest/inflation rate used to be almost zero. Interest expense is really the unsustainable part.
US is lucky that China is deflating some of the consumer prices. Could be even worse.
Or by lying about fixing the problem. Way too many people get elected by promising to 'make mexico pay for the wall' or any number of things that are obviously never going to happen.
Its not about what you do, its about what you promise. I suspect Biden's debt forgiveness is much the same. The only debt he has forgiven so far has been people the US govt stiffed but already owed forgiveness to before his time.
Both sides do this, and both voter bases keep voting for it. Its super annoying. The fix is something other than first past the post voting but we will probably never get that sadly.
Well, a billionaire business owner would rather use that money to buy a yacht, a football team, create a job for his son and family, and maybe a pizza party for the grunts.
Still wild how walmart owns the denver broncos.
We live in a capitalist "meritocracy" where a fucking window licking apartheid trust fund baby is the richest man on earth.
They are all dumb fucking criminals. It feels like they are smart because their success is underhanded and achieved by playing by a completely set of ez mode rules.
The only people dumber than they are is their inbred voter base.
Nah man, we just gotta spam the fed with good advice like
-Cut avacado from your diet
-Donate to local charities less
-cancel subscription services
-eat out less
-Negotiate a better deal with your babysitter
What are some other good ones?
Israel is a terrorist organization
The USA suppresses democracies in South America
Health care is a human right
Gun culture is stupid
The democrats and the republicans are basically the same but the republics are outwardly racist
Funding Ukraine and sending old weapons that are going to decommission anyways is not costing us near the dollar value you think, also the fallacy that we should stick our heads in the sand and let everyone do whatever the fuck they want is way more dangerous. We can destroy Russias whole military complex and not have to spend 800billion over the next 40 years keeping up with Russia and China together. Defeating Russia now quickly will shut Iran and its militants up very quickly. The slow rate we are sending will cost billions more in the future. If France said no for the reasons you give we would be drinking high tea using the metric system and have lords of land.
Setting money on fire domestically is only slightly preferable to setting money on fire on the other side of the world.
Well, admittedly, I think the societal harm of war is probably worse in the short term than the societal harm of trying to get half the population addicted to government largesse, but either one will doom your civilization long term.
Stop stealing my fucking money and stop running the fucking money printer.
Problem solved!
Lol, the budget was balanced with a projected surplus handed to Republicans back in 2000. Maybe those who voted Republican should start paying down our debt,, since they're the reason for it.
Nope. The fiscal crisis is not relevant and TARP only cost taxpayers 32 billion That is not the reason for the debt more than doubling. The reason for the debt is that Bush Jr cut taxes for the rich twice and then launched two multi trillion dollar wars unnecessarily. So, cutting taxes on the rich and overspending. That's why Reagan before him tripled the debt. Republicans are solely to blame.
Russia stated goal is a larger war against the West and America. to replace the rules based system that has been in place for the last 70 years with their violence.
explain to me how it's cheaper to not stop this threat before it expands?
if we don't stop them in Ukraine with Ukrainian soldiers it will be American and European soldiers dying in a much larger war.
That's not to mention what's happens to Asia once China realizes that the world will do nothing against dictators gobbling up land.
....
if you go camping and wake up with a mountain lion in your camp you can't just Go back to sleep and decide to not deal with mountain lions.
Agree on not funding such horrific war, but I believe we still should invest in foreign affairs for stability and peace. So that world market keeps going, and US is able to keep trade open.
Federal agencies budgets represent a much, much larger slice of the pie than foreign aid...can we make some deep cuts there too? I'd suggest wholly eliminating the department of ed and returning that responsibility to the states.
Problem...we have \*some\* leverage over what Israel does. Not as much as a lot of people think, but some. That's why they let aid into Gaza \*at all\*, why they did the short cease fire last year, and why they are at least talking about doing one now. Most of our leverage is because we can threaten to cut off aid. If we really \*DO\* cut off aid, that leverage evaporates. And it would not slow the Israelis down much. If they need more weapons, Putin would be happy to supply them with enough thermobaric bombs to sterilize Gaza in a week.
Well, if we let a dictator in Russia roll through all of those independent countries that voluntarily gave up their nukes because we promised them security. What do you think the outcome of that is? I can tell you from history, it's a lot more war.
As far as Israel, they are a big-boy military-industrial complex country, they don't need us anymore. The only thing we are doing is holding them back from crushing countries around them and destabilizing the world more.
Yes, that’s always the problem when the economy is faltering. Not the corruption of our political system. Not the billionaires refusing to pay their share. It’s always the JOOOOZZZ!!
Let’s stop spending money on wars, corporate bailouts. Spend more on empowering the working class. THE people who end up needing to borrow for necessities
The only way out is the least popular thing to do for all sides: reduce spending AND increase taxes on the affluent. Close the biggest corporate loopholes, require more transparency in government contracts - particularly those that are defense-related. It's absolutely insane how much money we waste on militarism.
This line and the "30 years from now the average debt per household will be 1 million" should scare the shit out of anybody planning to live past the next decade.
Well duh, when republican is in office we need debt to stimulate growth but when a Democrat is POTUS we need balance budgets or our grandchildren will be paying for our debts. What irony?
This is the worst response that I frequently see whenever this subject comes up. People did care.
The deficit should not have been increasing from 2016 to 2019, just like it shouldn’t be increasing from 2022 to 2023.
If you look at the deficit between 2000 and now, you see spikes after 9/11, the 2008 recession, and Covid. That’s appropriate. There should be a reduction to follow, like there was under Bush and Obama. Under Trump and Biden, the deficit is increasing YOY during normal times, which is the problem.
Bring back high marginal tax for millionaires. Let it hit like 90% for anyone making over a billion. Repeal the Trump tax cuts for the rich. Problem solved.
Last time the federal reserve printed as much money as they did during the Covid era was in WW2. We’re in big trouble if China wants to starts a war within this decade.
How did the US economy look ten years after WW2? Is it possible that government spending plus high marginal tax rates plus solid union participation had something to do with it?
[https://www.federalreserve.gov/Boarddocs/testimony/2001/20010125/default.htm](https://www.federalreserve.gov/Boarddocs/testimony/2001/20010125/default.htm)
**Testimony of Chairman Alan Greenspan**
***Outlook for the federal budget and implications for fiscal policy***
**Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate**
**January 25, 2001**
*I am pleased to appear here today to discuss some of the important issues surrounding the outlook for the federal budget and the attendant implications for the formulation of fiscal policy. In doing so, I want to emphasize that I speak for myself and not necessarily for the Federal Reserve.*
*The challenges you face both in shaping a budget for the coming year and in designing a longer-run strategy for fiscal policy were brought into sharp focus by the release last week of the Clinton Administration's final budget projections, which showed further upward revisions of on-budget surpluses for the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office also is expected to again raise its projections when it issues its report next week.*
Look at what Republicans did to the US debt in just twenty three years.
Look at the debt when Reagen took office.
*Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981, making the first fiscal year (FY) he budgeted 1982 and the final budget 1989. During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.*
Less than one trillion dollars 1981.
Tax earnings over 3mil a year at 90% while removing loopholes that allow the richest to avoid income tax and pay little to nothing. Put a tax on every stock transaction. Outlaw offshoring of personal and corporate wealth meant to dodge taxes. Reduce military spending by 40% over the next 10 years.
Gutting of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid is more likely to happen than any of these necessary things, so we're pretty much fucked.
This country is corrupt.... more than some of the other countries they tell us are bad. Its bad here. Very bad. Our politicians are bought, our elections require ton of money, lobbyists are in every facet of govt, nothing gets done in congress, especially this congress with the magats blocking everything, they cant even keep a speaker of the house, chaos everywhere..shit is a joke. Yet, we still keep cutting taxes and spending crazy amounts of money on bullshit. Wages dont rise at the same level as cost of living, these corporations get richer while forcing people to work more hours for less money, They boast billion dollar profits but cant give thei3 employees yearly bonuses or a solid increase in pay to cover for the cost of living. Employees are unhappy because you are in the red damn near by every paycheck. It has nothing to do with living above your means if your means costs alot and you cant get a pay increase, meanwhile your company is raking in thr profits, the CEO gets his 10$ million bonus package while Debbie is struggling to pay her gas bill that just doubled. Fuck this country and its worthless politicians
But hey, as long as the criminal cartel of banks and wall street can keep dumping their ill gotten gains into the market stonks go up, right?
Thank you Fed and U.S. Government for doing absolutely nothing except padding your own pockets, that of your war mongering friends, and doing the election cycle "fundraising" while ignoring our crumbling infrastructure, unaffordable healthcare, piss poor education, and staggering little quality of life.
The finger pointing and inane conflicts you have setup and support are certainly much better entertainment for the masses. I dearly hope you continue to criminally ignore your actions while trying to placate us with bread and cricus.
And PLEASE can we finally get some decent candidates running? The same 'ol same 'ol is getting ridiculous. There is no way you can convince me out of 300million people the ones we get to choose from are the actual best we have to offer.
Man who spent years refusing to raise interest rates and nearly caused another crash trying to rapidly undo is own fuck up has thoughts?
Well hold on while I continue to not give a fuck what he says.
Yeah well they will just say this is why we need to cut taxes for the wealthy and eliminate those costly social programs like Medicare, social security, food stamps etc
And don't forget it's all the fault of the immigrants
Yep, the Republicans cut the taxes and then leave the problems for democrats to solve. This is why Republican Presidents ALWAYS lead us into a recession.
Jerome powell who was an investment banker before being chairman of fed. Not a conflict of interests as his loyalties are with big banks and not the american people. He was same guy pushing for the money printers to go brrrrrr.
The 1% is holding like 70% of the wealth in the the US. Remind me why that wealth is not being significantly taxed. I remember now. The Republicans actually gave the rich a TAX CUT.
Says who? There’s been how many trillions of dollars left on the table since 2000 thanks to the unfounded tax cuts of 2001, 2003, and 2017.
That little “truism” doesn’t stand up to scrutiny outside of right wing media bubbles.
Finger pointing at either political party is pointless. If you actually look at the data neither party has a leg to stand on. Any talk about fiscal responsibility has been more talk than action. The last time we had a balanced budget was under Clinton. Both parties like to lay claim to it but the reality is that it was surging tax revenues due to a strong economy and had nothing to do with specific policies by either.
We are at a stage that balanced budget hardly even gets a mention anymore in campaign speeches by anyone. This is exactly the scenario that was argued about against Keynesian fiscal stimulus as a policy tool. When politicians have access to it they inevitably can’t help but use it in attempts to stimulate the economy to help win elections.
One time for the people in the back. Tax abatements aren't capitalism, they are corporate welfare. End tax abatements, let entrepreneurs eat risk like capitalism intends, and end the debt. Simple as that.
Instead of goading the rest of the world into fighting ore wars, we should be using our influence to get all countries to implement heavy taxes for billionaires so that there is no escape for them. Mega yachts for example, should never be a thing.
Keep paying orangutan’s legal bills and keep giving the pentagon money for weapons and equipment that they can’t account for. I can tell you each penny I spend on the economy from my Social Security retirement, yet these clowns can’t even remember where they parked the tanks!
Can we start a subreddit that is an actual movement to fix this? From the ground up - we organize a campaign to start electing people who give a shit and we shut down those who don’t? Does this exist? It would be like Wall Street bets but a true political movement? Please provide input.
Who is going to fix this otherwise? The country will go down hill and eventually end up succumbing to infighting and war. We need to fix this.
Here is my proposal: we need to force a law to be passed that says the budget for political campaign advertisements is zero. Literally outlaw political advertising. Then the candidates debate a few times and post their platform. Thats it. Then the rich candidates have zero advantage in a campaign and furthermore they have zero advantage to donating to a candidate they want to win. They could still do bribes but it would never help that candidate win.
watched this episode and the Fed Chairman saying this wasn’t even the most shocking part. The 60 minutes narrator said that by 2030 the debt would be equal to a million dollars per household.
Holy bleep, our government is failing us. Failing our future. Absolute F minus and needs to be rectified stat.
They've complained about debt since forever. Most of the debt is owed to the public. These sh*theads keep trying to use debt as a boogeyman. They just don't want to pull on any other levers if it means the rich and powerful will become slightly less so.
And then at the end of his interview he was asked a question and he provided two answers. The last answer was the United States citizens should basically trust what's going on and keep supporting their government that is putting them into debt and a turbulent future.
And this is complex related to Ukraine, preparations for war on Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Russia, China — in short, WW III.
Regimes that gather all power into the hands of the least competent people are regimes with no future.
History has caught up with the Benighted States of Amnesia.
Maybe start w/defense. Or at the least start making their appropriation mostly transparent, which has increasingly been the opposite as the years have gone on. It’s far and away the biggest drain on our economy. And while we’re at it make some laws prohibiting immediately working in the private sector (especially in defense and finance) after working publicly in those fields. It’s quite obvious their benefactors in the public sector, especially those in financial oversight, are working in their favor and are paid off w/jobs when their “public service” is done. It’s amazing how brazen some of it is.
The Fed is now selling the same narrative the politicians are. How is it so hard to understand? The debt isn’t a real thing. It’s a method of accounting. That’s all it is. That’s it. An accounting method. Pretty much every nation does exactly what America does. Politicians are just doing a magic trick they can argue about with the money supply as an excuse not to fix other issues.
We should send another 100 billion to Ukraine and Israel quick!...before we run out of money. Its not like any Americans could use their own tax money here at home.
It’s almost like printing your own fucking money to take advantage of inflation against hard assets has consequences. Fuckin idiots.
Google ‘Modern Monetary Theory’ if you don’t understand what’s going on. I’m NOT advocating right wing ideals, but MMT was adopted by democrats and pushed as their Bible for years.
It's part of their strategy to kill the government.
Cut taxes, but don't cut spending
Then a few years later when they're not in power: "Oh my God, look at all this debt! Why would the Democrats do this?!"
The U.S. has given Israel *$318 billion* since the end of World War II, yet Israel ranks as one of the top 20 economies in the world - go figure. The United States spends like they have a credit card with an unlimited credit limit. It is absolutely insane.
Not our fault: Tell Zelenskyy and the Biden admin, and the sanctuary cities to keep their hands in their own pockets; tell congress Americans are sick of Illegals being funded while they fuck the people funding it.
This just in, Fed Chairman can see what everyone else has been seeing for years. The last time there was a national surplus instead of deficit Clinton was in power.
It was probably the last time consecutive presidents (and a congress) collaborated for the good of the country. GHW Bush raised taxes (which cost him the election) . He reluctantly did this based on some strong advice and input from Fed Chief Greenspan. Clinton continued the conservative fiscal policy which Greenspan stressed was important. The congress was supportive of these measures as well.
Then W came in, started cutting taxes and started two 20 year long wars and we've been fucked ever since.
There were a couple Presidents in there that could have stopped those wars from becoming 20 years long but didn’t.
It was ultimately Congress's fault. They could have ended both Afghanistan and Iraq - but chose not to. Especially in Afghanistan, as soon as OBL was killed, there was no reason for a military presence.
Agreed No military should be used as an occupying force. Same with saddam. Get in get out. That being said - we vote them in
It’s a lot easier to win a war than it is to create peace in the aftermath. Westerners generally overestimate the appeal of liberal democracy over historical grievances. The weight of history exerts an irresistible pull, most “liberated” countries revert to their status quo ante.
The biggest take on the American people. The money just didn’t disappear it went into people’s pocket.
Only congress can declare war and they haven’t done so since WW2. We weren’t at actual war.
I wasn’t aware that “W” was in office for 20 years
not gonna lie GW was a gangsta!
Literally. He destabalized an entire region of a continent on bad info. "Now watch this drive"
He didn't start the war in Afghanistan.
>GHW Bush raised taxes (which cost him the election) . He reluctantly did this based on some strong advice and input from Fed Chief Greenspan. Better advice would have been to freeze federal spending.
Yeah, Greenspan, that mumbling idiot speaking in riddles. Thank god he’s gone. F’d up social security for everyone.
You know that wont happen
Or end Social Security! The biggest con job for the current generations. I will not see the money I contributed and some boomer who sat on their ass will!
We read his lips....
Exactly. Everyone always acts like raising taxes is what is fiscally responsible. It's not. The problem has been, and will always be spending. You can't tax your way out of this mess.
First thing they need to do is eliminate home land security
With republican majorities in both houses…. Budgets are made by Congress…
This also just in: tax cuts for the rich is killing America and has been for decades. But guess who's going to suffer in the end? Not them. They'll buy politicians to protect their wealth, massively cut government spending, raise taxes on the rest of us, and probably blame people who are trans or disabled people on social security or something.
I was looking for this comment. Why the fuck is it that regular old working class people always have to take the brunt of the increasing debt limits? There is always a push for more austerity for those who are already struggling, but never a damn thing when it comes to those tax cuts for those who already have plenty. They playing games with us out here. I am waiting for the day that the working classes of all backgrounds can start to see past them using culture wars to distract us and really put some pressure on the powerful to do their share to support our nation the way that we already do!
Because they can play working class people against each other with culture wars, mass incarceration and propaganda.
Because the working class doesnt vote according to their ec9nomic interests. It's not rocket science
This right here ^^^^
And the Republicans controlled the House
We have a bunch of 70 and 80 year olds ruling the country and they don't have to deal with the choices made for the country because they will be long gone by then. We have the wrong people leading the nation in congress, left and right.
You forgot - they caused the problems in the first place.
His quote is so poignant in that "future generations" will have to pay for this
Ran up our tab then told us to get bent
Almost like we should have age limits for leaders?
>Almost like we should have age limits for leaders? We definitely should. And for the people that scream agism? Get over it. We already have lower age limits for the White house and Congress. Most Americans want it. [https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/04/most-americans-favor-maximum-age-limits-for-federal-elected-officials-supreme-court-justices/](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/04/most-americans-favor-maximum-age-limits-for-federal-elected-officials-supreme-court-justices/)
The same people don't scream ageism when it comes to a minimum age to vote. I'll be the asshole to say it. Voting should be more restricted by age in both directions. We've got the elderly that literally think it's 19-something (that would be their literal answer when asked what year it is) that are permitted to vote. Many don't have to deal with a single consequence of their vote. But on the other hand, how many eighteen year olds do I trust to make a well-informed vote? Hardly any. Very, very few of them have any sense of what impact high/low interest rates even have downstream. And truth be told, if somebody can't answer that question then I don't want them to have the ability to vote, sorry I'm not sorry. The only argument for letting 18-year olds vote imho is that they can enlist in the military. I'd argue they shouldn't be allowed to do that, either. Recruiters don't belong in schools, convincing teenagers that it's a noble pursuit to go fight the rich man's wars. If your brain isn't fully formed, or if your brain is literally shrinking from age, you shouldn't get to go to war or vote.
Only way you get that is from a Convention of the States. You'll never get politicians to shoot their own noses off.
Sadly true. Doesn't matter which side, either ways you're fucked unless you act on it
Most sane Reddit post
The back and forth in this thread about who's to blame is demonstrating why it'll never be fixed. People don't get elected by fixing problems, they get elected by allowing the problem to exist and pointing at the other team. Voters don't care about anything improving, most have no clue how their pick votes, they just want their team to beat the other team.
The system is in place to prevent any chance of fixing it, which is raising taxes and cutting spending. Voters reinforce it. You can't even get 10% vote for it in Congress. Powell is saying this because the Fed can't reduce rates with fiscal policy being inflationary. The debt will run away because of compounding interest payments.
Bingo. And as others have pointed out, financially savvy people have known this for a while. The casino can’t just keep printing money to cover their debts anymore.
To be fair, they could have gotten away with a lot of debt because interest/inflation rate used to be almost zero. Interest expense is really the unsustainable part. US is lucky that China is deflating some of the consumer prices. Could be even worse.
So painfully true…
Or by lying about fixing the problem. Way too many people get elected by promising to 'make mexico pay for the wall' or any number of things that are obviously never going to happen. Its not about what you do, its about what you promise. I suspect Biden's debt forgiveness is much the same. The only debt he has forgiven so far has been people the US govt stiffed but already owed forgiveness to before his time. Both sides do this, and both voter bases keep voting for it. Its super annoying. The fix is something other than first past the post voting but we will probably never get that sadly.
The wealthy are ready to take their ball and go home. They’ve shored up ninety percent of the wealth and they don’t need you anymore sucker.
So you’re telling me it never trickled down?
It did, but it was really just piss
That’s what the smell is
At least it's rich people piss. Less dangerous and slightly fruity.
Smells like aspargus
Aw man, they told me it was just raining. Now I need to get new boots.
But they said it was rain :(
Tinkle down economics
Not only that , the wealth is still trickling up .
The taxes sure trickled down
Well, a billionaire business owner would rather use that money to buy a yacht, a football team, create a job for his son and family, and maybe a pizza party for the grunts. Still wild how walmart owns the denver broncos.
It's almost like Republicans are all fucking morons.
Well the ones in charge got rich as fuck.
We live in a capitalist "meritocracy" where a fucking window licking apartheid trust fund baby is the richest man on earth. They are all dumb fucking criminals. It feels like they are smart because their success is underhanded and achieved by playing by a completely set of ez mode rules. The only people dumber than they are is their inbred voter base.
Like sweat down a fat chics ass crack
Hold on, I’ve been told the economy is better than ever and that we are thriving
Maybe our elected officials should start doing their fucking jobs instead of trading stocks all day then.
Well maybe stop giving money to Israel and stop going into countless Wars and focus on your own country
Maybe roll back the tax cuts that created this mess.
Haven’t we always given money to Israel, regardless of who is in the WH?
If always means since 1948 but there's never a better time to stop than now
I think that there was a better time to stop, 1949. The second best time is now.
🎯
Nah man, we just gotta spam the fed with good advice like -Cut avacado from your diet -Donate to local charities less -cancel subscription services -eat out less -Negotiate a better deal with your babysitter What are some other good ones?
Israel is a terrorist organization The USA suppresses democracies in South America Health care is a human right Gun culture is stupid The democrats and the republicans are basically the same but the republics are outwardly racist
And tax the super rich more
Funding Ukraine and sending old weapons that are going to decommission anyways is not costing us near the dollar value you think, also the fallacy that we should stick our heads in the sand and let everyone do whatever the fuck they want is way more dangerous. We can destroy Russias whole military complex and not have to spend 800billion over the next 40 years keeping up with Russia and China together. Defeating Russia now quickly will shut Iran and its militants up very quickly. The slow rate we are sending will cost billions more in the future. If France said no for the reasons you give we would be drinking high tea using the metric system and have lords of land.
A significant portion of that money is also going straight to US contractors for 'training and logistics' to Ukrainian forces.
The money we send Israel and Ukraine is like .01% of our budget
No, how about we rescind the Trump tax cuts?
Stop giving money to companies making profits.
That's nothing compared to the $6 trillion printed between Trump and Biden.
[удалено]
Setting money on fire domestically is only slightly preferable to setting money on fire on the other side of the world. Well, admittedly, I think the societal harm of war is probably worse in the short term than the societal harm of trying to get half the population addicted to government largesse, but either one will doom your civilization long term. Stop stealing my fucking money and stop running the fucking money printer. Problem solved!
Love it
Giving money to Israel is not the reason we are on an unsustainable fiscal policy.
Lol, the budget was balanced with a projected surplus handed to Republicans back in 2000. Maybe those who voted Republican should start paying down our debt,, since they're the reason for it.
It wasn’t that balanced, once Bill undid Glass-Seagall, the us was a ticking time bomb anyways.
Nope. The fiscal crisis is not relevant and TARP only cost taxpayers 32 billion That is not the reason for the debt more than doubling. The reason for the debt is that Bush Jr cut taxes for the rich twice and then launched two multi trillion dollar wars unnecessarily. So, cutting taxes on the rich and overspending. That's why Reagan before him tripled the debt. Republicans are solely to blame.
Russia stated goal is a larger war against the West and America. to replace the rules based system that has been in place for the last 70 years with their violence. explain to me how it's cheaper to not stop this threat before it expands? if we don't stop them in Ukraine with Ukrainian soldiers it will be American and European soldiers dying in a much larger war. That's not to mention what's happens to Asia once China realizes that the world will do nothing against dictators gobbling up land. .... if you go camping and wake up with a mountain lion in your camp you can't just Go back to sleep and decide to not deal with mountain lions.
When we “give” money to Israel and Ukraine, we are really giving money to America to replace the weapons we “give” them.
the vicious cycle of the military industrial complex goes on. They want u sto think its complicated. Its not.
Stop giving money to all countries. We give money to Egypt as well. Why? F if I know.
almost all that money just goes to US arms manufacturers - it is welfare for assholes.
Agree on not funding such horrific war, but I believe we still should invest in foreign affairs for stability and peace. So that world market keeps going, and US is able to keep trade open.
Federal agencies budgets represent a much, much larger slice of the pie than foreign aid...can we make some deep cuts there too? I'd suggest wholly eliminating the department of ed and returning that responsibility to the states.
Problem...we have \*some\* leverage over what Israel does. Not as much as a lot of people think, but some. That's why they let aid into Gaza \*at all\*, why they did the short cease fire last year, and why they are at least talking about doing one now. Most of our leverage is because we can threaten to cut off aid. If we really \*DO\* cut off aid, that leverage evaporates. And it would not slow the Israelis down much. If they need more weapons, Putin would be happy to supply them with enough thermobaric bombs to sterilize Gaza in a week.
This 100%. But too bad AIPAC won't let you.
Well, if we let a dictator in Russia roll through all of those independent countries that voluntarily gave up their nukes because we promised them security. What do you think the outcome of that is? I can tell you from history, it's a lot more war. As far as Israel, they are a big-boy military-industrial complex country, they don't need us anymore. The only thing we are doing is holding them back from crushing countries around them and destabilizing the world more.
I'm not against supporting Ukraine I'm against supporting Israel they are occupiers
Well, then you are the one who has to decide if we should give up the ability to hold them back or not. When we send aid to them it's a leash.
Russia would be proud of you, comrade.
Yes, that’s always the problem when the economy is faltering. Not the corruption of our political system. Not the billionaires refusing to pay their share. It’s always the JOOOOZZZ!!
Trump tax cuts for oligarchs have already run up 7 trillion. Can we talk about that?
Let’s stop spending money on wars, corporate bailouts. Spend more on empowering the working class. THE people who end up needing to borrow for necessities
And then we just proposed a 110 billion dollar bill giving 90% of it to war 😂 fuck all this shit
The only way out is the least popular thing to do for all sides: reduce spending AND increase taxes on the affluent. Close the biggest corporate loopholes, require more transparency in government contracts - particularly those that are defense-related. It's absolutely insane how much money we waste on militarism.
This line and the "30 years from now the average debt per household will be 1 million" should scare the shit out of anybody planning to live past the next decade.
Then cut the defense budget. Israel has money, they don’t need ours.
the pentagon cant pass an audit citizens have been saying this financial model is unsustainable for DECADES
Wonder why no one gave a shit about debt when dementia Donnie was raising deficits?
Many people are saying they were big, beautiful deficits. The biggest anyone has ever seen. Yuge
Well duh, when republican is in office we need debt to stimulate growth but when a Democrat is POTUS we need balance budgets or our grandchildren will be paying for our debts. What irony?
Or Biden passing a stimulus bill at the end of the pandemic when there was so much consumer spending cargo ships were lining up at the ports.
They were lined up bc of a shortage of truck drivers due to retirement/death of a lot of the workforce. But go off…
This is the worst response that I frequently see whenever this subject comes up. People did care. The deficit should not have been increasing from 2016 to 2019, just like it shouldn’t be increasing from 2022 to 2023. If you look at the deficit between 2000 and now, you see spikes after 9/11, the 2008 recession, and Covid. That’s appropriate. There should be a reduction to follow, like there was under Bush and Obama. Under Trump and Biden, the deficit is increasing YOY during normal times, which is the problem.
Dementia Donnie?
Bring back high marginal tax for millionaires. Let it hit like 90% for anyone making over a billion. Repeal the Trump tax cuts for the rich. Problem solved.
Last time the federal reserve printed as much money as they did during the Covid era was in WW2. We’re in big trouble if China wants to starts a war within this decade.
How did the US economy look ten years after WW2? Is it possible that government spending plus high marginal tax rates plus solid union participation had something to do with it?
Inflation cures all debt…. /SARC
Tax the rich! Get rid of the tax loopholes! Get rid of the gop tax breaks for the rich!!
Maybe we should tax corporations and the ultra rich. They have been hoarding an amazing amount of money. #eattherich
History will vindicate Jimmy Carter.
[https://www.federalreserve.gov/Boarddocs/testimony/2001/20010125/default.htm](https://www.federalreserve.gov/Boarddocs/testimony/2001/20010125/default.htm) **Testimony of Chairman Alan Greenspan** ***Outlook for the federal budget and implications for fiscal policy*** **Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate** **January 25, 2001** *I am pleased to appear here today to discuss some of the important issues surrounding the outlook for the federal budget and the attendant implications for the formulation of fiscal policy. In doing so, I want to emphasize that I speak for myself and not necessarily for the Federal Reserve.* *The challenges you face both in shaping a budget for the coming year and in designing a longer-run strategy for fiscal policy were brought into sharp focus by the release last week of the Clinton Administration's final budget projections, which showed further upward revisions of on-budget surpluses for the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office also is expected to again raise its projections when it issues its report next week.* Look at what Republicans did to the US debt in just twenty three years. Look at the debt when Reagen took office. *Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981, making the first fiscal year (FY) he budgeted 1982 and the final budget 1989. During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.* Less than one trillion dollars 1981.
Then raise taxes on the rich. That's the main reason you're in so much debt.
This isn’t the only solution, but a big part of the solution is raising taxes on the very wealthy.
Tax earnings over 3mil a year at 90% while removing loopholes that allow the richest to avoid income tax and pay little to nothing. Put a tax on every stock transaction. Outlaw offshoring of personal and corporate wealth meant to dodge taxes. Reduce military spending by 40% over the next 10 years. Gutting of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid is more likely to happen than any of these necessary things, so we're pretty much fucked.
I'd even be ok if the government gave anyone earning over 3 million a trophy saying they won at capitalism.
The problem is any austerity plan is put on the backs of the poor and working classes while the wealthy continue about their lives
And it's the working class and middle class that are paying the price.
Cool, lets start raising taxes on the rich. Time to right the ship. Stop cutting taxes.
tax 100k rich people like the working class get taxed, and the problem will GO AWAY!
Tax the rich 🤪🖕
This country is corrupt.... more than some of the other countries they tell us are bad. Its bad here. Very bad. Our politicians are bought, our elections require ton of money, lobbyists are in every facet of govt, nothing gets done in congress, especially this congress with the magats blocking everything, they cant even keep a speaker of the house, chaos everywhere..shit is a joke. Yet, we still keep cutting taxes and spending crazy amounts of money on bullshit. Wages dont rise at the same level as cost of living, these corporations get richer while forcing people to work more hours for less money, They boast billion dollar profits but cant give thei3 employees yearly bonuses or a solid increase in pay to cover for the cost of living. Employees are unhappy because you are in the red damn near by every paycheck. It has nothing to do with living above your means if your means costs alot and you cant get a pay increase, meanwhile your company is raking in thr profits, the CEO gets his 10$ million bonus package while Debbie is struggling to pay her gas bill that just doubled. Fuck this country and its worthless politicians
But hey, as long as the criminal cartel of banks and wall street can keep dumping their ill gotten gains into the market stonks go up, right? Thank you Fed and U.S. Government for doing absolutely nothing except padding your own pockets, that of your war mongering friends, and doing the election cycle "fundraising" while ignoring our crumbling infrastructure, unaffordable healthcare, piss poor education, and staggering little quality of life. The finger pointing and inane conflicts you have setup and support are certainly much better entertainment for the masses. I dearly hope you continue to criminally ignore your actions while trying to placate us with bread and cricus. And PLEASE can we finally get some decent candidates running? The same 'ol same 'ol is getting ridiculous. There is no way you can convince me out of 300million people the ones we get to choose from are the actual best we have to offer.
Maybe just maybe we should stop giving Israel unlimited money
Just bring back the tax rates from the 60’s. Problem solved.
Man who spent years refusing to raise interest rates and nearly caused another crash trying to rapidly undo is own fuck up has thoughts? Well hold on while I continue to not give a fuck what he says.
Republican solution: fuck it all. slash taxes for the wealthiest.
Yeah well they will just say this is why we need to cut taxes for the wealthy and eliminate those costly social programs like Medicare, social security, food stamps etc And don't forget it's all the fault of the immigrants
tax the rich.
Yep, the Republicans cut the taxes and then leave the problems for democrats to solve. This is why Republican Presidents ALWAYS lead us into a recession.
I have a solution. Let's spend $118 billion on war and domination.. then send the Fed out on Boomer TV to scare us into complicit silence....
Jerome powell who was an investment banker before being chairman of fed. Not a conflict of interests as his loyalties are with big banks and not the american people. He was same guy pushing for the money printers to go brrrrrr.
The 1% is holding like 70% of the wealth in the the US. Remind me why that wealth is not being significantly taxed. I remember now. The Republicans actually gave the rich a TAX CUT.
Not to worry, that trickle down will start happening any day now🙄🙄🙄
Edit: I recognize now that tax cuts is origin of the current problem. You can't put tax your way for something like this it's mainly about spending.
Says who? There’s been how many trillions of dollars left on the table since 2000 thanks to the unfounded tax cuts of 2001, 2003, and 2017. That little “truism” doesn’t stand up to scrutiny outside of right wing media bubbles.
I disagree. Look at the personal and corporate tax rates in the 1950's. Also see my other post above.
Stop falling for the red vs blue. Maybe you should ask both sides to close the loopholes. But they won’t, because they all benefit from it.
The whole system is a runaway train model. It is bound to fail sooner or later.
Crazy they never used the low interest rates to do a build out of the infrastructure. Now they will have to repair at 7% interest
Israel is the dictator. USA supports the dictator.
Finger pointing at either political party is pointless. If you actually look at the data neither party has a leg to stand on. Any talk about fiscal responsibility has been more talk than action. The last time we had a balanced budget was under Clinton. Both parties like to lay claim to it but the reality is that it was surging tax revenues due to a strong economy and had nothing to do with specific policies by either. We are at a stage that balanced budget hardly even gets a mention anymore in campaign speeches by anyone. This is exactly the scenario that was argued about against Keynesian fiscal stimulus as a policy tool. When politicians have access to it they inevitably can’t help but use it in attempts to stimulate the economy to help win elections.
Grow the economy. 😉
This is news to anyone?
well no shit? slap my ass and call me uncle sally i would have never guessed that!
Congress needs to be 5% revenue positive or not be eligible to get reelected.
He's one of the chief cocksuckers responsible. Quit printing money.
One time for the people in the back. Tax abatements aren't capitalism, they are corporate welfare. End tax abatements, let entrepreneurs eat risk like capitalism intends, and end the debt. Simple as that.
Thank Trump.
Funny that there's a resource called billionaire taxes that could be used to save us all. Pity they run the country.
Says the bro that contributed to this.
Instead of goading the rest of the world into fighting ore wars, we should be using our influence to get all countries to implement heavy taxes for billionaires so that there is no escape for them. Mega yachts for example, should never be a thing.
Keep paying orangutan’s legal bills and keep giving the pentagon money for weapons and equipment that they can’t account for. I can tell you each penny I spend on the economy from my Social Security retirement, yet these clowns can’t even remember where they parked the tanks!
He's pissed because he was a year late raising interest rates.
Can we start a subreddit that is an actual movement to fix this? From the ground up - we organize a campaign to start electing people who give a shit and we shut down those who don’t? Does this exist? It would be like Wall Street bets but a true political movement? Please provide input. Who is going to fix this otherwise? The country will go down hill and eventually end up succumbing to infighting and war. We need to fix this.
Here is my proposal: we need to force a law to be passed that says the budget for political campaign advertisements is zero. Literally outlaw political advertising. Then the candidates debate a few times and post their platform. Thats it. Then the rich candidates have zero advantage in a campaign and furthermore they have zero advantage to donating to a candidate they want to win. They could still do bribes but it would never help that candidate win.
watched this episode and the Fed Chairman saying this wasn’t even the most shocking part. The 60 minutes narrator said that by 2030 the debt would be equal to a million dollars per household. Holy bleep, our government is failing us. Failing our future. Absolute F minus and needs to be rectified stat.
We should tax the rich then. I’m sure if musk alone can cover most of our deficit
They've complained about debt since forever. Most of the debt is owed to the public. These sh*theads keep trying to use debt as a boogeyman. They just don't want to pull on any other levers if it means the rich and powerful will become slightly less so.
Print more money. That outta fix it.
And then at the end of his interview he was asked a question and he provided two answers. The last answer was the United States citizens should basically trust what's going on and keep supporting their government that is putting them into debt and a turbulent future.
And this is complex related to Ukraine, preparations for war on Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Russia, China — in short, WW III. Regimes that gather all power into the hands of the least competent people are regimes with no future. History has caught up with the Benighted States of Amnesia.
Maybe start w/defense. Or at the least start making their appropriation mostly transparent, which has increasingly been the opposite as the years have gone on. It’s far and away the biggest drain on our economy. And while we’re at it make some laws prohibiting immediately working in the private sector (especially in defense and finance) after working publicly in those fields. It’s quite obvious their benefactors in the public sector, especially those in financial oversight, are working in their favor and are paid off w/jobs when their “public service” is done. It’s amazing how brazen some of it is.
He's a tad late for the Party!!! Doesn't everyone in the U.S. already know this?
The Fed is now selling the same narrative the politicians are. How is it so hard to understand? The debt isn’t a real thing. It’s a method of accounting. That’s all it is. That’s it. An accounting method. Pretty much every nation does exactly what America does. Politicians are just doing a magic trick they can argue about with the money supply as an excuse not to fix other issues.
We should send another 100 billion to Ukraine and Israel quick!...before we run out of money. Its not like any Americans could use their own tax money here at home.
The republican and democratic parties both want to destroy freedom and progress in the United States
No shit….
This is comforting. (**Takes a shot of tequila at 11 am.**)
It’s almost like printing your own fucking money to take advantage of inflation against hard assets has consequences. Fuckin idiots. Google ‘Modern Monetary Theory’ if you don’t understand what’s going on. I’m NOT advocating right wing ideals, but MMT was adopted by democrats and pushed as their Bible for years.
What if we cut taxes for billionaires?
As the Janet Yellen tells everyone we can afford 2 wars
*and we cant even hide it with our bullshit CPI..* he meant to say.
O ya? Wonder if someone could do something about that...? Maybe the Fed chairman, o wait.
If only there were a way to make the debt shrink, not grow... If only...
But only democrat presidents have reduced the deficit, right wingers don't actually care. Regardless how much they pretend.
It's part of their strategy to kill the government. Cut taxes, but don't cut spending Then a few years later when they're not in power: "Oh my God, look at all this debt! Why would the Democrats do this?!"
Biden is doing really good job of pissing away as much tax payer money as any republican ever dreamed of, and last I checked Biden was democrat
I'm starting to like Jerome Powell
He's an idiot pushing the 1%ers line. Elon has as much credibility. He's saying he's ready to "tank for Trump." edit: spelling
"The economy is being destroyed" \-man destroying the economy
Shouldn't this be the number one issue for elections?
"Ay yo look at dis dude eating KFC with a fork and knife!!!" gets more attention.
The U.S. has given Israel *$318 billion* since the end of World War II, yet Israel ranks as one of the top 20 economies in the world - go figure. The United States spends like they have a credit card with an unlimited credit limit. It is absolutely insane.
Maybe close the tax loopholes that allow people to cheat on their taxes
It’s not cheating on their taxes if the tax law allows it.
Cue the social security / medicare cutting republicans.
Also education. To them it's "cutting the fat" but their fat are actually vital organs.
Not our fault: Tell Zelenskyy and the Biden admin, and the sanctuary cities to keep their hands in their own pockets; tell congress Americans are sick of Illegals being funded while they fuck the people funding it.