Last edited Wed Feb 22, 2017, 11:05 PM - Edit history (1)
I've noticed over the past 8 years that fiscal responsibility has fallen off the radar as an issue most liberal Dems care about. I blame this in part to partisanship... that parties can change positions and the party faithful tend to migrate to the new position for political reasons and leave some principle behind. I'm a loyal Thom Hartmann listener and I've noticed the shift with him... that deficits and debt didn't matter any more. All we had to think of is what percentage of the GDP it was. It's the same argument the Bush Junta was making when their irresponsible tax cuts created massive deficits... and we know they wanted to conceal their fiscal irresponsibility.
Sorry... I'm stuck in that fiscal debate from 16 years ago... that we have moral duty to not be ripping off our kids... and we need to deal with the fact that we're pissing away hundreds of billions on interest.
In FY 16 the interest was $432.6 billion... https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm
Some of that is for the trust funds... but these numbers are too abstract.... and CBO projects interest alone might be 800 billion in the next decade. Without something to compare that 432 billion to... it's just a huge number. Here's one comparison. The FY16 NASA budget was less than 19 billion. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/NASA_FY_2016_Budget_Estimates.pdf We're pissing away on interest each year to fund NASA about 23 times over.
Regardless if fiscal issue's are no longer in vogue... this debt was the Starve The Beast trap set by the far Right... and the longer it's not dealt with... the more this debt will be used as justification for weakening if not dismantling needed programs.
EDIT: Yeah... post 1000!
= new reply since forum marked as read