US to acquire third world status if trends continue.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Gregg: U.S. could be on path to a 'banana republic' situation

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A leading fiscal mind on Capitol Hill and a one-time Obama Cabinet pick sounded the alarm Sunday over the projected long-term financial challenges the country faces.

“This deficit is driven by us,” New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union when asked about the federal government’s projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year.

“You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States,“ the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, “that we’re creating these massive debts which we’re passing on to our children. We’re going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this.”

“Now you can’t blame that on [former President] George [W.] Bush,” Greg said, noting that using the Obama administration’s projections the budget deficit for the next ten years is $1 trillion per year. And Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40 percent — which Gregg called “tolerable but still too high” — up to 80 percent.

The figures, Gregg told King, “mean we’re basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country. And you just can’t do that. You can’t keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. And you can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt.”

“Standards of living will drop if we keep this up,” Gregg also said.

After repeated promises from the White House that the final health care reform bill will be deficit neutral, Gregg said a Democratic plan to avoid otherwise automatic Medicare cuts without having a funding source for the projected expense of $250 billion over the next decade was “gamesmanship.”

Asked about criticism leveled Sunday by former Republican-turned-Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that Republicans were being obstructionist in the health care reform debate, Gregg replied, “Well, I suppose he has to call us something now that he’s left the party.”

Responding to the Democratic charge that the GOP is “the party of ‘no,’” Gregg pointed to Republican health care reform proposals including his own and another co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Sen. Richard Burr, as well as a bipartisan proposal put forward by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Robert Bennett (R-UT).”

Gregg said the versions of health care reform voted out of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would amount to “a huge expansion of government.”

“You’re talking about taking the government and increasing it by $1-$2 trillion over the next ten years,” Gregg said. He added that he thought growing government at that rate would have a “very debilitating effect” on the overall economy and the ability of Americans to get health care in the future.

At one point earlier this year, Gregg, who is not seeking re-election to his Senate seat in 2010, was President Obama’s choice to head the Commerce Department. But the fiscal hawk removed himself from consideration because of differences with the new administration on several policy issues.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/...blic-situation/

[spookyturtle 9,466]

It looks like BY is right. I'm moving.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

It looks like BY is right. I'm moving.

I am still thinking Philippines.

[G&R 0]

2029 you can move to France and live under Sharia law !

2045 Maybe in USA too?

Pray for our Grand Daughters

[spookyturtle 9,466]

It looks like BY is right. I'm moving.

I am still thinking Philippines.

But the Phillipines is lower on the list than the US. I think you better think about Melbourne.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Gregg: U.S. could be on path to a 'banana republic' situation

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A leading fiscal mind on Capitol Hill and a one-time Obama Cabinet pick sounded the alarm Sunday over the projected long-term financial challenges the country faces.

"This deficit is driven by us," New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union when asked about the federal government's projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year.

"You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States," the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, "that we're creating these massive debts which we're passing on to our children. We're going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this."

"Now you can't blame that on [former President] George [W.] Bush," Greg said, noting that using the Obama administration's projections the budget deficit for the next ten years is $1 trillion per year. And Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40 percent — which Gregg called "tolerable but still too high" — up to 80 percent.

The figures, Gregg told King, "mean we're basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country. And you just can't do that. You can't keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. And you can't keep throwing debt on top of debt."

"Standards of living will drop if we keep this up," Gregg also said.

After repeated promises from the White House that the final health care reform bill will be deficit neutral, Gregg said a Democratic plan to avoid otherwise automatic Medicare cuts without having a funding source for the projected expense of $250 billion over the next decade was "gamesmanship."

Asked about criticism leveled Sunday by former Republican-turned-Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that Republicans were being obstructionist in the health care reform debate, Gregg replied, "Well, I suppose he has to call us something now that he's left the party."

Responding to the Democratic charge that the GOP is "the party of 'no,'" Gregg pointed to Republican health care reform proposals including his own and another co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Sen. Richard Burr, as well as a bipartisan proposal put forward by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Robert Bennett (R-UT)."

Gregg said the versions of health care reform voted out of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would amount to "a huge expansion of government."

"You're talking about taking the government and increasing it by $1-$2 trillion over the next ten years," Gregg said. He added that he thought growing government at that rate would have a "very debilitating effect" on the overall economy and the ability of Americans to get health care in the future.

At one point earlier this year, Gregg, who is not seeking re-election to his Senate seat in 2010, was President Obama's choice to head the Commerce Department. But the fiscal hawk removed himself from consideration because of differences with the new administration on several policy issues.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/...blic-situation/

December 19, 1984

Policy Analysis no. 45

<h2 align="center">Deficits and Taxes: Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy in the 1980's</h2>

by Thomas S. McCaleb

The economic program proposed by the Reagan administration at its inception in 1981 was designed to reduce government spending and taxes relative to the economy's total output or gross national product (GNP). As a first step in implementing the program, the administration proposed a phased reduction in tax rates over the three years from 1981 to 1983. This was to be accompanied by reductions in the level of spending proposed by the Carter administration for fiscal year (FY) 1982. The tax reductions were in fact adopted by Congress, and a set of spending reductions was incorporated into the First Congressional Budget Resolution. The budget process for 1982 was never completed, however, and the 1981-82 recession intervened.

The net result of these efforts has been that tax rates are lower now than in 1980, but not lower than rates in 1979. The reductions in aggregate federal expenditures relative to GNP, however, have not materialized. Indeed, during the first three years of the Reagan administration, federal spending as a percentage of GNP increased to historically high peacetime levels. Because the decline in the rate of growth of tax revenues has not been matched by a decline in the growth of expenditures, the government's budget deficit in real terms has also reached unprecedented peacetime levels. The 1983 deficit was almost 6 percent of GNP. Projected deficits for 1985 and 1986 exceed 4 percent of GNP. These levels are of the same order of magnitude as those reached during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Without a reversal of the tax reductions or significant real spending cuts, the projected deficits will not fall below 3 percent of GNP until 1989.

The projected federal budget deficits have now become the central focus of economic policy. Furthermore, deficit mania has swept Wall Street, the national media, and even the groves of academe, where the National Bureau of Economic Research has launched a major project to investigate the impact of government budget deficits. The deficit issue poses three major questions: (1) Where did the deficit projections come from? (2) Where did the projected deficits come from? (3) Where will the deficit reductions come from?[1]

Thomas S. McCaleb is associate professor of economics at Florida State University and a former senior staff economist with the Council of Economic Advisers.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=911

[::: kanaiyo::: 0]

Give me a break....how much do u people know about the world finance and how the economy works....watching CNN wont lead u anywhere....ppl we are never going to go broke and never will be what those idiots predict a third world country....I cant stop cracking at some ppl....hahaha....

[mawilson 2,133]

And Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40 percent — which Gregg called “tolerable but still too high” — up to 80 percent.

Wrong. It's already at 85% and it will increase to 170%.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

And Gregg said that during the same ten-year period, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product would increase from 40 percent — which Gregg called "tolerable but still too high" — up to 80 percent.

Wrong. It's already at 85% and it will increase to 170%.

This just in!

[Danno 1,228]

The truth of it is: people DON"T CARE.

They know these Entitlement programs we have now are a Ballooning weight around our necks and how do a sizable number of Americans respond?

They want one more Entitlement program called Healthcare.

One would have to believe some "Record Breaking Economy" is in our near future to find any sanity in it.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

It looks like BY is right. I'm moving.

think about that - i saw a tv show last night and one tidbit from it: of the top 25 most poisonous snakes in the world, 21 of them live in........australia!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

It looks like BY is right. I'm moving.

think about that - i saw a tv show last night and one tidbit from it: of the top 25 most poisonous snakes in the world, 21 of them live in........australia!

See, they are at the top in another important category. I'll bet the United States is way down the list on poisonous snakes.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Banana Republic?

Kind of a dodgy term to use in the modern age, not exactly accurate either in relation to what he's saying.

[Joseph & Ana 0]

Obama wants it to be 3rd world. Easier to take over everything.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Obama wants it to be 3rd world. Easier to take over everything.

Perhaps *you* want it to be 3rd world, just so you can say you were right about Obama.