Due to more efficient Obamacare - Medicare is solvent through 2024. Without Obamacare - Medicare goes bankrupt in 2016

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Because Medicare is the third rail of American politics - touch it and you die.

Paul Ryan is no longer willing to be a martyr; unfortunately, martyrdom is the only viable alternative to the massive insolvency that looms on the horizon.

Paul Ryan has drafted and the GOP has voted in support of reducing the growth of the Medicare program. They are on record supporting the $700 billion growth reduction. Obama is standing by PPACA and the Medicare growth reductions contained in that legislation. The GOP is now against that part of the "Path to Prosperity" which they passed in the House. Representative Ryan is now against the legislation that he authored. How do they expect to be taken seriously? He's on the campaign trail talking about leading and yet, the only ones in the race for the White House leading on this issue is the President and Vice President. Romney and Ryan have no backbone - they're running from their own proposals, their own drafts, the very legislation that Ryan authored. They're wimps. And liars, to boot.

[mawilson 2,133]

Paul Ryan has drafted and the GOP has voted in support of reducing the growth of the Medicare program. They are on record supporting the $700 billion growth reduction. Obama is standing by PPACA and the Medicare growth reductions contained in that legislation. The GOP is now against that part of the "Path to Prosperity" which they passed in the House. Representative Ryan is now against the legislation that he authored. How do they expect to be taken seriously? He's on the campaign trail talking about leading and yet, the only ones in the race for the White House leading on this issue is the President and Vice President. Romney and Ryan have no backbone - they're running from their own proposals, their own drafts, the very legislation that Ryan authored. They're wimps. And liars, to boot.

The biggest liar here is Mr "I will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" Obama.

The guy who backloaded his budget numbers to claim $4 trillion in growth reductions over the next 12 years and trumpeted it as a resounding success.

[웃 910]

The biggest liar here is Mr "I will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" Obama.

That should have been easy to do. He was handed a $1.2 trillion deficit. This was full of government stimulus / bank takeovers / insurance takeovers / trillion dollar takeovers / auto takeovers.

The previous year the deficit was $438 billion.

To me it makes a lot of sense to come in during depression-like years and have the government come through with some stimulus measures.

But I don't understand why FY 2010 did not drop to the $400-$600 billion range? We had a great excuse for 09...Fannie/Freddie/Lehman/Stock Market Crash/Loss of millions of jobs in a few months/etc.

What is the excuse for 2010/11/12?

Trillion dollar deficits are unacceptable.

Edited August 20, 2012 by ☠

[mawilson 2,133]

But I don't understand why FY 2010 did not drop to the $400-$600 billion range? We had a great excuse for 09...Fannie/Freddie/Lehman/Stock Market Crash/Loss of millions of jobs in a few months/etc.

What is the excuse for 2010/11/12?

Trillion dollar deficits are unacceptable.

I agree with you 100%.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That should have been easy to do. He was handed a $1.2 trillion deficit. This was full of government stimulus / bank takeovers / insurance takeovers / trillion dollar takeovers / auto takeovers.

The previous year the deficit was $438 billion.

To me it makes a lot of sense to come in during depression-like years and have the government come through with some stimulus measures.

But I don't understand why FY 2010 did not drop to the $400-$600 billion range? We had a great excuse for 09...Fannie/Freddie/Lehman/Stock Market Crash/Loss of millions of jobs in a few months/etc.

What is the excuse for 2010/11/12?

Trillion dollar deficits are unacceptable.

Tax revenues have dropped to 15% of GDP due to tax cut legislation being extended and new tax cuts being passed. Tax revenue falls 4% of $15 trillion short of historical averages - that means there are $600 billion missing on the revenue side alone. Now you look at the expense side of the ledger while unemployment is high - there's extended UI, there are more people falling into eligibility for food stamps and other benefits which the federal government shoulders at least partly. Add the $100 billion or so each year for the ongoing war efforts that have previously been carried outside the budget. And there you go with deficits exceeding a trillion dollars. The math is simple. The difficult part is to address the issues - bloated defense budget, runaway health care cost and lacking revenues. Fix these three and things will look a hell of a lot better.

[mawilson 2,133]

Tax revenues have dropped to 15% of GDP due to tax cut legislation being extended by Obama and new tax cuts being passed by Obama.

He could have refused to sign an extension into law and let the Bush tax expire - for everyone. Instead, he embarked on his class warfare campaign against the rich, insisting that the tax cuts should expire only for the 1%.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

He could have refused to sign an extension into law and let the Bush tax expire - for everyone. Instead, he embarked on his class warfare campaign against the rich, insisting that the tax cuts should expire only for the 1%.

I don't disagree at all. The Bush tax cuts should have been allowed to expire. Then the parties could have sat down and talked about what tax relief - if any - Congress might pass to help spur the economy. It would then have been a debate over tax cuts where each side could have made their case as to what the scope should be. Instead this was allowed to become a debate over tax hikes which was doomed from the very beginning.

[Harsh_77 718]

I don't disagree at all. The Bush tax cuts should have been allowed to expire. Then the parties could have sat down and talked about what tax relief - if any - Congress might pass to help spur the economy. It would then have been a debate over tax cuts where each side could have made their case as to what the scope should be. Instead this was allowed to become a debate over tax hikes which was doomed from the very beginning.

How much did they the treasury lose by extending the tax cuts?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

How much did they the treasury lose by extending the tax cuts?

Over half a trillion dollars over the two year extension.

[웃 910]

Over half a trillion dollars over the two year extension.

Ya, but think about how much that has trickled down.

[Harsh_77 718]

Over half a trillion dollars over the two year extension.

Take a look at the Federal debt under his administration over last 4 years.

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_debt_chart.html

in 2008 it was 10 Trillion 2012 it is now 16.4 Trillion.

We are out of war... as per him the economy is doing good than why is our debt rising?

[mawilson 2,133]

Ya, but think about how much that has trickled down.

If nothing trickled down, all the more reason to let them expire for everyone, not just the rich.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Take a look at the Federal debt under his administration over last 4 years.

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_debt_chart.html

in 2008 it was 10 Trillion 2012 it is now 16.4 Trillion.

We are out of war... as per him the economy is doing good than why is our debt rising?

We're out of war? Really? Did we leave Afghanistan and nobody told the public? Wow.

Fact is we're still spending well over $100 billion a year on war. Overall, $740 billion goes to the defense budget - the baseline defense budget has grown an astonishing 81% from 2001 to 2011. Add Homeland Security at $50 billion and Veterans Affairs at $150 billion and you're looking at roughly a trillion dollars out the door right there. Obama has proposed reducing defense spending and is getting hammered by the Republicans for it. Romney wants to INCREASE defense spending - like a trillion dollars ain't enough. It's inane. Debt service on $10 trillion eats up another $200 billion for which it is hard to blame Obama. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is another trillion and a half. Obama put forth and got through Congress reductions in the growth of Medicare and Romney and Ryan run around hammering him for that as well - even though Ryan proposed and the GOP passed in the House the very same cost curbing for Medicare in his "Path to Prosperity". That aside, without any other expenditure, you're now already $350 billion in the hole. Obama invented none of this. Congress has racked up these expenditures over several decades and then decided to pull the plug on revenue. That's how you end up with trillion dollar deficits.