Jefferson

Here's more economic news that the Mainstream Media will NOT report - and for obvious reasons...

The United States economy CONTINUES to be EXTREMELY STRONG and is GROWING, under the presidency of George W Bush.

The deficit is now half it was in the 70s - when comparing apples to apples.


Nope, there won't be ANY mention of this in the Liberal Mainstream Media.


Abortion

Jaxian

Which deficit? The yearly deficit for 2006?

The debt as a percentage of the GDP increased in 2006, which means our deficit is still slightly higher than it needs to be. But it was only slightly higher. This would be fine, except for the following problems:

First, the national debt is already much too high because of spending in previous years. If our economy is doing well, we should be able to reduce our deficit as a percentage of GDP, yet that isn't happening. Second, the deficit in 2007 is expected to become huge again.

I should also point out that your statement is misleading. First, it seems to randomly choose a time period. In the 1970's, this deficit would not be as problematic because the overall national debt was low compared to our GDP.

Second, finding two different deficits and creating a ratio out of them is not a meaningful number. For example, if we had we compared the 2006 deficit to the 2000 surplus, we would see that the deficit in 2006 is more than infinity times greater than the deficit in 2000.

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-Jaxian

garysher

Let's face it the US is living in a world of delusion regarding its financial future

Social Security is running out, and 47m Americans have no health insurance. By 2016 20% of GDP will be spent on healthcare

Meanwhile the rest of the industrialised world is subsiding America's oil addiction by taxing petrol

Nobody wants to pay tax and nobody wants to cut expenditure

Sooner or later some responsible President will have to burst the bubble

Jefferson

Social Security needs a complete overhaul - BEGINNING with RAISING THE RETIREMENT AGE. It was never designed nor intended to be paying retirees' living expenses for 25-35 years per person.

In addition, Social Security is being tapped for all kinds of other expenditures - everything from welfare to paying for abortions. This has to stop.

garysher

What do you think the retirement age should be?

Maybe we should take people out to the edge of the forest, and release them to expire gracefully! Like elephants!

Jefferson

I think the retirement age needs to be raised to 70.

When SS was first introduced, VERY few men lived to be 70. Now, most are living to be 80 or more.

5 more years of paying in, and 5 less years of collecting.

...and we ain't seen nothin' yet! Just wait until the Baby Boomers (of which I'm a part) start hitting Social Security. That WILL bankrupt the system, unless we act NOW!

garysher

As a healthy baby boomer I agree with that

I can't wait to start work at Home Depot on my 65th birthday

Jefferson

"Welcome to WalMart! How may I help you? Would you like a cart?"


Actually, I know several guys who retired either at 62 or 65 - and their wives are still working. These guys are bored spit-less.



I guess they could take up quilting, or something like that. But I doubt they'd do that. They're a little too masculine for that sort of thing.

tristanrobin

they need something to do

I retired early and LOVE it

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"know this is EXACTLY why people think you shouldnt have equal rights" 2/11/08 Grace

caffeinebuzzchick

Are you perhaps referring to this white house talking point? (please cite your sources next time.)

Budget of the United States Government, FY 2006
"The best way to compare annual deficit levels is by analyzing their size relative to the overall size of the economy, as measured by GDP. Such a comparison gives the most meaningful measure of the size and scale of deficits, spending, and revenue. After all, a deficit of $100 billion is less than 1 percent of our $12 trillion economy. But $100 billion would have represented 10 percent of the $1 trillion economy of 1970."

Measuring the national debt "as a percentage of GDP" is a bunch of crap and spin and YOU KNOW IT.

http://zfacts.com/p/519.html
"First, be careful, the deficit is annual additions to national debt. So all he's saying is that the national debt is not going up as fast as it had been. It's certainly not going down (as it did in between 1995 and 2001 — see graph). So in terms of the accumulated national debt, we haven't cut anything except its rate of increase (that's better, but the debt is still headed the wrong way)."

They are also taking a LOT of money out of the Social Security Trust Fund so that the deficit numbers don't look AS bad.