1979 US default on bonds

[fskimospy]

What was the entire national budget just three years ago? That would be FY 2008 and the projected total Federal Spending was $2.9 trillion. We are in FY 2011 and we are rapidly approaching FY 2012. The estimated spending for FY 2012 is $3.729 trillion (That's a deficit of $1.101 trillion.)!

Why not just use the FY 2008 budget as a guide and spend no more than what we did then. One would think that $2.9 trillion dollars would be more than enough for this nation to spend in one year.

Electing to spend a certain amount because that's what you spent 4 years ago has to be the dumbest idea for making a budget that I've ever heard in my entire life.

 

[Lithium381]

Electing to spend a certain amount because that's what you spent 4 years ago has to be the dumbest idea for making a budget that I've ever heard in my entire life.

not HAVING a budget for 800+ days has to be the dumbest idea for making a budget that i've ever heard in my entire life.

spending 100b more per month than we take in has to be the dumbest idea for making a budget that i've ever heard in my entire life.

 

[fskimospy]

not HAVING a budget for 800+ days has to be the dumbest idea for making a budget that i've ever heard in my entire life.

spending 100b more per month than we take in has to be the dumbest idea for making a budget that i've ever heard in my entire life.

You have two dumbest ideas you ever heard in your entire life in the same post? Strange. Did one come after the other and take the crown or something? How does that work?

Needless to say, your post is nonsensical. There could certainly be rational reasons for not having completed a budget or to deficit spend. You might not agree with them, but that's not the point. (I particularly disliked the Democrats' cowardice in not passing a budget last summer)

Deciding that your budget needs today should be governed by what your budget needs were four years ago is absolute stupidity.

 

[Fern]

Nevermind the fact that we pay out 2.6 trillion in SS payments alone, not counting Medicaid/Medicare, the interest on the debt plus everything else the govt spends money on.

Seems your the one not thinking there ace.

Where do get the $2.6 trillion amount?

The CBO site I looked at says only $723 billion in SS benefits expected to be paid out this year.

Fern

 

[Fern]

At what point will we no longer be able to pay the interest on our loans? We are headed for default right now! Anyone with half a brain knows you cant keep paying your bills using a credit card. Sooner or later you have to pay your bills, or the banks (China) will no longer lend you money.

I would not be buying any government or municipal bonds.

We have more than enough money to pay our debt service. The interest is only about $190 billion.

Fern

 

[Fern]

If that happens it's Obama's choice. If the debt ceiling isn't raised the treasury will have to decide which obligations to pay and which not to pay. Nothing says SS has to be in the later category.

This is incorrect.

SS retirement benefits are funded by SS w/h on paychecks. According to the CBO, we will take in about 93% of what is needed. SS funds cannot be used for anything but SS (excess funds are invested, and we currently have about $2.5 trillion of excess funds).

If they stop paying SS retirement it will be illegal and inexcusable.

Fern

 

[Fern]

Do you imagine that Federal debt obligations are somehow like your mortgage payment? It isn't an amortized paydown, it's a sale of bonds whose interest and principal are both due on maturity.

Another idiot who learned all he needed to know about national debt from Michele Bachmann...

Any debt due can be just be rolled over.

There's nothing saying we can't have new debt, the debt ceiling only means we cannot go above $14T in total. And rolling over debt doesn't increase debt at all.

Fern

 

[werepossum]

We have more than enough money to pay our debt service. The interest is only about $190 billion.

Fern

Just imagine 2023, when we'll be saying "Of course we have more than enough money to pay our debt service. The interest is only about $2 trillion."

Mmm, good times.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

This is incorrect.

SS retirement benefits are funded by SS w/h on paychecks. According to the CBO, we will take in about 93% of what is needed. SS funds cannot be used for anything but SS (excess funds are invested, and we currently have about $2.5 trillion of excess funds).

If they stop paying SS retirement it will be illegal and inexcusable.

Fern

It would be illegal, but so would many of the actions that the treasury would take if the debt ceiling isn't raised. My point is that they are ones who decide which of our legal obligations are fulfilled and which ones aren't. As far as I know there are no laws that deal with the seniority of our obligations.

 

[rudder]

You talk like there is no income into the Federal government to make our debt payment obligations. We take in around $2.3 trillion so how in the world does this equate to default?

Do try to think for a change and not just listen to the lies and propaganda of the MSM and the White House.

This. Tax revenues do not stop because you are not allowed to borrow more. You just stop spending more that revenues. Keep making debt payments and there is no default.

 

[Lithium381]

Think of how much we could do with that 190b...... instead of just letting it evaporate.

Just like me and my credit card, i keep the balance either at 0 or very low so i don't pay money and get nothing in return for it. that $60 / month that i would be paying for interest had I carried my balance pays the power bill for the month, or two months of internet..... why would i throw that away?

 

[Greenman]

Why do we have a debt ceiling? It gets raised every couple years, so why bother going through all the stupidity? We're going to keep borrowing until no one will lend us anymore, then we're going to stop paying that money back because no one will lend us the money to pay it. It's not going to end well.

 

[Lithium381]

very true, they raise that thing like it's a hip hop party why bother

 

[werepossum]

Why do we have a debt ceiling? It gets raised every couple years, so why bother going through all the stupidity? We're going to keep borrowing until no one will lend us anymore, then we're going to stop paying that money back because no one will lend us the money to pay it. It's not going to end well.

Probably true. But we're SO close! Both parties oppose raising the debt limit when they aren't in charge of spending.

 

[Lithium381]

Probably true. But we're SO close! Both parties oppose raising the debt limit when they aren't in charge of spending.

if they won't let the other party have it, then it's probably a dangerous thing... and a bad idea to raise it ALL the time

 

[sonambulo]

Just ditch Medicare already. Why does such a useless program exist? If your job doesn't have health benefits, get a real fucking job. Old people are all the same. They jump the border, wear stupid oversize hats, take "siestas" in the afternoon, they refuse to learn English then they have anchor babies so they can't be kicked out.

My job sucked so I pulled myself up by the boot straps and I went back to school (using a loan from my parents while living with my parents and eating food paid for by my parents). If I can bootstraps myself like that, then old people can do the same. Now I have good health and dental benefits and it's all because I was completely self sufficient and determined to better my own life.

Ok, now that's pretty funny.