WhiteWhaleHolyGrail
01-31-2008, 11:01 PM
Someone told me recently that a certain presidential candidate I liked had "bad ideas" and was "out of touch with reality". In my opinion, the presidential candidates who are promising more programs and more spending are the ones with "bad ideas" and "out of touch with reality".
Especially considering that each one of us has a hidden mortgage to the tune of $175,000. This is our individual share of the $53 trillion in liabilities (federal debt) and unfunded commitments (Social Security, Medicare, etc). If you don't believe me, these numbers come from our nation's non-partisan head accountant, David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States. See Walkers statistics here:
http://blog.al.com/bn/2008/01/comptroller_general_of_the_uni.html
Why does this debt matter? It matters because all of us paying Social Security taxes all our lives will not get anything when we retire because there will be no money to pay benefits. It also means foreign countries will begin to lose faith in the dollar, which means prices of imports will go up. If you haven't noticed, our dollar is losing its value and is now worth less than the Canadian dollar. See here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=USD&to=CAD&amt=1&t=5y
So, what are the presidential candidates planning to do about spending? All of them plan to increase spending (except one, of course). This is from a study by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union. See study here:
http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=991&org_name=NTUF
Summary of increases in spending from the report:
$287.0 billion - Barack Obama
$218.2 billion - Hillary Clinton
$54.2 billion - Mike Huckabee
$19.5 billion - Mitt Romney
$6.9 billion - John McCain
$-150.0 billion - Ron Paul
Given our current economic circumstances, cutting federal spending seems like a good idea to me. I also think there are some good ideas for economic stimulus here:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/prosperity
If anyone thinks these are bad ideas I'd be very interested to know which ones and why.
Especially considering that each one of us has a hidden mortgage to the tune of $175,000. This is our individual share of the $53 trillion in liabilities (federal debt) and unfunded commitments (Social Security, Medicare, etc). If you don't believe me, these numbers come from our nation's non-partisan head accountant, David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States. See Walkers statistics here:
http://blog.al.com/bn/2008/01/comptroller_general_of_the_uni.html
Why does this debt matter? It matters because all of us paying Social Security taxes all our lives will not get anything when we retire because there will be no money to pay benefits. It also means foreign countries will begin to lose faith in the dollar, which means prices of imports will go up. If you haven't noticed, our dollar is losing its value and is now worth less than the Canadian dollar. See here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=USD&to=CAD&amt=1&t=5y
So, what are the presidential candidates planning to do about spending? All of them plan to increase spending (except one, of course). This is from a study by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union. See study here:
http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=991&org_name=NTUF
Summary of increases in spending from the report:
$287.0 billion - Barack Obama
$218.2 billion - Hillary Clinton
$54.2 billion - Mike Huckabee
$19.5 billion - Mitt Romney
$6.9 billion - John McCain
$-150.0 billion - Ron Paul
Given our current economic circumstances, cutting federal spending seems like a good idea to me. I also think there are some good ideas for economic stimulus here:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/prosperity
If anyone thinks these are bad ideas I'd be very interested to know which ones and why.