Politifact claims that Ron Paul's statement of U.S. being Bankrupt is FALSE!

[mello]

W T F...

hxxp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/12/ron-paul/us-rep-ron-paul-says-countrys-bankrupt/

[ItsTime]

Their reasoning.. If you can borrow you are rich!

[kylejack]

They're technically correct. I see it as hyperbole. Someone isn't bankrupt just because they have debt, even a lot of it. Bankruptcy is when you can't meet your obligations, and the debt ceiling was raised.

Nothing wrong with a little hyperbole to make a point.

[sailingaway]

It isn't false. Go to the bankruptcy code. There are various different categories. One is 'the inability to pay debts as they become due'. The US HAS to roll over treasury bills to pay the last ones, we can't pay them all off as they come due, we take new debt. If no one loaned us more money, we couldn't pay our debts as they became due.

it isn't a word Politifact likes, so they use a DIFFERENT definition and their omnipresent knowledge of what 'everyone' means by that word.

[havoc37]

Why did you put "xx" instead of "tt"?

[SWATH]

Yeah if you can print unlimited amounts of money then you are technically never bankrupt.

[kylejack]

It isn't false. Go to the bankruptcy code. There are various different categories. One is 'the inability to pay debts as they become due'. The US HAS to roll over treasury bills to pay the last ones, we can't pay them all off as they come due, we take new debt. If no one loaned us more money, we couldn't pay our debts as they became due.
Yes, but people are loaning us money, so since they are loaning us money we can afford to pay debts as they come due. That's not bankruptcy. If I take a loan on my credit cards to pay off a student loan, I'm just using some debt to cover another debt. I wasn't bankrupt.

[roho76]

They're technically correct. I see it as hyperbole. Someone isn't bankrupt just because they have debt, even a lot of it. Bankruptcy is when you can't meet your obligations, and the debt ceiling was raised.

Nothing wrong with a little hyperbole to make a point.


That's only partially correct. You also default when you bring more money into existence to repay your debts. If someone owed you a candy bar and they gave you one with a bite taken out of it, that's not exactly repaying their debt now is it? That's not "meeting your obligations"

[kylejack]

That's only partially correct. You also default when you bring more money into existence to repay your debts. If someone owed you a candy bar and they gave you one with a bite taken out of it, that's not exactly repaying their debt now is it? That's not "meeting your obligations"
Maybe ideologically, but not as the law describes bankruptcy.

[roho76]

Yes, but people are loaning us money, so since they are loaning us money we can afford to pay debts as they come due. That's not bankruptcy. If I take a loan on my credit cards to pay off a student loan, I'm just using some debt to cover another debt. I wasn't bankrupt.

The student will go to jail when he counterfeits the money to repay the loans. Our government doesn't (for some strange reason).

[silverhandorder]

So you wouldn't click the link and show the site where the link came from. There is a way to just remove the hyperlink in the posts.

[IndianaPolitico]

Let's send them a message, promote the money bomb!

Official Pledge Page: http://www.ronpaul2012.com/pages/mbpledge.html
Official Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197265100335690

[mello]

Why did you put "xx" instead of "tt"?

I did that to break the link. This way Politifact can't track that the link was from this forum.

[MJU1983]

I don't think ANYONE would be bankrupt if they could just print money to meet their obligations. ;)

[Cleaner44]

W T F...

hxxp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/12/ron-paul/us-rep-ron-paul-says-countrys-bankrupt/

Sorry but when a nation says it is NOT able to issue Social Security checks without raising the debt ceiling, that means the country is broke.

Just post it like this:
politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/12/ron-paul/us-rep-ron-paul-says-countrys-bankrupt/

[Indiana4Paul]

I sent them an email:


While I completely understand how you came to the conclusion you did, I feel like you missed an opportunity to educate yourselves and your audience on the huge insolvency issue this country faces. Please see the article linked here (http://www.ronpaul.com/2008-09-26/ron-paul-on-the-housing-bubble-july-2002/)for a fairly detailed POV that comes to the opposite conclusion.

Now, its interesting to me that you would pit the analysis of S&P, Fitch and Moody's up against the wisdom of the economic theory that is the basis of Ron Paul's assertion that the US is essentially Bankrupt. His knowledge of Austrian economic theory is what enabled Ron Paul to predict the housing crisis that brought our economy to its knees 5 or 6 years prior to the bust. On the flip side, Moody's, Fitch and S&P rated highly many of the Securities that would eventually cause the current economic crisis right up until the point when the whole thing went BUST.

If you did a truth-o-meter analysis in 2002 of Ron Paul's assertion that there was a Housing Bubble you could have used S&P, Moody's and Fitch ratings to give that a False rating too. No less an authority than Alan Greenspan would have agreed that Dr. Paul was incorrect. However, with the benefit of hindsight we know that Dr. Paul was exactly right and we found out much too late that we should have been listening to him all along.

Now, imagine if the 4th Estate would have jumped on Dr. Paul's analysis way back in 2002? Imagine if there was a thorough national dialogue about our policy towards the GSEs and Wall Street based on Dr. Paul's very clear warnings? How different would our economy be today if all the resources that went into chasing the Housing Bubble had been allocated efficiently?

I love what you guys do more often than not, but in this case you've got it wrong. You've missed a chance to educate your readers and a very real, very significant long-term challenge we face in this country. I hope that you will consider taking a deeper look and consider publishing a follow-up analysis with a more complete look at the situation.

[mconder]

Most people don't have the luxury of a money press. The U.S. would be bankrupt without the ability to pass the default along to current dollar holders.

[Anti Federalist]

I don't think ANYONE would be bankrupt if they could just print money to meet their obligations. ;)

Exactly.

Thus says the Greenspan as well:


Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday ruled out the chance of a US default following S&P's decision to downgrade America's credit rating.

"The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default" said Greenspan on NBC's Meet the Press

http://ftmdaily.com/the-federal-reserve-fraud/greenspan-no-u-s-default-because-we-can-always-print-money/

[MJU1983]

We're not bankrupt, look at all the MONEY we have!!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y205/MJU1983/P06-090119-a2.jpg

[Tinnuhana]

xx means you have to put it into the browser and then change the letters. this breaks the link so on the receiving end, they don't know all the people opening their website came from here...or something like that.

[pyroman1]

It appears they really didn't care about the details of default.

politifact.com/georgia/article/2011/nov/05/us-rep-ron-paul-remix/