POTUS on Sirius/XM

[bpitas]

Tim Farley of the Morning Briefing was reporting this morning about that Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget study that showed that the GOP candidates all increase the deficit except for Ron Paul. Only the way he's reporting it is that all the other GOP candidates increase the deficit and Ron Paul doesn't address it either, he just "gets closer" than the others. I tweeted him about it, and he actually read my tweet on the air! Basically I said he needed to correct his statement on the air, because Ron Paul's budget DOES reduce the deficit by $2.2T by 2021. Tim Farley's response was that he was making the point that none of the candidates *eliminate* the deficit.

So props to Tim Farley for reading my tweet and addressing it on the air, but I think the way he's spinning things isn't right. I mean, could anyone reasonably expect that any candidate, no matter what they did, could actually *eliminate* the deficit in 10 years? There's no freakin' way you could work through $16Trillion in 10 years - no way. So I think the way that story should be spun is that everyone, including Obama and all the GOP candidates except for Ron Paul actually increase the deficit with their budgets, but Ron Paul is the only one who puts us on a path to reduce the deficit over time.

I like POTUS but it feels like it's getting more left-wing as time goes on unfortunately. :-(

[freneticentropy]

deficit != debt

[bpitas]

Yeah, I guess that was what I was thinking too but I wish I had explained it more clearly. You are absolutely correct. Basically Ron Paul is the only one who makes national cash flow go positive, so we are at least picking away at the debt. Everyone else maintains negative cashflow, adding to the debt.

[sailingaway]

Ron Paul balances the budget (and eliminates the deficit, not debt) by year 3. It then GROWS again not by what Paul does but by their ASSUMPTIONS which assume all will be exactly the same on foreign policy (gradual draw down from Afg and Iraq - don't project going into Iran) and that medical costs will continue their upward growth as anticipated with no change (when Paul would address that by adding cost sensitivity if he gets his programs.) So it is their assumptions that control, not paul's budget, and is dependent on their ASSUMPTIONS for growth of medical cost going forward, most having to do with medicare. They are trying to say there is no way out without raising taxes. We need to make sure this is understood.

[specsaregood]

I mean, could anyone reasonably expect that any candidate, no matter what they did, could actually *eliminate* the deficit in 10 years?

Well, what if they decided to default on our debt? TEll our creditors that we won't be responsible for the debt ran up by previous administrations and go pound sand? In theory, that would do it. :)

[walt]

Ron Paul balances the budget (and eliminates the deficit, not debt) by year 3. It then GROWS again not by what Paul does but by their ASSUMPTIONS which assume all will be exactly the same on foreign policy (gradual draw down from Afg and Iraq - don't project going into Iran) and that medical costs will continue their upward growth as anticipated with no change (when Paul would address that by adding cost sensitivity if he gets his programs.) So it is their assumptions that control, not paul's budget, and is dependent on their ASSUMPTIONS for growth of medical cost going forward, most having to do with medicare. They are trying to say there is no way out without raising taxes. We need to make sure this is understood.

This news both saddens and terrifies me. It shows how close we are to the edge.

[ZanZibar]

Very few people listen to POTUS, it's kind of like CSPAN for satellite radio. But that being said, they do have some awesome discussion on there every once in a while. If you're a political junkie, it is the place to be.

[kathy88]

Very few people listen to POTUS, it's kind of like CSPAN for satellite radio. But that being said, they do have some awesome discussion on there every once in a while. If you're a political junkie, it is the place to be.

I've got my Sirius tuned to it. Lately there's more pro Paul on there than the Liberty channel. Go figure.

[bpitas]

Yeah, I really like that channel. Back 9 months ago I would try to slip a Paul reference in there every time I called into Pete Domenick's show, and he would immediately shoot it down by saying something like "well do you not like the civil rights act of 1964?" or some crap like that. Now he actually seems to listen and you can hear him nodding over the radio. But the thing I don't like is that it used to be pretty non-partisan, but the hosts are now starting to let their liberal roots show through when they talk about different people. It's not too obvious yet, but it's noticable.

[eduardo89]

$160 billion surplus a year for 10 years is doable.

[bpitas]

Ummm... I suck at Math, but wouldn't that only scratch 1/10th of the deficit? We're over $16T, and that's only $1.6T, right?