Obama Added $7.917 Trillion to the National Debt, 68 Percent Spike

[Chrysia]

Every president since Reagan(yes even Clinton) were very fiscally irresponsible, Trump wont be any better

Under Reagan's watch we saw the single largest percentage increase in publicly held debt in history outside the two World Wars. If that's your benchmark for "fiscal responsibility" you need to adjust your standards.

[Moon-Man]

Yes gotta love Breitbarts objective and honest reporting.

You and it are a joke.

I rather read Brietbarts since it is way more honest than the Fake News we know today, such as CNN, Fox news and so on.

[Zan15]

I rather read Brietbarts since it is way more honest than the Fake News we know today, such as CNN, Fox news and so on.

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so i guess reporting on hillary's pizza sex dungeon, obama's birth certificate being fake and stuff like that is waaaaaaaaay more honest then CNN.

[Tijuana]

hahahahha
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so i guess reporting on hillary's pizza sex dungeon, obama's birth certificate being fake and stuff like that is waaaaaaaaay more honest then CNN.

All media sources are purveyors of fake news, depending on the day. Journalism is dead, and the corpse has been smelling bad for a while now.

[Wildtree]

Yeah ok. Should we limit voting to only those who attended university? Or pass some sort of arbitrary level of intelligence?

Who else should we exclude from democracy? Deplorables maybe?

We could start with excluding all those that tend to scream
"we are not a democracy, we're a republic".

I mean, if one thinks like that, they shouldn't have a problem with being removed from the electorate.

Next step would be a truth test.
A person whose news knowledge is based on fringe fakes will certainly not pass the test, and too gets excluded.

Which, eventually leads to an educated electorate, no matter the side the voter belongs to.

One can dream, right?

And for the records. I don't discriminate on ginger and cheetos.. that's preposterous to think

[kail]

I rather read Brietbarts since it is way more honest than the Fake News we know today, such as CNN, Fox news and so on.

How about you read/watch none of those? Why subject yourself to tabloid level news?

[nato2k]

Congress sets the national budget

[TheRabidDeer]

I am curious, does anybody have an actual plan that would improve things or is everybody just going to criticize the numbers and shout?

[Hiricine]

That's flat out wrong. The overall debt doesn't matter so much, economies can and have carried much larger outstanding debts than ours currently with no real problems. Heck during the second world war the UK's debt hit ~250% of GDP. The issue is the confidence which lenders have that the debt commitments entered into can be met, and that is solely dependent on the direction of travel. i.e. a combination of the deficit and the rate of economic growth.

This is why we have no real problems, as the deficit is falling rapidly and the economy is growing. By contrast this is why Italy is up shit creek without a paddle with a debt of ~130% of GDP (contrast that with the 250% of GDP figure for the UK in 1945). Their economy isn't growing and they have deficit of ~3% that isn't shrinking. That spells disaster because the direction of travel is entirely in the wrong direction.

Well you don't have to pay anything on the deficit now, you only have to pay the interest on the debt (which of course is caused by the deficit)

The problem I think a lot of people don't see is that there truly is no comparison to the US at this point in time with the level of debt its achieved. Of course, the reason for the economic stagnation everyone seems to be seeing is the fact that they managed to spend up to the debt level they're at now and can't afford to spend at the responsible level they could have been the whole time. Everyone has alot of fun for 10-20 years when their nation racks up the debt but 10-20 years down the road when it comes due you can't spend like you used to.

[Tijuana]

Well you don't have to pay anything on the deficit now, you only have to pay the interest on the debt (which of course is caused by the deficit)

The problem I think a lot of people don't see is that there truly is no comparison to the US at this point in time with the level of debt its achieved. Of course, the reason for the economic stagnation everyone seems to be seeing is the fact that they managed to spend up to the debt level they're at now and can't afford to spend at the responsible level they could have been the whole time. Everyone has alot of fun for 10-20 years when their nation racks up the debt but 10-20 years down the road when it comes due you can't spend like you used to.

I'm sorry but, what you say is not factually correct. Treasury notes are the mechanism by which we borrow, and they have set payment terms.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

We the People added 7.917 trillion to the national debt, 68% spike. This is Our country. Not one person's. Until We do something to change things, every bit of it is on us. Nothing will change until the busted ass broken system is changed.

[kail]

Doubt any of us where alive when a president hasn't added to our national debt. Obama is sub-par at best, but his score with the U.S. deficit is actually one of his strong points.

[Holofernes]

Budget is usually bi-partisan . Since 2010, Republicans have controlled at least one chamber, meaning they needed to approve the budget as well. Why didn't they balance the budget?

It's the collective fault of both parties, the executive branch, and the legislative branch. Placing all the blame on either party or the President is dishonest. You can blame the party as a whole during trifecta years. I.e. '09, '10 and now '17, '18. Let's see how republicans handle the budget. I imagine a deficit will be ran as always.

its not a fault at all. it is the cost of managing the worst economic crisis in 80 years.

[Hiricine]

I'm sorry but, what you say is not factually correct. Treasury notes are the mechanism by which we borrow, and they have set payment terms.

Well borrowing isn't really paying. If you compare the amount of interest paid on each individual year's worth of deficit versus the amount of interest we pay on the debt at large, its a minor comparison.

Of course we're talking about one value thats the derivative of the other. But a deficit can be corrected in any given year by reducing the spending dramatically (of course, there are consequences for doing so). The debt essentially can't be paid off ever.

[God Save The King]

its not a fault at all. it is the cost of managing the worst economic crisis in 80 years.

Agreed, fault was an intentionally poor choice of wording.

[Tijuana]

Well borrowing isn't really paying. If you compare the amount of interest paid on each individual year's worth of deficit versus the amount of interest we pay on the debt at large, its a minor comparison.

Of course we're talking about one value thats the derivative of the other. But a deficit can be corrected in any given year by reducing the spending dramatically (of course, there are consequences for doing so). The debt essentially can't be paid off ever.

I don't think you understand, still. No offense. Treasury notes are not a credit card, or some kind of rolling debt. They have set repayment terms, 5yr, 10yr etc. That said, interest rates could not get any lower so, the borrowing is cheap.

I have no idea what you are on about how the debt can't get paid. It gets paid every year. We have payments that have to be made every month. We have old treasury notes that come due and have to be paid. We have never defaulted on that. This isn't some kind of hypothetical thing where we just print money and hand out 20 trillion dollars to treasury note holders. It's real money. We really borrow it. It really gets paid back. It's a basic financial instrument anyone can buy. You can literally go to the bank and buy one tomorrow. I mean...really...what are you on about again?

[Garnier Fructis]

they all give you a twist on the information you just dont know your being twisted because the twists you listen to agree with your own views = good way to dumb yourself down

And some 'twists' are straight up wrong, or deliberate misdirection. For instance, Answers in Genesis articles are often factually incorrect. I don't see how ignoring that is dumbing myself down. Breitbart is different, in that there's some bit of factual information there. But the implications they make are often wrong. Like the article in the OP, for instance. The given information is correct, but meaningless by itself since money doesn't maintain the same value over time. Not presenting all the information is a form of misdirection, so you're better off not getting this 'twist' and instead looking for something that gives more facts.

[satimy]

Under Reagan's watch we saw the single largest percentage increase in publicly held debt in history outside the two World Wars. If that's your benchmark for "fiscal responsibility" you need to adjust your standards.

Doesn't the phrase "since Reagan" include Reagan? Anyway I agree, Reagan spent like a drunken sailor

[melodramocracy]

Compared to Bush's 101 "percent spike?" Sweet.

"Reagan proved that deficits don't matter" - Dick Cheney

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Yeah ok. Should we limit voting to only those who attended university? Or pass some sort of arbitrary level of intelligence?

Who else should we exclude from democracy? Deplorables maybe?

A competency test is apparently not needed for the election itself, so there's no reason to subject voters to any sort of it. On the other hand, driving a car requires proof of at least a few firing synapses, it would be nice to have a similar demonstration for anyone else who decides on national leadership.

[Torto]

A competency test is apparently not needed for the election itself, so there's no reason to subject voters to any sort of it. On the other hand, driving a car requires proof of at least a few firing synapses, it would be nice to have a similar demonstration for anyone else who decides on national leadership.

Interesting. You don't need a license or a diploma to have children either, maybe we should look at that as well.

What other liberties should we be limiting on our citizens I wonder?