Will we spend ourselves into oblivion? Peter Peterson

[GregoryPalamas]

(I thought I had posted this before but I can’t find it. I believe this is vitally important.)

I’m a Republican. I have been for about 10 years. I used to belive that the Dems were the party of compassion. I don’t believe that anymore but that really is another issue.

Though I’m a Republican I cannot understand why Mr. Bush has failed to veto any bills. In particular any spending bills. His failure in this regard I believe will leave a lasting negative legacy upon his presidency. I’m particular troubled by the Prescription plan which is almost totally unnecessary and obligates our children and grandchildren to a burden I doubt they can handle. As such I believe the decision to back this plan is immoral.

But of course it isn’t just the Republicans who have sinned in this area. The Democrat’s only objection to the bill was that it wasn’t expensive enough.

Peter Peterson, a member of the Concord Institute, laments this trend which is bankrupting the country. I firmly agree with him. Here’s a synopsis of his book “Running on Empty.” I plan to read it soon.

"When Bush came to office in 2001, the 10-year budget balance was officially projected to be at a surplus of $5.6 trillion. But after three big tax cuts, the bursting of the stock-market bubble, and the devastating effects of 9/11on the economy, the surplus has evaporated, and the deficit is expected to grow to $ 5-trillion over the next decade. The domestic deficit is only the half of it. Given our $500 billion trade deficit and our anemic savings rate, we depend on an unprecedented $2 billion of foreign capital every working day. If foreign confidence were to wane, this could lead to the dreaded hard landing.

Peter G. Peterson–a lifelong Republican, chairman of the Blackstone Group, and former secretary of commerce under Nixon–shatters the myths with hard facts and a harrowing view of the twin deficit’s real impact. Republicans and Democrats alike have mortgaged America’s future through reckless tax cuts, out-of-control spending and Enron-style accounting in Congress. And the situation will only get worse as the Baby Boom generation begins to retire, making unprecedented demands on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Despite what Bush says, we are on a path that could end in economic meltdown, and we simply cannot grow out of the deficit.

In* Running On Empty*, Peterson sounds the warning bell and prescribes a set of detailed solutions which, if implemented early, will prevent the need for draconian measures later. He takes us behind the politicians’ smoke-and-mirror games, and forcefully explains what we must do to rescue the future of our country."

Dan L

 

[wcknight]

I’m a Democrat but maybe in name only. We can not spend like there is no tormorrow. We are trillions in debt and growing more in debt by the second. No one and no party wants to face the reality that we are way over spending.

The reality is IF we were to suddenly stop the deficits, the country would go into an economic tail spin, most probabaly into a depression or something approaching that scale. Even if we cut the deficits dramatically, the economy would probably tail spin into a huge recession. No one is willing to let that happen. So we are caught between a rock and a hard place. Everyone wants to get re-elected, and no on wants an economic downturn.

Folks are hoping that an economic boom will some how make the deficits go away as it did during the Clinton administration. Unfortunately, such economic miracles are rare, and even when it happened we did not follow through to take advantage of it. The first thing congress and Clinton did was spend us right out of the surplus.

With Iraq and the war on terrorism, we are in even more of a hole. We can not reduce the deficit unless we cut deficits to the point of causing a huge market downturn or abandon our war or terrorism and leave ourselves open to attack from nutcases.

We need some smart folks to come up with some miracle solutions, both to solve the deficit problem and the war on terrorism. Maybe some miracle breakthough will convert all the terrorist nutcases and solve that end of the problem.

Our country is is trouble and not just from these two problems, we also now have China trying to buy itself into control of huge American companies, and we still have the possibility of foreign companies or countries buying massive amounts of US properties or companies. IF we are not careful We may end up as the United States of Red China or the United States of Saudi Arabia.

Money talks and the Saudies have the most money and China may have it in the future. Our balance of payments and our national debt is astronomical. What it is like 20 to 50 years from now, may determine who controls this country, ourselves or some foreign company or country. For now the picture is looking pretty ugly.

wc

 

[iserve]

I don’t know about other areas, but here in Massachusetts, even at the local level, people spend what they don’t have, causing those who cannot afford it to lose their property for their inability not to afford to live, but to afford property taxes that creep up due to these excesses. It is like a disease in our country, and it makes us not only uncompassionate to those who struggle to make ends meet, but also extremely vulnerable because we are losing an important coping skill that allows us to make do with what we have. Behavior such as this absolutely cannot sustain itself.