Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

Owen

Everything but tech support.
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2216, 03 Sep 20

Federal Debt Soars

This is a country killer.

The U.S. government budget deficit will triple this year to $3.3 trillion, soaring to the largest percentage of gross domestic product since 1945, the Congressional Budget Office projected on Wednesday.

Oh, and this… 11 years. And when it runs out, the deficit will soar higher

The Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance fund, which pays out retirement benefits, is on track to run out in 2031 as the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll, according to a Wednesday report by the Congressional Budget Office.

Without congressional action to address the shortfalls, the depletion of the fund would lead to benefit cuts for retirees.

CBO projected that the OASI fund would drop from $2.8 trillion today to $533 billion in 2030, and run out the following year.

Though the retirement fund is the largest and most intently watched of the major government “trust funds” — which have dedicated revenues to fund specific benefits —  three other major funds are also on track to run out.

The Highway Trust Fund will be depleted next year, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will run out in the 2024 fiscal year and the Social Security fund for disability insurance will be empty by 2026.

Neither party cares about this anymore. They don’t even bother to pretend that they do. But it will kill our country.

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2216, 03 September 2020

13 Comments

  1. 3rd Way

    Look at how the debt has gone up and down over the last 30 years in Republican vs Democratic administrations. Don’t trust what the politicians say look at what they do. It’s very clear that Republican presidents balloon the debt then Democrat presidents come in to get it under control. Rinse and repeat. 2020 will be no different.

    Re-electing Trump will completely bankrupt this country. Prior to the pandemic he was running deficits not seen since wartime to power his “greatest economy ever” (which was underperforming compared to the economy of his predecessor). The man went bankrupt running a casino. Someone with that sort of special talent for financial malfeasance should have never been in a place to make economic policy decisions. If we re-elect him this country’s economy will not return to where we were pre-pandemic in our lifetimes.

  2. jjf

    Don’t fret.  Owen will still vote for Trump.

  3. Owen

    It’s almost as if Congress doesn’t exist in that analysis.

  4. 3rd Way

    The fuckery of Congress is consistent in that analysis. The executive is the variable.

  5. jjf

    So the Dems have had the House since 2011, the GOP the Senate since 2015…  it takes all three, right?

  6. Jason

    >It’s very clear that Republican presidents balloon the debt then Democrat presidents come in to get it under control. Rinse and repeat. 2020 will be no different.

    If you take a simplistic view, it may appear that way.  However, pre-Obama, presidents had very little control or effect on debt.

  7. jjf

    What’s your non-simplistic view, Jason?

  8. Jason

    >presidents had very little control or effect on debt.

    It’s right there, try to piece together a complex thought Foust… yoy might get far in life!

     

  9. 3rd Way

    There is a mountain of evidence to prove that 4 more years of this administration will be disastrous for this country. The impact on the debt is the most obvious.

    “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

  10. Merlin

    >The fuckery of Congress is consistent in that analysis. The executive is the variable.

    Congress abdicated their responsibilities so long ago that governance by executive order and administrative regulation has all but replaced them. There hasn’t been a federal budget passed since Dubya’s last one and continuing resolutions for spending are not budgets. Congress has abandoned all fiscal responsibility. And they’re all complicit.

    Add to that failure the acceptance of both major political parties to use the federal (and state) judiciary to effect legislation from the bench and the willingness of at least one party to use the IC and Justice to rectify ‘wrong’ election results… and you’re left with nothing functioning but that executive variable. Most of them are content to take turns wearing the crown. The rest is just fundraising.

    The anarchists are closer to achieving their goals than most people realize.

  11. Owen

    We see some of the root of the problem in the outrageous Rona Relief packages.

    Republicans: “We want to spend a trillion dollars on X, Y, and Z.”

    Democrats: “NO! We want to spend a trillion dollars on A, B, and C.”

    Republicans: “OK, we’ll agree to spend money on A, B, and C if you agree to spend money on X, Y, and Z.”

    Both: “Deal. We’ll spend TWO trillion dollars.”

  12. Jason

    Merlin, Owen, its really too bad the Liberals like 3rd Way and Foust can’t grasp both those concepts. The fact that they think Biden would show more fiscal restraint than Trump is jae dropping and a transparent dishonesty from them both.

  13. Merlin

    I’m beginning to think traditional liberals really have no more in common with current Democrat leadership than conservatives had with pre-2016 Republican leadership.

    If the new progressive/marxist democrats gain power they will eat their liberal brothers alive. They can’t demonstrate their violent distaste for coexistence with non-believers any more clearly than they are right now. They’re not shy about what they want and they won’t draw a distinction between hardcore conservative never-trumpers and their less enlightened lefty brethren if they gain the upper hand in government. Those traditional liberals are staring at their own finite shelf life and don’t recognize it.

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