By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
I know you have all heard so much about the debt ceiling that you're probably exhausted. But I think it's important to point out a few facts because this matter has been so clouded by rhetoric.
Did you know that there is only one other country in the world that even has a debt ceiling? That's Denmark, a strange anomaly, and its debt ceiling is deliberately kept very high so that it will never need to be raised.
Why does no one else have a debt ceiling?
Because when a legislature votes to authorize spending at a certain level but authorizes tax revenues at a lower level, it is assumed that the government will have to borrow the difference.
The vote to have higher expenditures than tax revenues is - in effect - a vote to borrow money to cover the difference.
And in the United States, Congress - including Republicans - voted for a budget in which expenditures exceeded tax revenues.
The logical consequence of that budget - again, passed by Republicans and Democrats, is that the government has to make up the difference by borrowing.
To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought."
Read: Will I get my social security check?
That's not how it works. First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits.
So why do we have a debt ceiling?
Ironically, it was put in place during World War I so that Congress didn't have to authorize every new issue of debt. It was assumed that it would be a formality to raise it. Since 1960, the debt ceiling has been raised 78 times.
My basic point is that this is a crisis that we have manufactured out of whole cloth. We have created a circumstance in which the world doubts our credibility, rating agencies are thinking of downgrading our debt and the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency could be jeopardized.
Please understand that none of these things are happening because the United States is running deficits. There was no indication - by any metric - that the United States was having difficulty borrowing money one month ago. In fact, the world has been lending money to the United States more cheaply than ever before.
iReport: Send your message about the debt debate to Congress.
We face downgrades and investor panic not because of our deficits but because we are behaving like deadbeats, refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door.
We do have a large deficit and debt and we do need to get it under control. That the Tea Party has raised awareness about this is admirable. And I agree with their view that the current set of entitlements - Medicare especially - have to be reformed dramatically to get our fiscal house in order. But that is not an excuse to endanger the good standing of the United States.
First you pay the bills and then you figure out how to change your spending habits.
The tragedy here is that the damage may already have been done.
From now on, every time the debt ceiling needs to be raised, the world will wonder: Will the U.S. stand by its promises or will it break them?
Read: Political elders tell us what to do to resolve the crisis.
Something that was taken for granted - the credibility of the United States - is now surrounded by uncertainty. In her interview with me to be aired this Sunday at 10am ET/PT on GPS, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde says that "Global markets have always had a positive bias towards the United States but that is now eroded somewhat."
For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame.
Tune in this coming Sunday at 10am ET/PT to watch more from Fareed on the debt ceiling and to listen to his full interview with Christine Lagarde. In the meanwhile, follow Fareed on Twitter and Facebook, and bookmark the Global Public Square.
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Thank you Me Zackaria for speaking up about this!
It's not enough! Somebody got to knock some sense into the heads of those in the Congress! Debt ceilings had always been raised without strings attached! This time a minority in the Congress has hi-jacked the issue for diabolical ends.
The last couple of weeks, the U.S. is the focus of ridicule!
You might want to explain that to President Obama who voted against raising the debt ceiling when he was a senator.
yeah... diabolical, like trying to control our spending. That is so diabolical.
James, that is not a valid argument and you know it. He voted against it when he knew it would pass anyway. Please try to come up with something that is valid...
yeah but that was on 8th time that Bush raised Obama just would like it raised this once so we can work together to do our jobs RIGHT
J.Von is rigth.
you consider any individual vote in the context that vote is caste to draw a fair conclusion
apples and oranges, james, apples and oranges ... Obama's Senate vote was cast with the knowledge the DC would be raised. The GOP have singlehandedly endangered our creditworthiness through ignorance and spite.
So Obama's vote against raising it because he knew it would pass doesn't count. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But that's Obama... politician to the bitter end.
Raising it has never been challenged? Ummm... like... it's never been even close to this high ever before. Did you people all fail math? Raising the limit when it's $5T is different than raising it when it's $14T.
To the author... agree, we should pay our bills first and work on spending later... but why hasn't that happened before? There was NO indication that it would happen before the ceiling issue. Also, the Dems controlled all 3 houses last year. Why didn't they fix it their way then? The tea party candidates were put in office to do just what they are doing. Does no one get that they ran on a platform of not raising it at all?! That's why THE PEOPLE voted for them. God forbid a politician doesn't come to Washington and break every promise they ever made to get elected. Classic.
If Obama had accepted $800M in tax revenues last week, we'd be done – with both Democratic and Repub support. Oh yeah and he's black so that what this is all about, I forgot, sorry. LOL.
For once and for all let's forget the arguement that the Dems controlled all the branches of government. They never had a super majority in the Senate. That means they could not cut off a Fillibuster. Didn't any of you go to civics class in high school???
Yes, James, let's make this about how much you hate Obama. Because how much you hate Obama is the most important thing in the world, America be damned, right?
More debts is making the future generations pay what the US is spending today (insanely costly wars for instance).
BTW, it is mathematically i m p o s s i b l e for the US to pay back their debts.
So why not let this house of cards collapse? The sooner the better.
And as far as the domino effect is concerned:
The world's entire economical and financial system is unjust and corrupt anyways.
Good riddance!
Oh James. Poor, naive, James. The minority party in Congress has ALWAYS voted against the debt ceiling raise but never to these extremes, never with this many strings attached. You need to read a little more history.
The reason why Obama and the democrats voted against that particular debt ceiling raise was because you're brilliant republicans were raising the debt ceiling without ANY revenue raising OR spending cuts. You DO remember the truth, right? Pulling out a person's vote without giving an explanation is a coward's way out. Your Bushbots raised the debt ceiling just like they raised how high they would jump when they were ordered to...like a good bunch of goosesteppers.
Some of the responses I read on this website are beyond me. How difficult can be for your feeble minds to wrap your heads around the fact that we have no money and no leverage to borrow any more money? But still... some of you twits support it! Really? You can't spend $5, if you only have $2. It doesn't matter whether you were "promised" something or not. Its IMPOSSIBLE to pay the gov'ts commitments when you have NO MONEY. It's a false premise, and you twits still support it!!!
Thank God this country has conservatives... otherwise we'd all be hopping the fence to live the lavish life of Mexicans.
For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame – BS, I had nothing to do with this. The problem is democracy is an illusion. I did not vote for two wars, or for tax breaks for the wealthy, or for war on drugs, or for providing monetary help to every rogue country, or for ...
Crooked, how hard is it to understand that the $5 has already been spent? Even if the U.S. did not spend a single new dollar tomorrow, the debt ceiling has to be raised to pay for past debt that is coming due.
And imwrong, we live in a republic, which is a form of representative democracy. The U.S. never has been a pure democracy, which would make the current form of government look stunningly efficient. In my opinion, the current break down in the system is that it was set up based on the concept of having the best and most intelligent people run for office and win, and we just arent' seeing that happen on a consistent basis.
@Craig- EVERYTIME the debt ceiling was raised, it was an unprecedented amount of debt we were talking about. Raising the debt ceiling IS all about raising it to previously unprecedented levels! what is so hard to understand about that?
I am sorry but to say that he voted no because he knew it would pass anyway is a bunch of bs. That is what is wrong with this president and most of our political leaders mostly libs but many conservatives as well. They vote for political theatre instead of doing what is right for the American people. Do you all know that the budgets of the various agencies automatically go up each year and if a spending freeze is called for it is scored as a cut. This is ludricous and if we the American people do not wake up and take back our country from these leeches we are doomed.
I'm reading a lot of political rhetoric and finger-pointing in this comment section. That isn't going to solve the problem. Balancing a budget shouldn't be that hard. However it is dragging on seemingly without end and I think I have an answer why and a solution. Much is said about how both sides are trying to appear tough for the camera in an effort to appease the extremes of both parties. That is probably true. But what is not being said is how much resistance the lobbyists are putting up to a deal. I would propose an Amendment for full publicly-funded elections (with a cap of course). Some people will inherently complain that they are losing their freedom to donate, but unless you got tens of thousands of dollars to blow, nobody would even care anyway. So poor and middle class people would actually get a better say on issues...like managing our debt, not lobbyists representing wealthy corporations and organizations.
Craig, are you saying people elected the Tea Party because they didn't want the government to pay its bills? If so (and that is a bizarre argument), why did they campaign on the unrelated issue of balancing the budget?
Balancing the Budget is not the same as Cutting the Size of the Government, and neither is the same as Raising the Debt Ceiling. All three are related, but only in the fact that involve government money.
Either the Tea Party members are truly idiots (and not able to grasp BASIC economics), or they lied to us about their agenda. NONE of them campaigned on a promise to stop the country from paying its bills. NONE of them promised to do what it takes to bankrupt the country and destroy the economy for decades, possible forever.
Of course, if they had, even their loyal fan base wouldn't have voted for them. Or maybe they still would, if they campaigned honestly: 'we promise to destroy the country and blame Obama.'
James, that was because BUSH was out of control and he could see this coming, dummy
@Edwin: You miss the point. It's not about "not paying bills". It's about cutting and controlling spending. SO WE *CAN* PAY OUR BILLS like good stewards. When do we fix it? Certainly Democrats & The President don't want to fix it today. How do we fix it? Certainly not by asking for 2 trillion with no premise of paying it back or making a sacrifice elsewhere or by raising taxes (why we should raise taxes is blatantly obvious. The taxpayers money is being misused, therefore raising it above where it is today is not going to be put to pay this countries bills.). Which leaves only conservatives to fight for the validity of this country. You can wrap it up in a bow like the rest of the MSM does and pitch as we're trying to bring the country to ruin and/or "poison the water", but the inaction of liberals, or the notion to keep things "as is", is what is destroying this country.
guarnold, How soon we all forget. If you count the "Independents", which are really Democrats in disguise with Bernie Sanders and Lieberman, the democrats held a Super Majority until the death of Edward Kennedy, which was in Aug 2009.
Granted Lieberman didn't always cooperate on some issues but they did have 60 for most things. As I remember the issue was more with the Blue dog democrats but they did support the Affordable healthcare act and then got thrown out of Congress for doing so in 2010.
What is wrong with the GOP, they had no problems raising the debt limit 8 times in 8 years when the GOP was in power. This is clearly mischief mongering and political gamesmanship on their part, to try and make the President look bad in the eyes of the public. Its 2012 campaigning that is going on here, and with no leader, the GOP is digging its own grave. But in the meantime untold damage is being done to American prestiege, and the US is loosing all credibility in the eyes of the world.
imwrong...you need to learn how our government works before spouting off that you are not to blame. You appointed a representative to represent you in matters of government. That person is speaking for you.
@MAC, lifting the DC 8 times is not an issue when you have a budget. What is wrong with the DEMS? Why haven't they passed a budget in over 850 days? Where is the current administrations budget? This is the problem. The average citizen has no clue what the speak about, because they get their political updates from Zakaria, Rachel Maddow, and Tina Fay.
*SIGH*
I have an idea j von... If you're earning $500.00 per week, please go to a lender and get a loan. Then get another loan to pay off your first loan at the minimum rate. All the while you must spend $1,000.00 per week. Lets see how long you can hold up!
To THECROOKEDLEFT: We HAD leverage to borrow. It was our good name. Your Tea Party friends are pretty much ruining that.
Diabolical? This is all part of the plan of Obama to punish America because he hates her.
Mb201a: so, what your saying is that when then Senator Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling when he new it would pass anyway is that he was playing politics? Gee, I thought Obama was out for the little guy. Hogwash.
@Georgia in Washington State another asinine comment. Tea Party was founded in 2009. From 2008 to 2009, your saving socialist grace, Obama, spent more than the 8 asinine years of Bush. More liberal/socialist mantra: say anything that doesn't deal with the issues. Divert the attention. Point fingers. Make false claims. But at all COSTS avoid the root issues of this country. AT ALL COSTS.
James... Voting against a debt ceiling increase, in a situation where it is known it will pass, is making a symbolic statement. Blocking it until you get all your demands met without compromise is blackmail. There is a MAJOR difference between Obama's single historical vote and the hostage taking Republicans are currently doing. And if you want to talk about flip flops, there are MANY more examples in the Republican party than in the Democratic party. 100s of Republicans still in congress voted 7 times under Bush to raise the debt ceiling w/o protest.
Then the Tea Party shouldn't have a problem with Obama.
THECROOKEDLEFT, Yep, we only have $2 and are spending $5. Should have brought that up when they passed the budget which spent those $5. You can't do one without doing the other. I for one welcome the time that the US isn't the world's police force. Maybe then we will be able to afford what we need to do at home instead of launching $1million dollars away with each tomahawk missile at a target which could be blown up with $500 of dynamite....
Crookedleft – you really need to go back and take some elementary civics classes. Spending and budgets start in the house. The GOP controls the house. They are responsible for a budget, and a budget is where you cut spending WITHOUT destroying the economy for a generation. This isn't like having 2 dollars and spending 5, this is running up $5 in debt on one day and refusing to pay the next. This is voting for spending and taxes that result in debt, then refusing to pay the debt. This is deadbeat behavior. I know you REALLY hate liberals, but we're all part of the same nation, and burning it down to spite a political party is just stupid. If you want to change the nation, win votes, govern effectively and win the argument. We had higher debt in WW2, the right has run the debt up for the last 10 years while talking about how islamofascism is as great a threat as nazism. We're in a war with 5 fronts battling islamofascism, and most of the deficit is military related. So which is it, is islamofascist a dire threat we need to sacrifice to defeat, or is it no big deal and we should focus on the debt instead? 6 weeks after this issue goes away, your kind will be on here agitating for a new $3 trillion war against Iran. We would respect your viewpoints and you might win converts if you would just stop talking out of both sides of your mouth as dictated by known liars who feed you talking points.
Are you missing the point??? We've already passed the budget that allowed us to spend and borrow the money and now we don't want to pay the bill. It's already happened......jeesh, how difficult is that to understand?
to THECROOKEDLEFT
you're on here bashing everyone, claiming they have no idea what you're talking about and then go on to say thank goodness we have conservatives!?! are you serious? it's the republican party under 8 years of dubya that got us into this mess. funny how republicans raised the debt ceiling time and again under bush but now that obama's in office it's time to cut it off, no compromise. well, i shouldn't say it's all the reps fault, only the idiotic tea baggers that care more about their politics than what's good for the country.
I don't hate, I despise. The issue is today, not yesterday. The opportunity is now, not in 2012. Fix it now. Your comment about running up debt is hilarious, considering. Again. Avoid today. Point the finger. Whatever it takes right?
@juskishi please explain how I am bashing? Because I said you're getting your political updates from SNL? Because I used the word "socialist"? Because I used the condescending term asinine, when referring to an asinine comment? BTW, are you referring to the same idiotic tea baggers that were voted into office in November 2010 by your neighbors and friends?
@James...........Oh James....stop listening to Republican talking points. Obama KNEW THAT THE DEBT CEILING FORMALITY BILL WAS GOING TO PASS, SO HE VOTED AGAINST IT TO MAKE A POLITICAL POINT.
IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY.....HOWEVER TO VOTE AGAINST IT HOPING IT WILL NOT PASS IS INSANE
"Raising the limit when it's $5T is different than raising it when it's $14T."
"Also, the Dems controlled all 3 houses last year. Why didn't they fix it their way then?"
hello...earth to craig....earth to craig......There is no difference between 5t and 14t .....they are BOTH astronamical amounts but its ok when YOUR boiys spend like drunken sailors. The republican motto is "MONEY IS NEVER WASTED WHEN IT IS SPENT ON KILLING SOMEONE"
Also.....YOUR boys controlled all 3 branches for 6 friggan years...so why didn't THEY fix it back then instead of feeding Wallstreet to create the housing bubble of 08?????????????????????????????????????????????? Your blinders are on so tight that they must be giving you a headache....LOL
Ok...so if the debt ceiling has "always been raised without strings attached"...at what point do you responsibly say "NO MORE"?
Seriously folks, is this how you run your household finances? Do you simply max out, then continue to spend on your credit cards...call up the card company...then ask for more credit to pay off the bills you now can't afford to pay because your income doesn't cover your bills? THAT is horribly irresponsible and I think it is high time that a stand was taken. You don't balance your budget by refinancing your house, spending and maxing out that equity without having to deal with it all again at some point in the future...of course...the Dems want to get an increase that will get them through the 2012 elections...how convenient. THAT is political move putting themselves ahead of this serious issue.
We solve the tax issue by going to a flat tax across the board. 15% for EVERYONE (10% general fund income tax, 2% medicare/medicaid, and 3 % social security). No one over 65 pays tax on anything less than $30K/year...that is our way of giving back to them for all of their years of work. Oh yeah...get a job in 3 years or your welfare checks stop...and NO free living for illegals (I'm Hispanic and legal...and I TOO am tired of all the freebees we give out to non-citizens). One final thing...STOP paying so many Billions of dollars to foreign countries for God knows what.
forinfan – So Obamma voted against it knowing it would pass......... and you wonder why we question his integrity and basic honesty....... and sheeple's lack of caring whether things done have any moral value at all, or are just spun for the advantage.....
To THECROOKEDLEFT: we can all see they you are frustrated and hopping mad, as are a lot of us, but you are raving, and yes, bashing people. It's not a great way to win people to your point.
@Thecrookedleft: You still don't get it. When the budget was passed by CONGRESS INCLUDING REPUBLICANS, it agreed to spend the $5.00 with the knowledge that we only had $2. By now refusing to pay the $5, you're trying to change a past decision. It's not about 'fixing the problem now', it's about trying to reverse a decision that was already made by Congress, including Republicans, and not pay for money that was already agreed upon to be spent–and was spent–by Congress, INCLUDING REPUBLICANS. I don't see what's so hard to understand about that–it's not rocket science. Failing to raise the debt ceiling now isn't 'fixing the problem now', it's refusing to pay WHAT WAS ALREADY SPENT based on a budget agreed to by Republicans (who only see the deficit and debt as an issue when a Democrat is president, without having complained about it once during the 'unprecedented debts' during the Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II administrations). Your point just doesn't hold any water whatsoever, and given the actions of Republicans during Republican administrations with huge deficits, it all seems rather hypocritical to say the least. (I.e., kind of like "We're fiscally conservative, but only when a Democratic president is in office.").
The difference now, is that we are approaching a point where we won't have enough revenue to pay the interest on our debt....kind of like a consumer hitting a large enough "minimum payment" on their credit cards that they can't pay all of their bills anymore. We haven't been in this position in the past. Something MUST change, and we MUST balance or budget, or we are in deep trouble.
Congress is being highjacked by the Tea Partiers? That is polital partisan talk if I have ever heard any. All it takes is common sense to know what is going on. The Tea Partiers are the only common sense happening in D.C. The Tea Partiers agreed to raise the debt limit in their Cut, Cap, and Balance bill. The problem with the rest of the politicians in Washington is that in the same bill they required the government to balance their budget each year. God forbid we try to have the government balance their budget. If I am not mistaken, Obama said we all needed to make sacrifices and tighten our belts in this country. I guess that applies to everyone but the U.S. government. If we did not have the Tea Partiers in government, then there would not even be talk about balancing the budget. We would have the same Democrats and Republicans continuing to spend out of control with no fiscal restraints in place. I would argue that the deadbeats are all those other politicians that do not have any interest in balancing the federal budget.
The key here is the word "minority". If these idiots would listen to the public, you know, those of us who pay for their perke, they would get on with the task in front of them. Like the rest of us do in daily life.
THECROOKEDLEFT –– "feeble minds"? Why is it that the most dim people are the first to resort to personal insults when they themselves are the ones who are feeble minded. Let me explain how government work, Mr. Feeble.
The government - by law, the House of Representatives - passes a budget which the Senate then passes and the President signs. With that law the government then "borrows" money to make purchases over the coming fiscal year. These purchases not only involve promises to pay VA, Medicare and Social Security bills, but they also involve the establishment of contracts with various companies who provide services such as infrastructure repair to the country. As the country brings in revenue over the coming year, it pays those bills. It does NOT and has NEVER had a big checking account filled with hundreds of billions of dollars waiting to be handed out. Sometimes, after the government has passed its budget and starts making purchases, it spends an amount that exceeds what it will bring in over that fiscal year. There is no way to predict how large this "deficit" will be from year to year. Things like wars, natural disasters and recessions make it impossible to know a year ahead of time. So we go into debt. We can pay that extra debt as long as the "debt ceiling" is raised to make more money available. If we decide NOT to raise that ceiling, those people who were promised payment by the US government do NOT get paid. They lose that money, which means they have to lay off employees and stop spending money, and the US loses its credit rating. We lose our AAA credit rating, then the interest rate on the money the country needs to borrow from month to month goes up. The stock market, seeing that these interest rate increases will mean another recession, crashes and those who have 401Ks will again see their retirement money disappear into the Black Hole of Wall Street speculators.
So, it's a bad idea to default. It's a recklessly stupid idea to tied deficit reduction to lifting the debt ceiling.
Diabolical ends...Really??? Since when has wanting our government to stop spending money that they don't have been diabolical? When did fiscal responsibility become evil? We aren't in this mess because of the "minority" you speak of, but because of the majority that has been choosing to buy votes through increased socialization of our government and the spending free-for-all that has ensued and brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy.
I hate the Congress so much except my representatives who brings home the pork. Its always the other guys fault in this country.
Don't you mean the majority in the House of Representatives?
Some people in this nation have no idea that metaphor is not reality. There is not a household is this nation that has a printing press in the basement. No household would rather see their grandma or children starve than pay a credit card bill they can easily afford. Metaphors break down FAR before the reality of this issue. This is a problem of a nation filled with psychopaths who can't see beyond their own subjective desires and fantasies of a romantic, post-apaocalyptic future filled with rugged individualism to the actual pain, unemployment, and deprivation that destroying our national credit rating is going to bring. Our national discourse is now subject to the whims of people who believe that destroying the economy is somehow going to lead to a future filled with flowers, no swarthy immigrants and white presidents without any pain or sacrifice on their part. That isn't how reality works, and I hope you people gain some wisdom in the coming years of hardship you are so anxious to embrace. Are we so soft and pathetic as a people now to beieve that we are so immune from hardship so as to willingly bring it on ourselves?
crookedLeft: "From 2008 to 2009, your saving socialist grace, Obama, spent more than the 8 asinine years of Bush." ...You're kidding, right? In 8 years Bush started two endless wars, spent billions on the perscription drug program (I thought conservatives were against medicade, medicare, etc?), contributed to a crooked tax system by giving tax breaks to the rich, etc etc etc...A lot of the spending thats been going on under Obama was created by stuff that was started by Bush!
I agree that you have to live in today and not look backwards too much...But everything the GOP is accusing Obama of are things that they voted for under Bush for 8 years. Its hypocrisy thats creating a sideshow out of a routine function of congress solely for the goal of getting Obama out of office....Theres no other way to explain the resistance from the house up to this point. Obama put medicare,medicade and social security on the table along with 4 trillion dollars in cuts...And the tea party led GOP refused!!! If that deal were any more sweeter for republicans, Ronald Reagan would return from his grave and sign it himself!
@CROOKEDLEFT, it IS about paying the bills. Raising the debt ceiling is about being able to pay for things WE ALREADY BOUGHT. How hard is that to understand? Cutting spending needs to happen. We can cut all the spending you want but we would still need to raise the debt ceiling this time to pay obligations we already made, NOT new ones. How can you be this invested in this argument and not know this?
Hey let's model the most successful country in the history of the world (with a debt ceiling) after the failing examples of virtually every other country in the world. We should allow unlimited spending, unlimited borrowing, soon we'll be just like the iconic Greece and be looking for bailouts from Brazil... Left unchecked, just IMAGINE the damage these democrats could do...it's SIMPLY AMAZING!!!
How about a national power ball lottery with proceeds to pay down the national debt. The winners become millionaires, WIN! The millionaires pay taxes, WIN! The taxes pay down the debt, WIN! Anyone see a problem with this concept?
@THECROOKEDLEFT, and your assertion that Obama has already spent more than Bush did in 8 years is a flat out, bold faced LIE. I don't know where you get your information but it is WRONG. He may be ON TRACK to spend more but he has not ALREADY spent more. Even then, spending is not some dirty, 4 letter word. We have a CAPITALIST economy, it depends on people and the government spending money. Any economist will tell you the only way out of a recession is to spend. The simple solution to improving this economy is increasing revenue and investing in infrastructure, which means spending money. That is just how capitalism works, you should look it up.
This should be a wake up call to all of you partisan fanboys. Both parties are wrong and behaving like pre-teens at the expense of ordinary citizens. The greed and selfishness of all Americans has spilled over into our political process. No one can see the merits of the other's argument – not in real life and not in politics. The hypocrisy is overwhelming. Take a stand on spending, take a stand on marginal tax rates, take the country into default, waste even more of our tax money on higher interest rates. Ridiculous! And ridiculous that ordinary Americans don't see the hypocrisy or that BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME!!
Spending is not what got us in this mess, BORROWING is.
Actual problem = we look like idiots. Actual problem is being made critical by draconian efforts to fix other problem (debt).
My kid can't spend 75 cents if he only has 50 cents in his piggy bank! It's so simple!
Oh yeah...the biggest and most complex economy in the history of the earth is more sophisticated than my kid's piggy bank...
J. Von – I don't understand your post. If it's a minority, they wouldn't wield the power to override the vote of the majority. It is a majority in one part of the congress that is holding things up. That's a true statement from either perspective (Dems – a majority of Reps in the House / Reps – a majority of Dems in the Senate).
Who the HELL cares who voted what? STOP running for reelection and rule the country. What is the point of trying to get the job again when you arn't even doing your job?
Debt Ceiling is about paying our bills, plain and simple. If you didn't want to raise the debt celing in the first place then you shouldn't have approved the budget. Once the budget is approved you need to honor it like any responsible person. Pick the fight on the budget, not on paying the bill we incured.
What a moronic disconnect between reality and ideology. I can't believe anyone would think this tug of war on the Debt Ceiling is correct.
None-working husband: Honey can you call the credit card companies to raise my credit card limit?
Wife: Not unless you start living within the means of the income I bring in for this household.
None-working husband: You have never had strings attached the other times.
Wife: Well things have to change this time. You still go play golf, even thought you have no job, you still go to Starbucks every day for coffee although I make my own coffee to save money. We have half the income yet you still spend as if we are both working.
None-working husband: Your mean and I'm going to turn all are friends against you for not giving me what I want.
Mr Proud to be an American said that Obama hates America.
What a joke. It is the Teahaddists who hate America. They want us to fail.
Just a point on the "mathematically impossible to pay back the debt" issue. Yes. If we were to try to pay back the debt right now, based on the cash held by citizens RIGHT NOW, we could not pay off the national debt. That's rather like saying that it is mathematically impossible for me to pay off my mortgage, because I don't have $117,000 RIGHT NOW. Of COURSE I'm not going to pay it all off right now, I'm borrowing against future earnings, and am paying it back a little at a time. Balancing the budget, you know, like back when Clinton left the White House, is necessary to pay off the debt, but the only way it would be mathematically impossible to pay back the debt would be if we could not pay the interest plus some on the principle.
@TheCrookedLeft [Misnomer], The Tea Party was actually started in 2007 and the complaints, while being from conservatives, were towards Bush's overspending. The Tea Party only got a numbers boost after paranoid Ron Paul supporters discovered their guy wasn't going to win. Then, after the election of Obama, disgruntled republicans, claiming to be disgruntled independents, signed on under the tea party because they were bitter over their losses and being scolded for what their chosen golden boy Bush did.
Essentially, what is going on here is, they literally are refusing to foot the bill for the failures that Bush, their chosen one, racked up on false moral authority in their names. They are specifically refusing to pay the bills they created for the country. They are adding insult to injury by following that up with misapplied criticisms towards Obama in retaliation for the genuine and warranted criticisms of Bush, and trying to pass off their no new taxes chemotherapy as a panacea.
Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling during the Bush Administration because he didn't want to give republicans greater incentive and leeway to keep troops in an unjust war any longer.
If there's really any lesson to be learned here though, it is a lesson the dems must learn. You see, they knew that conservatives, still harboring a sense of guilt and sorrow over 9/11, simply weren't going to listen to the fact that they didn't have the same moral authority or justification for going into Iraq as they did in the effort to capture Bin laden in Afghanistan; so, the dems stopped talking to them in an attempt to appeal to their nobler motives, and started talking to them in religious terms... i.e. bringing up Bush's misuse of the almighty dollar. Sure, they couldn’t bring themselves to see the fault in invading an innocent country, but if it was pointed out to them that that invasion was also costing a lot of money and having nothing or little to show for it... well, It's the economy stupid
The fatal flaw in that of course, as we see now, is that it was too easily believed and to readily accepted by conservatives, to the detriment, rather than the benefit of the rest of the thinking country, who were all just too unwilling to accept their own part in Bush’s errors. After all, if they did that, then they might have to live with their own failures as willfully uninformed voters, and they couldn’t stomach that.
Next time the dems should simply stick with blunt force observation, no matter how ineffective it might seem at first, or risk having that strategy backfire like it has now.
Republicans… it was never about the money, that was just a sad side affect of Bush’s misfeasance.
"a minority in Congress has hijacked..."
So, that would be the House Democrats, eh? Or maybe the Senate Republicans?
You all are a Joke that thinks James is comparing apples to oranges!!!! Craig you hit the nail RIGHT on the head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fact is he voted against raising it back then PERIOD!!! Your argument is like saying I killed someone because I knew they would be killed anyway...You all sound like fools!!!!!
A couple of people have touched the politics of this subject rather well but with a bias. The truth is, this subject has been a representative process and never a platform subject. That’s why getting commitment was never an issue which allowed the few over achievers like Obama to make a political point (his vote as a senator got him an audience for perception building). However: the tea party candidates won; thus made this a platform subject, one which would hold politicians more accountable (possibly re-election worthy).
A lot of what’s going on in my opinion is beautiful politics at the wrong time. Why? After the Tea party won the election it was obvious that this was going to be an issue as the nature of the subject became that of more political substance.
Let’s not forget, it’s only three months ago when the extreme fraction of the right wing stated that they would not raise the debt ceiling unanimously and were dismissing the subject as a myth. Today even though it seems dire to the public I think it progress made given the current political environment. Congress right wing including the extreme fraction unanimously agreed to raise the debt ceiling tonight. What I am trying to say is that the actual process of raising the debt ceiling is no longer platform concern and this was achieved by adding two subjects of possibly strong contentions: Tax revenues and Spending cuts.
We don't need cuts nor tax revenues address by Aug 2, these are actually substance issues that need more thorough vetting and stronger budgets. Do get me wrong I think taxes need to be raised and spending needs to be cut. Rather I am aware of the fact that we do not need to address all three subjects as one. Yes they should all be looked at as matters that would affect they economy relatively but we should probably look at both of the latter topics more thoroughly than a two week W.H. press conference show.
If we look at what the white house speaker has been stating the subject of tax revenues and spending cuts will be addressed later and I don’t think it’s a concession. The debt ceiling will be raised by Tuesday there will be no BBA on it (that’s stupid unless it’s to remove the cap entirely). All three bills are very similar regardless of public perception.
Never been challenged? Except in 1990 when the Democrat controlled House forced Bush 41 to break a campaign promise and raise taxes in exchange for a DC increase.
Oh sure, never except for THAT time.
People (not Republicans and not Democrats) need to recognize the United States' position in global trade and finance. Like Zakaria and so many others noted, politicians in Washington are playing with fire, risking everything for absolutely nothing. I happen to disagree with Zakaria on the note that damage may already have been done, because financial markets are more rational than our politicians. As the electorate, we do not authorize politicians to risk our national interests and livelihood for their personal political gain. Do not be mistaken, this is about November, 2012. We, as Americans, are caught in the cross fire of an ideologically charged debate. How about the ideology of the silent majority? How about simply being an American and doing what is right for America, not for Republicans and not for Democrats. It seems as if the people we trusted to do what is best for us not only let us down, but worse, put us directly in harms way for their own sake. Cowards!
That is not a true statement at all, debt ceiling have almost always been raised with strings attached. In this case it is much more severe because Obama's overreaching spending has left us in a great mess. High unemployment, high gas and food prices and more then $1Trillion less in the bank! People have finally said stop this out of control spending when it is not working. A normal response to a bad plan! Nothing more nothing less!
So the Republicans spend like mad, going to war on lies and in the process give so many of their contractor buddies billions in gov't contracts ($400 for toilet seats anyone?) to rebuild Iraq, lose $9 million in cash at one time and don't account for it, create a medicare drug bill that's a handout to drug companies, give tax breaks to zillionaires that pay less in taxes than the middle class, and now they are willing to default on their obligations because they're the party that wants to stop spending?....Thank God for a president that was willing to spend DOMESTICALLY during the last economic crisis to avoid a catastrophe...people, stop voting against your interests, and Obama, please stop compromising when all it does is give unconscionable and immoral Republicans viability – there should be no compromise when there's no choice to do something (as w/the debt ceiling) and when a bill is too important to water down (Health care bill)...Congress can never get much done when they're always stymied by the "just say no and do nothing" republican party
Pardon my Canadian ignorance, but if your country continually spends more than it takes in....is that not a recipie for disaster? Why should they continually be able to raise the debt borrowing limit...especially without any strings attached? You're gonna have to pay the piper someday, and it sounds like now is the time ! Your politicians care more about political posturing for the next electrion rather than the good of the country. That's the problem with your political system.
All you conservatives keep chanting is that we can't spend more than we take in....and guess what....we agree with you!!! However, when it comes to finding a solution to the problem, there is no compromise, nothing, just the same line of we can't spend more than we take in. Compromise to them is either a) do it 100% our way or b) nothing gets passed, the economy tanks, and we blame the Democrats and Obama, whom we have hated since day one.
The average hardworking American who plays by the rules, shows up to work, struggles/sweats to pay light bill, mortgage have been betrayed. The devil in this mess is not in the details or nomenclature of a compromise bill. No question all politicos incompetent or worse But I'm afraid what we're witnessing is the bursting of a massive infected abcess at the heart of our system and way of life and the awful recognition that there are lots more coming because our denial of the illness has gone on too long. The bacteria and maggots buzzing around and feeding off our massive wound - Congressmen, Senators, Chief Exec - are there because we ignored the symptoms. We couldn't "afford" to go to the doctor. The pain had to get unbearable & life-threatening before we put down the TV remote, potato chip bags and found we couldn't afford gas to go the the mall. Now granny might have to move in, we could lose our jobs & govt has been cut! It's the end of an era, the powerless have been screwed again and it's gonna get worse. New voting block? The 30M or more angry unemployed?
Perhaps you don't understand the difference between majority and minority.
According to your argument that debt ceilings were meant to be formalities, usually formalities don't come with other forms of business. As soon as you attach things other than the formality (revenue generation, government spending cuts, etc), that's when everything goes to hell in a handbasket. It's sad that a party has to hold the good standing of a whole world economy over another party to get the budget fiscally responsible. Oh well, I don't have that much longer to live anyway...
You do realize that the Democrats have the minority in Congress, right?
I WAS GOING TO ASK IF THE US CONGRESS HAS A DAY CARE CEMTRE,BUT THEN I REALIZED THE CONGRESS ITSELF IS A DAY CARE CENTRE.EITHER THAT OR A PRESCHOOL.CANADAS SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT HAS ITS FAULTS,ONE BEING A PRIME MINISTER HAS TOO MUCH POWER AT TIMES,BUT AT LEAST WE DONT HAVE A GOVERMENT STALLING DUE TO POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING.HEY TEA PARTY,ASK THE PEOPLE WHT THEY WANT.DONT BE SO ARROGANT ASUUMING YOU KNOW
Fareed, they didn't know up until a month ago? That's a lie. It is a fact that they(Senators and Reps) have been working on "something" since January of this year, if not earlier. This is on CNN website...somewhere.
The 2011 budget was agreed to by both parties, but we still have 2 months of it unspent. The bill is not due for that until after it is spent. How about if we don't spend it? We don't have a budget for October, 2011 yet.
There is no 2011 budget.
The 2011 budget was enacted on April 15, 2011, as Public Law 112-10. Please, at least do some research...
Public Law 112-10 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Public_Law_112-10 is a Department of Defense appropriations bill, not the US budget.
Congress failed to even submit a fiscal 2011 budget. This was required to be submitted in April 2010.
The House submitted a budget for fiscal 2012 in April 2011, but the Senate has failed to act on it.
@Chris, wiki appears to be contradicting itself, because they also call the Federal Budget passed in April the same thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_States_federal_budget
Chris and Alyssa,
You're using a wiki site as your reference? And surprised that it is contradictory? Wiki sites needs to be taken with a big grain of salt. You don't know who posted the information.
You can find government legislation at: http://thomas.loc.gov
When your ship is sinking you don't agrue about which way it is heading; you first fix the leak that is sinking your boat. When are we going to learn this simple facts of life?
The disagreement isn't which way we are heading, but what the real problems are.
What good is a budget if you don't intend to adhere to it? Raising the ceiling does not allow for a budget...that is just a term which looks good on paper and makes for good sound bites on TV. If you are spending more than you earn...THERE IS NO BUDGET!
The previous congress submitted a budget for 2011 but it never passed. I guess it was too close to the elections to make any decisions that would be held against them. The funding of the government was handled under continuing resolutions. The current Congress had to submit CRs this year to complete the funding 2011 where cuts were asked for. The current congress submitted a budget for this year which was Paul Ryan's Budget Plan which was rejected by the Senate.
Regardless if we pass the increase in the debt limit we are going to lose our AAA rating. Something has to be done and cutting $200 billion per year for 10 years is peanuts when you are running $1.5 trillion dollar deficits. This would add $1.3 trillion in dept per year or 11.3 Trillion over the next 10 years. putting us close to $25 Trillion.
What a scam we have in the FED. They print money out of thin air with our permission to loan to us and then charge us interest for it. Then with QE1 and QE2 they print more money out of thin air and send trillions of dollars into the stock market. This is the only reason the stock market went from 7500 back to 11500 with no reports of anything good in the economy. The fed boasts on how much money it made on these "investments". I think I could manipulate the stock market if I had trillions to invest. Do we get to see any of these gains. I guess as a side effect we received some gains from QE1 and QE2 since we made some money on some of the bailout of the banks.
The concept that allows the FED to do this is really the problem. They have the money and who has the money can control everything. They have caused a lot of the bubbles by their poor management. Granted Congress and some of their policies stoked the fire.
What we really need to is eliminate all Federal taxes including SS and Medicare. Since these now go into the general fund and really don't just fund these programs since the government has to issue debt to cover the borrowed money when is needed it. Not sure why they didn't think this would be a problem when Congresses since Johnson were raiding it. Let's come up with 1 tax that covers everything and then no one can claim people pay no taxes. It would be much simpler. No deductions, this is the income and this is how much you owe. I prefer one tax rate but I'm pretty sure that would never fly.
Same would need to be done for the corporate taxes. No deductions for anything except for maybe foreign taxes already paid since this is an expense.
I don't see how we can continue down this road. Something has to be done and it is going to have to involve real cuts not a reduction in an increase and then call it a cut whether the increase is 3% or 5% it is still an increase. Net taxes need to be increased in some way but I'd prefer simplification as stated above. I believe everyone should be treated equally. The idea of singling out one group that they should pay higher rates is wrong. It would be like saying Hollywood and Athletes provide no value add and should be taxes at 75% tax rate.
The "bill that is due" is treasury bonds that are maturing continually, it doesn't work that way.
For all the ignorant Democrats reading this....a spending Bill is not a Budget. No wonder the country is in the shape it's in. People who don't pay taxes and don't understand the difference between a bill and a budget get to vote.
What a ridiculous article! Fareed you need to start making sense and know your facts right. People around the world have been doubting if US will be able to pay off its debt even before this drama in Washington. Americans have to live within their means and tht's what Ron Paul has been stressing. The world is only lending money to US to protect the dollar, which otherwise would collapse and have global implications. US has outsourced the job of protecting its dollar to South East Asia which is constantly engaged in devaluing it currency. Please don't give an idea that borrowing is OK.
Well I think this is a ridiculous comment. I completely agree with this article and do not agree with your OPINIONS, which are not backed by fact. You know people in other governments and how they feel about lending this country money? Didn't think so.
Yes, they have feared it but we never gave them good reason to actually worry about it until now. But just continue to be flippant about it, assume nothing is going to happen. Have you ever defaulted on a credit card? I have over 10 years ago and it still hurts my credit to this day. Imagine that but a billion time worse. The economy is not something you play games with.
You are ever-so-slightly correct, santy. People around the world WERE a LITTLE worried about U.S. debt before this. They NEVER doubted we would be able to pay our obligations, at least in the short term. They worried about the long-term future, and it DID have a SLIGHT impact on our interest rates.
NOBODY imagined we might default now, unless that was the plan of the Tea Party all along (and they were simply quiet about it).
The world was not afraid that we wouldn't pay our debt to them, they were afraid that we would print more money, destroy the dollar and inflate our way out of the debt by giving them worthless paper. Greece, Spain, Ireland and others have awoken the world to the severity of this problem we have here which will affect them as well.
But the idea that both parties have made this mess and the voting for more spending than revenues planned equates buying on credit. That means you already said you would borrow the money.....pretty simple.
where were you when bush raked in 7 trillion $ debt in his two terms, by the way this was also approved by REPUGS.
obama has this country paying for three wars at this moment and countless foriegn aid, try some spending cuts here by ending them. " ITS THE ECONOMY STUPID."
@santy I fully agree with this article as well. You obviously don't know what you are talking about
cosmicsnoop – research more, talk less....
Facts? This article is replete with a myopic, one-sided view of the issue. The facts, since this seems to be the slant you expound, is that things have changed tremendously in this country; especially AFTER Obama took office. Need facts? The lie about "..shovel ready jobs...", which are now not so shovel ready, the ineffective stimulus bill which was to, according to Biden "...create, at least, 245000 jobs a month beginning in March (2010)...", the 35% jump in our debt in only the last 2.5 years, increasing health care costs and deductibles for everyone (my parents get medicare and their premiums have gone up significantly), the fact that Dems OWNED all 3 branches of gov't for 2 years and couldn't get a darn thing done about the budget or our debt...should I go on? Funny how we're comfortalble with "hope and change" when Obama is driving it; but, changing things up when it comes to how we see the national debt is off the table? True, it's time to pay the fiddler; but, because of where our country is today it CANNOT be business as usual.
Cosmicsnoop: This isn't about knowing what other countries are thinking...it's about common sense. If you bought $1B of debt from the US and knew that them defaulting would greatly increase the chances of devaluing the dollar, you would want to continue to lend to the US to keep that dollar strong. Failing to continue to lend money or buy that debt would mean that you now put yourself at risk of never fully recovering your investment. I'm not an economist, but that's pretty much what I get from what I read.
Fareed Zakaria frequently is factually challenged. Rating agencies ARE on record as saying a downgrade, if it comes, will the be primarily the result of profligate spending and the debt it has spun off. Were you to first establish this fact then his article makes no sense. Typical...
China devaluing it's currency only helps China because of their trade surplus. Certain countries have been trying to get the world off of the dollar and the US is playing into their hands.
Zakaria's basic point is at the top of his head, here's a man getting paid by one of the most liberal news shows on cable and he writes like we're all stupid. What about obamarama never even coming up with a plan of his own. That shows me he just wants to have another 14 trillion to spend until he's thrown out of office. Zakaria also writes that yea sure our dept is high no you idiot (now why didn't that make it on the ridiculist), IT"S SUPER HIGH. At the rate we're going we would NEVER be able to pay it off. I'm starting to believe that liberal actually believe in the Inca prophecy about the end of the world in 2012. It won't be the world it'll be the world as we know it and it'll be a revolution and if that comes to pass I'm either heading to DC or Chicago!!!!
Obama put several plans on the table – the Republicans rejected them.
Scubus is right but also this isn't a plan the president is supposed to come up with. This is solely on Congres's shoulders, particularily the House. I think many people have forgotten exactly what the President is supposed to do. You could benefit from a little education about how our governemnt is supposed to work.
@truthfulster Sorry to burst your bubble but sadly the majority of americans are stupid!
If you're convinced that it's the President's responsibility to come up with a plan then you are stupid. Nothing the author of this article wrote was false. But it didn't blame the President or the Democrats so it doesn't resonate with the rest of the message you've been receiving from biased sources?
I believe you're referring to the Mayan calendar.
First of all Obama has not put any real plan down in writing nor does he have to . Congress' job is submit a budget something the Democrats failed to do last fiscal year. The new Congress already submitted their budget for Fiscal yr 2012 and the Senate tabled it. The Democrats are actually the real obstructionists here and they are lead by Harry Reid. If I were in the house I would not have crafted another budget until the Senate actually voted on the previous one submitted. This is all about Obama getting reelected; he believes that if he lets the US default he wins.
you are irrational as well as incoherent – truthie.
The plan is – raise the debt ceiling to cover the existing budget. Then, when it is time for next year's budget debate, talk about which programs get cut, capped and balanced. I'm all for what they're trying to do, but this is the WRONG way to do it
"he writes like we're all stupid"
In your case, it happens to be true.
whodathunk, That is not the Democrats plan, they want the debt limit increased to cover past the 2012 elections which would cover a 2012 budget that hasn't been approved because it was dismissed by the Senate.
BTW, the Boehner plan is to only increase the debt to cover the current fiscal year and then another debate would need to occur when they do the 2012 budget.
Do you know how to read? really how to read? Zakaria was explaining about the history of our being a debtor. That's all. And your self-sided view is inconsistent to what he is explaining. READ BETWEEN THE LINES!
Sorry Fareed, I don't agree.
I think you're just afraid of the 'afterwards', that's why you plead for mainting this corrupt sypstem at all costs = all debts.
This system is totally rotten and beyond repair.
If this financial system collapses, I say, good riddance. It was inhumane and corrupt beyond imagination and has brought to the majority of the people on this planet nothing but misery.
How could you be so flippant about an economic collapse? Don't drag me off the cliff because you are too damn ignorant to realize exactly how bad that will be. If you hate our system so damn bad, leave it. Don't screw everyone else up because of your backward opinions and beliefs.
Leave the country. Nothing stopping you. Go. Buh-bye.
Right on! Americans still believe they live in a gilded cage. What a shock it will be to find out they are just a nation of burger flippers living like there's no tomorrow.
If you think that refusing to pay debts and allowing the system to collapse will produce a good outcome, you are a fool. The situation is not like an individual deciding that it is time to declare bankruptcy. One of the early effects of refusing to pay debt will be a gas crisis like we have never seen before. Our fuel supply is dependant on credit, and when our credit goes away, the flow of fuel will stop.
Yes, we have problems. The system is broken. But the way to fix it is not to start out by breaking everything it touches.
I think we are likely to default for no other reason than the desire of a demented Tea Party to see President Obama fail. The rest is window-dressing, and arguing with them is like spitting into the wind. I would like to think that when everytning is a mess it will finally sink in that maybe they should have thought a little harder about what they were doing, but I am not counting on it. I begin to think they will walk over starving children whose parents couldn't make it in their artifically created depression and count it victory in their desire to hang something awful around President Obama's neck.
Pure tea party ignorance. If you had even the most basic knowledge of economics you might understand why you have to pay your bills. If the debt ceiling isn't raised it will affect everyone including you and your family. It's amazing people like you don't comprehend that reality.
MoreUrgent, do you have any CLUE whatsoever what will happen if we end up defaulting? Obviously not. But don't drag me down with you–I really have no wish for us to be in financial conditions like Germany after World War I–in which it takes a cartload of US dollars to buy a loaf of bread due to how much the dollar is de-valued as a direct result of the default. Consider this: we're no longer a manufacturing economy–we produce little and so much is imported. Have any idea how much the practical cost of all of that stuff will rise once the dollar is ridiculously devalued? It will have a worse financial impact on you than the worst tax that you can imagine.
Gene, again... do you know more about the cut, cap, and balance CRAP! That means making changes to the social security and most probably your oldies will not get anything so you prepare saving money for them. Do you understand that? Do me a favor, tell the Republicans to give in so our country and the world will not be in chaos.
I agree, Washington has failed the country. We give, for example, Pakistan $800 million. They dont appreciate our help nor are they enthusiastic in the so called war on terrorism. Would'nt the $800 million, for example, be better spent on our schools, bringing back outsourced jobs?
If they did save that 800 million they would just find a way to give it to the wealthy as tax cuts anyway.
MeanOldMan: I think the more realistic response here is that Dems would find a way to spend that $800M on some welfare program to keep people dependent on handouts or pay for even more non-citizens to live here and have better medical/dental coverage than most honest, hard working CITIZENS.
What I hear for the left on this issue is "The GOP just wants to see Obama fail"...um...I think he's done that job well enough on his own. Only time will tell..but I for one hope he's GONE come 2012.
Remember, voting for Obama because he's black is JUST as racist as voting against him because he's black.
Where did the bull crap rumor about illegal immigrants living better off than you come from, anyway? Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh?
Bring back outsourced jobs? Are you kidding? The Repubs will not like that. They are the proponents of sending jobs to China to gain more profit. Capitalism is the key to the rich people supported by the Republicans. Never mind the poor Americans! Jesus!
So, if we raise the debt ceiling there is no guarantee that countries, investor will lend us the money at a reduced credit rating. If they do it will cost us 1.5-3 times more in interest obligation. Which of course will make much of that investment unusable because it will need to be used as intrest payments. The investment itself needs to be guaranteed but also the income (coupon/interest). Long term tresuries ar no longer being created, 10 year max. There are drastic changes that need to be made. My thoughts are flat tax no exemptions whether you earn $100 or $100MM (or something similar) 2.) SS, Medicare, Welfare no longer first payer situations. ie-if on welfare you must earn something inorder to recieve benefits. Also as for corporate welfare- if your company earned 400M this quarter, you paid your CEO 21MM this year and you are taking goverment subsidy, you shouldn't. Taking that away is not a TAX INCREASE!!!
That's right ! the raising of the debt ceiling will lead to country credit lost !
I agree. I say 15% flat rate for EVERYONE (10% general fund income tax, 2% medicare/medicade, 3% Soc Sec). The only people that shouldn't pay are retirees making less than $30K/year...they've earned at least that much.
I agree...if a company can afford to pay their CEO $20M in stocks and incentives, then they don't need government subsidies. I'm tired of corporate america holding the country hostage with "if you take away the subsidies, we'll have to cut jobs" rhetoric. I say go one step further...if you are a US based company benefiting from our social protection, then you have to employ at least 51% of your people here. Nothing worse than a company getting subsidies and having a majority of their jobs overseas. Companies are cutting jobs anyway to increase profit margins...so why are we still giving them subsidies?
I 100% agree with your statement on only people putting INTO the system should be getting OUT of the system. My ex-wife has a cousin who is "bi-polar" and "can't hold a job"...so she's on Soc Sec disability earning $2400/month...and she has NEVER held a job to put into the system. Mean while...my mother and father who worked all their lives get a fraction of that (between the both of them) and they put into the system their whole lives.
Does anyone have the notion, as I do, that this is all being done ON PURPOSE. That the people who really control the money do not want the US to have the reserve currency any longer and that this is all a rouse to have that taken care of. It's the only thing that makes sense. You don't cut off your finger, unless you have a really good reason to do so.
I fear that this might be a manufactured crisis so that interest rates, prices, and taxes will surge, jobs will be lost, wages will be lowered, and we will be living like serfs under the thumbs of our corporate and governmental masters.
When someone says, "They hate us for our freedom," it was usually assumed that the Muslim fundamentalists were "they." However, since Big Government and Big Business have been chipping away at our freedom for several decades now, I think "they" refers to the privileged in this country who can't stand it that the little guy just might have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." "They" really want us to be standing in line for bread, asking "them," our masters, how high we should jump.
Seems like we've been jumping real high lately, gleefully helping them dig the hole that will take us all to hell.
Ding! There is definitely something going on under our RADAR behind all this.
Well, I have been saying for years that we are heading for a new age of feudalism. We will be so busy working 2-4 jobs trying to survice that we won't have time or engergy to organize to fight back, and the mega-weathy will keep as many jobs as possible at minimum wage. We will effectively be serfs. My take on the intransigence of the TP types is that we want President Obama to fail so badly they simply don't care about anything else, but even if they honestly believe they are doing the best think for the country, the end result will be the same if we go over this cliff. Americans have always been clever at pulling ourselves back from any precipice, but we may have outsmarted ourselves this time.
P.S. Excuse various typos, esp. "survice" for "survive."
Mary has it right. Their strategy is keep us in crises cause it allows them to get away with stuff they couldn't do in calmer times. Keep issues going that divide the population and the stronger the divisions the better. that way we don't see past party affiliations while in the mean time we keep giving billions to super successful corporations that don't need it, crash the economy to ensure we don't ask anything from the wealthy while taking food off the table for the middle and lower wage earners in the country. Two states have already repealed the child labor laws, Bachmann and others like her want to get rid of the minimum wage. Numerous states and some in the federal government are attacking peoples right to form unions to fight for themselves against this kind of stuff. Voter suppression measures are becoming rampant in republican controlled states in the name of suppressing voter fraud that can not be shown to be more than a 1-2% problem at worst. There is class warfare going on here and its the haves vs the have nots. The rest is smoke and mirrors to keep us from noticing. Sorry guys, many of us see it and as these actions become more blatant more of us will. Dust off the torches and pitchforks folks cause history shows that when it gets bad enough the people will rise up and then all the money in the world won't help
MeanOldMan and Mary: Well said.
Although I don't doubt some would want what you are all talking about. I think it is important to know that we have an advantage over other countries where this sort of thing has happened...we have MILLIONS of gun owners. NONE of these drastic things will take place as long as a well armed citizenry is there to squash open malicious government actions. "They" know this...so until the 2nd amendment is done away with...feel better about much of this. =)
Fareed Zakaria, You made a mistake in speaking of the Corinthians, and we're expecting an apology.
The content of comic books should never make their way into adult conversation.
Bachman is against Fannie and Freddie even though she benefited from it...Reason, why should government run them. My answer, she couldn't get loans from the capitalist lender that's why government provides safety nets. And If she and her tea party folks don't like government, why is she running for president? Is she so clueless as to know that the President is the head of Government? Obama did not spend 14.5 trillion in 2 years. These folks should atleast read and get informed instead of listening to FOX
No, Thank you Mr. Zakaria for showing that you are not knowledgeable about our country and government.
This a government for the people and of the people. It has just been too long and many of our representatives have lost sight of this. Our government was never given carte blanche to spend as much as they want when they want. There needs to be checks and balances and this is one of them, it has just changed its format from each debt issue to once and a while.
It's about time Americal falls as all empires do. It has rotten beyond redemption. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and nothing can put it back together again.
While the referenace to fallen empires may be apt - we have been served bread and circuses for years in the form of "reality" TV, along with our drug of choice, a prurient obsession with the personal details of celebrities' lives - you are very cavalier in your willingness to have America fall. Do you have a full Swiss bank acount somewhere and your escape planned, or are you just looking forward to the entertaining spectacle of millions of people begging for a bit of bread? Our prospects look bleak, but do you really have any idea what you are asking for?
A nation which is stupid enough as to take a Sarah Palin seriously has nowhere to go but down.
josoc – great point about the involvement of Palin in American politics. She should simply have no part of American politics, given her lack of knowledge about many things, but because many Americans seem far more interested in consumerism and entertainment than the advancement of society, it's easy for people like Palin to slip into the radar of politics.
I wish Zakaria would get it straight and quit acting like he's an economist. He's another left-wing pundit who is clueless. First, no one has said U.S. will not pay its bills. The debate is on how to pay them. Second, the damage was done long before this episode. We just need to clean up the mess that Congress for 30 years have created. Fareed – try to learn somehting, please.
I agree, the US is going to pay its public debt. SS, Medicare, military pay, NIH funding, Pell grants are on the table though.
You folks need a parliamentary system of government. Either one party is running the show or in the case of a minority government when folks can't agree a no confidence vote dissolves the government and it goes back to the voters.
I used to think our system of government was superior but not since November 2010, when the minority obstructionists decided they were the governing body.
Parliment systems are a joke.
The only thing we need to do is go back to having Senators appointed by the state.
Though I agree with the concept of the article as a whole, I have a problem with the idea that not raising the debt ceiling is equivalent to not paying the bill collector. That is not accurate and the two concepts are very different. Instead of analogizing this to not paying your Visa bill, it is closer to say that even though Visa wants us to keep raising our credit limit, we don't because the interest we are paying on our current credit line is taking all of our money. It has nothing to do with paying our current bills. We can pay our current bills. If we are short, we can simply print more money. We are not going to be a dead beat country. That is just an inaccurate statement. What the author here, and many others fails to understand from the conservatives, they are using the debt ceiling as blackmail to get the reforms the author calls for because without such blackmail, our elected officials will never have the political courage to do the needed reform. Those that are refusing to raise the debt ceiling are playing a political gamble. They may pay a political price for doing so. But in the end, they are doing it for the right reasons.
Your analogy of Visa and credit limit is inaccurate. If the debt ceiling is not extended, most or all Federal employees (including troops in combat) will NOT get paid. They will likely get IOU's. Troops who were promised college payments as part of their enlistment will not get that payment. Firms that have leased buildings to the government (often on 2-3-4 year leases) risk not getting paid. Weapons systems or IT systems that aren't "one of's" but instead multi-year contracts with stages of payments–run the risk of not getting paid. I won't even get into whether or not social security recipients or doctors with medicare/medicaid agreements could view their promised payments as "contracts". The point is 2/3rds of our Federal budget is NOT discretionary–it's fixed by law and to not fund it is to break the law. Much of our discretionary spending is not week to week but involves commitments (like contracts, leases, programs) that are long-term and in some cases stretch through 2015 or longer.
Sorry Joe, but you are not right. We don't need to borrow money to pay the 2/3rds committed money that you speak of. We don't NEED to borrow money at all. Everyone will get paid, especially our military. Scare tactics by politicians with an agenda have led you to that conclusion. Borrowing MORE money and paying our bills are two different concepts. We can pay our bills and obligations without borrowing more money. That is fact. We chose to borrow money because of the fiscal impact the other choices of funding our spending habits may bring (e.g. inflation, declining purchasing power, etc.). But make no mistake...there are other options besides just borrowing. Anyone that tells you that the military and social security recipients will not get paid SOLELY because we don't raise the debt ceiling is a liar and should not be believed.
It ain't easy being black..... president, especially when you are a Democrat. Well, Bush lowered taxes, not for the benefit of America but to make sure he keeps his presidency. With two wars on hand, no taxes raised? Sure.
Whaaaaat?
Small correction: Bush lowered taxes because he was an idiot who worshiped at the altar of Reaganomics.
Does it really say the problems are "not because of deficit" in the headline? I guess over $14 trillion and mushrooming daily isn't a problem in liberal land. Let's keep taking money from a few and handing it out to many. That will make the many stronger and happier for sure.
Yes the debt is a problem but it is one that is handled through the budgetary process not the debt ceiling. To quote someone who posted earlier. "It's like going shoping on your VISA card and when the bill comes you say your not going to pay for it." Someone did not stay awake in civics class.
"And in the United States, Congress – including Republicans – voted for a budget in which expenditures exceeded tax revenues." Fareed has identified the root of the mass of debt we owe.
What Congress is now attempting to do is to CHANGE that methodology so that we don't do this going forward. The way we do that is we DON'T spend more than we receive. The way to do that is to NOT allow the ceiling to be raised and make do with what we've got. There's a BUNCH of expenses we don't have to pay (expenses we are not obligated to pay). Fareed is correct that there is some debt payments that have to be paid, but we can and SHOULD cut the bleeding NOW, for the sake of our grandchildren and generations to come.
How come Republicans never asked this question when Reagan raised the Debt Ceiling 17 times in 8 years? No one worried about their grandkids ? Republicans gave Bush a blank unfunded check to fight 2 useless wasteful wars and never asked where the funding was coming from? No worry about the debt to the grandkids here. Give away borrowed Trillions to the Wealthy so that they could export US Jobs overseas. Grow up act like an Adult and pass a clean Debt Ceiling Bill is what this republican congress should do.
Havildar – The difference is the Republicans realize they screwed it up just as bad as the Dems. and are trying to keep it from happening any more. The Dems are incapable of admitting they screwed anything up for the last 100 years and can only point fingers....... Why wasn't this fixed when the Dems controlled the House? All the Dems know how to do lately is spin. Unfortunately, they are very good at it, and a lot of sheeple follow...... I wish there was a real Pinnochio effect, where all liar's noses grew long.......... By the way, we could reduce some of the debt if Geitner and other Dems would pay THEIR taxes..........
Sure, let's just paying for stuff. That'll work. The budget was passed, this is only about the responsibillity of paying for it all. If the politicians don't want to authorize the money they shouldn't agree to pay for it. It's about the responsibility. The budget debate is the time for getting the spending reductions.
I'll buy your argument, but in that case Congress should pass a clean raise of the ceiling first, to calm the market if nothing else. Heaven forbid the GOP upset The Market.
In the house there are 193 democrats and 240 republicans. If they would truly negotiate, they could get enough members from both parties to agree to a plan that they could pass rather than trying to go with just the republicans. The majority would win rather than this small group of republicans who are demanding too much. What gives?
Math always works but this bunch of "do nothing" republicans in congress do not care about the Nation. No Flag waving here. Solution is simple it takes 2 hands to clap. Give some take some which is true American Way.
Boehner thought he could pass his bill through the House (not the Senate though) so he was going to take that political win and then blame the ensuing fallout on Reid. Unfortunately he can't make the Tea Party fall in line. If Pelosi hasn't reached out to Boehner behind the scenes, though, she should. This is a good opportunity for negotiations.
Obama is so stupid！
To The Crooked Left – you keep blaming the Dems for running up the dept. Do you realize that the republican administrations have run up more debt in the last30 years than the Dems have ever dreamed of?
Research more, talk less.
I think you mean
To The Crooked Left – you keep blaming the Republicans for running up the dept. Do you realize that the Democratic Congress have run up more debt in the last 30-40 years than the Republicans have ever dreamed of?
Yes... the damage is already done, but not in the way he thinks. We have been printing money and living on loans to pay off loans to pay off other loans. It is a decades long problem that is now finally getting some (unhappy) attention from the world. We may be getting close to "paying the piper" for all of our Keynsian beliefs and outrageous spending. Taxing Hedge fund managers properly is necessary, but will not help us out of this bind one drop. Pointing out the Lear Jet lifestyle of the rich is just a distraction from the real issues.
The real issue is the unfunded tax givaways to the Wealthy lowest Corporate Tax in History of this Nation. Low Job creation from those that benefited from the Tax breaks.2 unfunded Decade long unnecessary Wars. Cut the Waste of Tax Cuts for the Wealthy and increase the Corporate Tax rate to the time of President Ike. Medicare, Social Security etc did not create this mess Republicans spending like drunk sailors and robbing the National Treasury under Bush II.
Bush and his buddies created this mess. Even though the President did not agree to pass on the Debt Ceiling when he was a Senator the Circus that this Republican Idiot Congress created was never there. Bush raised the Ceiling 8 times in his 8 years. The great Reagan raised it 17 times. So stop behaving like spoilt brats and you "do nothing" Republicans get off the stick and pass a clean Debt Ceiling increase. We all pay our bills and so should this idiot Congress. What happened to all the flag waving? Fake like this republican congress.
Research more, talk less, The difference is the Republicans realize they screwed it up just as bad as the Dems. and are trying to keep it from happening any more. The Dems are incapable of admitting they screwed anything up for the last 100 years and can only point fingers....... Why wasn't this fixed when the Dems controlled the House? All the Dems know how to do lately is spin. Unfortunately, they are very good at it, and a lot of sheeple follow...... I wish there was a real Pinnochio effect, where all liar's noses grew long.... we could start with you...... By the way, we could reduce some of the debt if Geitner and other Dems would pay THEIR taxes..........
The Republicans' take on economics is very aristocratic and has never benefited more than the top earners. Trickle down economics doesn't create jobs, and a balanced budget amendment would hurt the economy in times of recession.
When your ship is sinking you don't agrue about which way it is heading; you first fix the leak that is sinking your boat. When are we going to learn this simple facts of life?
All,
I have heard this argument to many times and I am sorry it is not valid. My ex-wife is a financial counselor so I have heard *many* stories about people who charged very large amounts on their credit cards, borrowed money from the banks to buy houses, boats, cars and hire personal staff. And they come in to her office because they can't figure out why they are going broke. She sits down with them, totals up their spending and says, "ok, here is how much you are spending, here is how much you owe and here is how much interest you are paying and these are your monthly expenses. At this rate you will go bankrupt on this date".
You know what happens then? They re-organize. They don't borrow more, the don't ask for their credit limit to be raised. They sell the house, the boat, the extra car or let them be repossessed to discharge the debt. They let go of the personal staff. They downsize the house. They return the jewelry or whatever they can that they bought on the credit cards. And they keep lowering expenses until they have enough that they can service their debt. Then they order their debts in importance and power pay down the most important and service the others. And they keep doing that until they are debt free.
Are the people who sold them all those things happy that those things got returned? No. Is the personal staff happy that they got laid off? No. Are the banks or creditors happy that their debts are being lowered and paid off thus depriving them of interest? No. But that is the way it is done.
You don't get out of debt by going to the creditors and asking them to raise your credit limit so that you can service your debts by borrowing more money!!! That is the true path to total bankruptcy.
I voted for Obama, Gore and Clinton. I could not stand Bush (I or II). But this is math folks. Math has no political ideology. It just is.
TT
It is a different story when you talk about people and when you talk about Government. Where do you think the money comes from? Taxes! When the Tax rates for the Wealthy is the lowest in US History. Corporations pay lower taxes than the person that cleans their offices? Was it okay for Reagan to raise the debt ceiling 17 times in 8 years in office? Did it make sense to your wife that Bush Tax Cuts was based on borrowed money?
TT,
A well stated post. Thank you for that. However, i feel the greatest damage that is going to be done here is in the near term as we demonstrate to the world we are willing to default for the first time in history simply because of a simple idea. That idea is "stop borrowing if you cant pay for stuff" – that is a simple, appealing idea – but there is no immediate life threatening crisis from our borrowing – it's from our freakout over borrowing.
You are absolutely right (or your wife is). That being said I believe Obama should announce he is selling off about 4 trillion dollars worth of gold from the treasury (liquidating some assets). Then lets see how fast the tune in the house changes when the super rich who are pulling these clowns strings realize the gold they have been hoarding is all of the sudden goiing to have the rug yanked out. When the greedy basturds realize the gold they artificailly inflated to 1600 an ounce is going to drop to about 200 I'll bet they are all the sudden ready to deal. I write this tongue in cheek (1/2 way), because your comparison of apples to oranges causght my eye....
Go ahead and do it. Things will play out like it is in cities and counties all over the country. Bankruptcy!!!!Lost of pensions....Cut the waste in government and then ask me for more money if you need it. Quit commenting about whether someone needs to study more history to get their facts straight and start questioning whether they took any accounting classes or not. Most of you apparently did not because you can't count.
Dissappointed again in Fareed. I watched his supposed interview with a past Sec of Treasury and all he did was let the political rhetoric flow. He didn't even take him to task over the jet plane issue that is nothing on a yearly basis just political posturing. If Fareed was worth his salt he would also comment that the rating agencies are requiring that we control our spending in addtion to raising the debt ceiling. He is definately aligned with the administration.
Obviously you have missed the point of Fareed's writing. Just imagine it is like when an American husband and wife are quarelling about their credit card debt, one spouse would say that we are not going to pay until I control the overspending of the other spouse. This scenario is exactly what is happening here.
"First you pay the bills and then you figure out how to change your spending habits."
Hmmmmmm, if one can pay the bills there is little, if any, need to change spending habits. The spending habits have to be changed first so the bills can be paid. WIth my meger income, I pay the bills and if one time my bills actually exceed my income for the same time period the I look to change the way I spend while the current bills are paid in part by what sets in my savings. That's common sense!
Im a single dad of a 16 yr boy, a 14yr boy and a 4yr old girl...i am on disability,and medicare and medicaide..if i lose my social security,and med insurence on me and my children,it would be devistating to our family...i will never work again except taking care of my children,and with out what i deserve as a american for the years i worked ,i could not take care of my kids..Quite the arguring between lines and lets think about us americans...we take care of everybody else..What about us?
Zakaria is a liberal socialist who has always had a foreign take on what the United States is and what the United States should strive to become...he feeds the public his ideology of global socialism positioning the United States always with the bill. Unfortunately, CNN, the polite MSNBC, postures Zakaria as a beacon for world order when in fact he is simply a product of the "Vision of the Anointed". We might as well be listening to Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the socialist activists when reading Zakaria OPED's. Pompous as the rest, offering nothing but social economic theories from the halls of Yale and Harvard...from the same ilk that has driven the Unitered States into the dirt starting almost 45 years ago when LBJ's "Great Society Plan" began its path of social and economic destruction. Is it any wonder why he stands with the likes of Obama.
Excellent observations!
See, REAL research does work! By real, I mean NOT just CNN, MSNBS, WikiLeaks, Wikipedia. Take the time to listen to ALL sides before forming an opinion. Try looking at official government sites, not just what is easy......
Yeah, let's throw out all those Harvard and Yale people. Get rid of all those intellectuals. Just like Mao did. We need more uneducated morons telling us what to think in this country so that more Tea Partyers can get elected and send this country back to the Stone Age. Nothing wrong with that, huh. Nice personal attack on a brilliant, honest man, you idiot.
Yes, everyone hates the U.S....but, of course, the hordes of ppl STILL come here, legally or illegally – I guess we cant be SO bad, after all.
Yes, everyone is whining about the debt ceiling...but, of course, NO one is pulling investments out of the U.S> – our currency is still THE standard. NO ONE seriously feels that we will default on our obligations; we never have. We CANT, because that gives other countries a "right" to not pay their debts to US.
SOMEONE had to finally take a stand and say "enough – no ceiling raise without SOME future protection" – you, the majority who hold the Repubs responsible for this, are the SAME ones who moan that the debt is out of control...do you REALLY think the Dems would lift a FINGER without Repub pressure ?
You KNOW that a deal will be made. You KNOW that this is a carefully designed ploy so that the market comes down, creating a buy opportunity for the market-makers; the deal WILL be done August 2nd, and the stock market will rise by 200 pts on the 3rd.
Ho-hum....SO transparent.
It's be one thing if you were thanking him for speaking sense, but he's not.
This isn't like trying to return merchandise we've already paid for – it's telling the store we can't afford to shop there anymore, so don't sell to us. And because weakened Democrats think aid is the only way to buy themselves enough votes to be re-elected, they're trying to pretend they've discovered some kind of economic cold fusion or perpetual motion machine by claiming the government can get take money OUT of somehow get more from it by the least efficient spender of money in history deciding how and where to put it back in.
With growth already stagnating again, we can't afford idiots who think additional taxes are a prerequisite to stopping spending.
We already voted to spend the money via the budget we passed. Now we're saying we wont pay for the budget we passed. This sounds like buyers remorse to me.
Dumb conclusion Fareed...
This is like saying you have an alcoholic uncle who wants to buy more alcohol. Everyone accepts this because he has always been the drunk uncle. But, suddenly someone is pointing out his drinking problem and wants to confront him with it before its too late. But, how dare they point this problem out, now, everyone will wonder if his next drink will be the one that does him in, when they were perfectly fine being oblivious before. Democrats just want to "Party on!"
Might wanna put your drool bib back on there big guy. There's a reason you don't work in finance
I disagree with the premise of this article. I think it is critical that Congress reviews it's spending cap regularaly to focus the spotlight on the criminality of our government.
Everyone in Government/News is pointing fingers at the moment trying to lay blame for this 1 ring-circus.
Unfortunately, the reality is that this was on the agenda for a long time (think January), and our elected thieves refused to address it, or take the time to develop a decent plan.
Vote the crooks out. They are worse than gun-toting bank robbers, and they threaten everyone in the country.
Fareed, thanks for the insight, and what I'm about to say does not exactly hit on your point, but since your article maintains that countrys budgets in effect determine the level of spending AND BORROWING, it is important to note that the US DOES NOT AND HAS NOT HAD A BUDGET SINCE 2009. THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN FUNDED BY A SERIES OF CONTINUING RESOLUTIONS. Oddly enough the CRs are evidence of a lack of Congressional backbone to begin with. If budgets were passed, the government would have already address the debt limit (Maybe this is your point, Fareed?). The media needs to do a better job of long term analysis instead of reactional reporting that we've all come to hate (Fareed excluded)...
I am not from the US but have been watching since the recession hit. Obama is most likely in the same predicament as he was when he was a senator. He didn't want the debt ceiling raised because the Bush administration thought giving tax breaks to people who earn over 250,000 and to the big corporations. Bush started the war in Iraq and gave al Quaeda what they wanted, the US on their soil and to run the country into deficit. Obama is right to stick to his guns and do what he thinks is right. How can anyone from your coutry still say the Republicans are for the average Joe? They are holding the people's security hostage just to try discredit Obama which is Third World politics.
Bull- – - -
The debt ceiling and our spending are two completely different topics and should not be mixed. Those of you using the one to argue about the other are eating up the crap that congress is feeding you without taking a look at the history of the matter or the idiocy of having a debt ceiling in the first place.
To Tyler, your comment may be the most sensible one here. Until we can get large sums of corporate money out of elections everything else may be moot. The Citizens United case opened the floodgates on corporate manipulation of elections. I would expect a public finance law to be challenged by vested interests, and who knows what this Supreme Court would do, but publicly financed elections may be the next big push we should aim for.
I love how everyone acts like this is perfectly normal. A system based on debt is failing. BIG SURPRISE! The first step to true freedom is ridding ourselves of paper FIAT currency that has absolutely no value. The same people coming to collect have the Fed in their back pocket. The Fed works for the banks. Not for any of us. How can we still call a mafia-organized-crime-oligarchy-banking system for the rich legitimate in any way? This is the same crap that the World Bank aka IMF are doing to Greece. Loan em more money and when they default the raiders go in and STEAL the assets of that country.
NO TO THE DEBT CEILING! SAY NOT TO THEIR MONOPOLY GAME!
This government is astounding. First, they forced us into Medicare and now say it is a problem. For those uninitiated in Medicare, it is not an option, it is a requirement. Then, they rammed through the Obama health plan. All the trust funds have been robbed to pay for other things, and now they threaten us and scare everyone with this lack-of-funding rhetoric. In business you would go to jail for these actions. Has there ever been a national news story and investigation as to what has happened to all the money set aside in the trust funds? I doubt it.
WE LIVE IN A COUNTRY KNOWN AS THE LAND OF THE FREE. i THINK THAT BELIEF HAS BEEN TAKEN TO A NEW LEVEL...THE LAND WHERE EVERYTHING IS FREE. Our country is going down the toilet and nobody cares about it's credet rating. All that matters is the hardworking american keeps working harder to pay for all those that want everything for free.
I call on all fellow Americans – Please please let's fire these tea party bozos... These are the facts – This country had a surplus just 10 years ago. Within 10 years, they gave unnecessary tax cuts to the wealthiest and started an un-needed war, changed regulations so that big corporations are not regulated.... Now we are in this mess, and they want the rest of the Americans to swallow all the cuts and pay for these bozos' mistakes and stupiity... The thing is we will as we have no choice, but they still will not make a deal... Please Fellow Americans, wake up... Fire these bozos, idiots... What are they talking about when they say this country has been in debt for decades... This country has been in debt only within the last decade and they are to blame.... it happened in their watch!. We need to fire them...
Our own government did more to bring our country's economy to its knees than Al Qaeda or the Taliban ever could.
The fundamentalists *WISH* they could be as effective as taking out the US as the government.
So right on....
Fareed,
Your opinions exhaust me. You are an intellectually vacuous pundit. You write every article as if what you have to say is of some profound stature. Get over yourself.
Let me take a moment to remind you all, that after the Second World War the ONLY country that paid the U.S.back for they're debt was Finland.
Time to call in some Markers.
With Compound Interest.
And do you have any reason to believe that that most debts were not paid back?
According to this article Britian finished it ww2 loan repayments in 2006, so I can assume that other nations that was capable of paying back their debt paid it back ( as is normal with a loan).
http://news.sky.com/home/sky-news-archive/article/13559480
You have any facts to proof otherwise that any of the loans weren't paid back?
You know...we all voted for these guys to represent us. If things are going sour we all have to stand up and take action, we cant wait for things to happen.
Well said!
You know...we all voted for these guys to represent us. If things are going sour we all have to stand up and take action, we cant wait for things to happen. Thank you for speaking about this too.
Fareed has written a clear and concise piece that captures the current (manufactured) crisis perfectly.
Here's what no one wants to hear...this drama is what Americans want – or at least a product of the way we vote (or don't vote). For example, we voted in tea partiers who are delivering exactly what they have said they would – no compromise.
Now, who here is interested addressing a root cause? I believe a big part of it is our addiction to fear and drama. Perhaps we can reach a solution by seeking first to understand – and not shouting.
Thank You Me too...Really Mr Z is a like a cheerleader who lost her panties.
Reading these comments shows us exactly why we are in this mess. Too many folks listening to politicians and parroting them and not enough folks listening to economist. We cannot continue on this path. Rep. or Dem. We cannot continue on this path. Reforms must be put into place for us to survive. Raise the debt ceiling all you wish, but this path is disasterious.
It is the Executive branch that is threatening to not pay our Creditors, Social Security and Military. Even without the raise in debt these can be made. The unwillingness to control spending is what has caused the Tea Party to say no the the Increase. As long as there are no real cuts in spending I say no more open checkbook. Both parties are to blame. The Tea Party is the only one that hears the working class. As always any tax increase always ends up impacting the middle class most with our current tax system. The Elected elite give tax loopholes to their rich contributors (Unions and Corporations).
There is a crisis that is happening, and the debt ceiling is being used appropriately by the tea party to acknowledge before US citizens and the world if need be that we are on the path of Greece. If I had raised my credit card limit 78 times since 1960 and continued to max it out, I do not have a small spending problem, I have a death nail spending problem. There is no safety net of the US goes broke. It will be anarchy and a total loss of world power. Our massive defenses will be given to the Chinese by the international courts as payment for the debt. No country is big enough or kind enough to come to the rescue of the US. It IS already too late to not experience a depression as a consequense of our life-style of indulgence. However, I will take a depression now over anarchy and loss of sovergnty tomorrow.
What we should be asking the government is where they spend all the money, by whom and for what objective. Then value the objective and trim government in an effecient way...!
We all know that Fareed is a huge fan of Obama but aside from that he is wrong. It is about the debt. When we reach 100% of of our GDP which will happen we will be like Greece and we are on the way now. The Republicans have put forth several plans to address this problem, the Democrats no budget in 800 days and no plan either except for Reeds which counts the war withdrawal which is happening anyway. The rejection of a solution by the Democrats lies in their effort to damage the Republicans prior to the 2012 election while the nation goes down in flames.Disgusting.
No budget since 2008, liberals hate facts. Zakaria is a liberal
I don't like how he writes "we' created the debt crisis. Make no mistake about it. This contrived 'crisis' is all the doings of the GOP and has reached this current point by way of the house republicans and especially the tea baggers. When the repurcussions come down from this, I know the 'liberal' media is going to write about how there is enough blame to go around and they will be very careful to not point the finger at the guilty party, but make no mistake it is who it is. American voters have a short memory span, but this entire situation is,was, and always will be the fault of the republicans, especially in the House, and specifically the tea party. ALL the blame for the market falling and any other repurcussions need to be lain at their feet. But it won't... just how we see crybabies on here now blaming Obama for everything wrong with the country currently and laying out their fox talking points (aka- lies) to support this, they will continue the same with this because they cannot stand it that they actually weren't able to steal a presidential election for once... because they haven't won one since bush sr. They are not governing... they are playing politics with our country just to discredit our President.
Well said Farid. I blame republicans for not paying for what has already been bought. This is a political game of the riches who want to become richer by not sharing their wealth with the poor. I do not buy the argument that taxing top 2 % money makers will discourage growth and add to unemployment. I also do not believe that most of us are poor because we are lazy and do not work hard. There may be some black sheep among us who misuse the system but the percentage of such bad eggs is higher among the riches.
Everyone keeps saying we have to raise the debt ceiling because it is what we have always done. Doesn't this bother anyone else that the people who have screwed up this economy, both republican and democrat, are screaming at the top of their voice "we have to do this!,it's what we always do!"
Personally I'm proud that a small group of new represenatives are actually sticking up for us and saying no. saying "we are not going to do this anymore, doing this is what got us to this problem in the first place".
When the very people you distrust so much are freaking out, you know you are doing something right. It's like watching a five year old being told he can't have his cake until he eats his dinner. He will beg and plead with you and give you every possible reason why he should have that cake now, but as the adult in the room you know better.
Shah Nawaz
Well said Farid. I blame republicans for not paying for what has already been bought. This is a political game of the riches who want to become richer by not sharing their wealth with the poor. I do not buy the argument that taxing top 2 % money makers will discourage growth and add to unemployment. I also do not believe that most of us are poor because we are lazy and do not work hard. There may be some black sheep among us who misuse the system but the percentage of such bad eggs is higher among the riches.
Hmmmm......GDP numbers today are horrible and the revised GDP quarterly numbers are even worse. The policies of this administration are not working and that is why America fired so many back in November 2010. It is amazing that 20 congressional freshmen are holding the line and attempting to save this country because they don't owe any of the political establishment nothing and they don't care about being reelected. Finally someone responsible shows up to govern and demand cuts in spending and a balanced budget while telling the political establishment to straighten up or get ready to be fired at the next election. I love it!! Now this is the hope and change we needed.
So,
The real question: Why was the debt ceiling not raised well in advance of the budget being passed?
After all I have seen on the news I think that the Congress and the House are just thinking about themselves and in how to please the people that rule the World. Yes, the people that rule the World; the Big Bankers, Life Insurance Companies and so on. It is sad that many people in this beautiful planet do not realized the damage that is being done to every human being that lives and breaths; it is a predator that feeds on human lives and people's money. It is not even their money; it is money borrowed that goes around and around like a carousel. I say to the Republicans and the Democrats': in the following elections someone will be voted out; I think would be a good thing if the Senators and Congressmen would have a shorter term there; being to long in a job is the source for complancency, selfisness, and lazyness. Public, read the "The Creatur from Jekyll Island" from Grifiin, and no, it is not a hype book even if sounds like a lunatic book. It unveills the reality of today's economy.
It is time for politicans and extreme party line-toers to wake up, smell the coffee, and check the pride at the door! Republicans, let the damn tax cuts expire! Democrats, cut back on the damn spending! What happens?? LO, we have an agreement, a balanced budget, and a debt ceiling that doesn't have to be elevated quite as much, and shouldn't have to be elevated again for YEARS.
WHY is God's name is everyone making a simple compromise so damn difficult??????? To get re-elected??? Ain't gonna happen if the U.S. get downgraded, you can bet on that, regardless of how well some politician stuck to his/her guns, because Main Street will end up feeling it more than anyone else....AS ALWAYS!!!
Just reading all of this ideological idiocy & dysfunctional partison rhetoric is enough to make a reasonable person throw up in disgust - not just at Washington - but the ignorance, polarization, and foolish pride of "We the People". From the Left we get repeated calls to "end all the wars" when in fact both are winding down and the one we're currently most engaged in wasn't started by us but by ruthless Islamic terrorists on 9/11. We're still engaged in fighting the militants who launched an attack on our Homeland and are hell bent on doing it again. What part of being attacked don't liberals understand?? The 3000 dead civilians? Also from the left, we get repeated calls to fleece the "rich" by raising their taxes - which sounds good until one realizes that the "rich" in question are primarily struggling small businesses who will simply layoff employees / freeze hiring to offset the tax hike increase to their balance sheets. The "rich", as defined by the left, are Mom and Pop shops around the country! They lump dual income families living in high cost areas of the country and small business in the same category as the "uber Rich" and larger corporations. The conservatives are no better in that they accept the democratic definition of the wealthy and make no distinction between upper middle class working families and filthy rich mogols and corporations. Foolish nonsense. If we dropped the partison bs for just a moment we could solve this problem by asking ALL Americans to pitch in their fair share for a special / temporary "reduce the deficit" tax that would be designed to take as little bite as possible from all concerned so that small businesses aren't hit the hardest and job creation (increased revenues) isn't blocked. The "uber" rich would pay a higher percentage of the tax, but not enough to incent them to pack up and move their corporations overseas or initiate new waves of mass layoffs. A "golden mean" reached by rational discource to solve our problems - with everyone pitching in - is the only viable long term solution. We need a "Silent Majority" political revolution that places a foot on the throats of right and left wing extremists in favor of pragmatic solutions based on common sense and united purpose.
No, Fareed we have not stiffed any creditors nor are we likely to.
If voting against a debt ceiling is a sign of fiscal irresponsibility, then we have to ask why we picked Barack Obama to lead us when he did the same thing in 2007.
I'm glad you give credit for us bringing up the issue of cutting expenditures. We will do it every chance we get.
Budgets – hey the last one, the CR in April, remember, Obama gave up less than 40 billion. We have not really passed a budget in 2 years when the GOP was in the minority
David,
You are right. Mr. Fareed analysis is very brilliant and one of the best I've ever heard of. The entire debate whether to increase or not to increase the debt ceiling is not necessary at all as the budget approval to spend more was, in effect, an approval to borrow. However since there is a law (even has a flaw), the legislators should increase the debt ceiling without question for formality sake only and conduct a session to change the law immediately to correct this flaw.
A country that has this problem can be in a war against nobody spenidng $650,000'000,000 a year!!!
The problem is the lies that our representatives tell us to get elected, and no punishment or kicking them out of office for good. This would solve many problems we have. With no accountablitiy in government there will always be abuses on the people.
We need a president that is more proactive in getting congress together on this issue. We need a president that has the courage to pull his party together but also who will stand in front of congress every day if needed nad put pressure on the opposition party to negotiate and move forward with a plan that both parties can live with. I am tired of having a commnader and chief who over thinks to the point of peralysis and does nothing more then point fingers and blame congress. He is illustraiting the idea that the presidential office is irralavent and that only congress governs.
Obama appears to think that he is doing himself and the american people favors by refusing to take a strong position on anything, so when election time comes his detracters have no ammunition as he can denie any responsibility for anything as he declines to take a position and fight for anything.
Another fine example of our president demonstrating his ignorance. Has he not embarassed us enough, the man is clueless and a liar he has no other goal than that of his socialist ideaology. Please pray that he is not reelected in 2012 or it will be the end of the US as we know it.
All I know is that I am going to continue to vote for the democrats (the more corrupt the better) and I am going to continue (7 years in a row now, since Bush really) NOT paying my taxes.
I will not fund this govt. because it is totally corrupt (I hate both parties, thieves and traitors all of them). Vote democrat so we can get the decline and total destruction of the country over with and start rebuilding. Everything is fkd and if you read your history you will see it is much easier to start from scratch once half your population is dead from disease, warfare, and starvation. I am sooooo looking forward to it. Plus when everything truly and completely sucks, people tend to focus on what is truly important, ie: safety, security, food, water, shelter, etc. (instead of regulations, environmental policies, food and medicine for non-producers, etc.)
It would be even better if us Texans could totally take over the country and make slaves out of the rest of you. Man, that would rock.
Now getting arrested for tax evasion would be even better. I would go to federal prison where you are properly taken care of for doing absolutely no work. I would get my teeth worked on, get the cataract in my eye fixed and maybe go back to school, all on the govt's dime. Why not, I have been doing the working hard for nothin white man thing for 30 years and it has gotten me nowhere. Why can't I have a lone star card and get the best meat at HEB, oh that is right cause I work and have to pay for other people's free top shelf food. Peace out btches NOT!
I'm writing this in hopes you'll all just believe me (lol) but maybe think about it this way. It doesn't matter how big the celing is, it doesn't matter if it's fair to the rich or to the poor; we have have have to raise the debt celing. No one wants to raise it, no one wants to be in debt just for the thrill of the challenge of getting out. In life, and you all know this, there are things you want to do and things you have to do; I'm saying this is simply something that's in the "have to" catagory. It doesn't matter if it's annoying – you're not the only ones ticked off about it – what matters is it's one of those things in life, like peeing or going to work, that you just have to do when the time comes. So let's pass it like we always do, then have a debate on the budget, because regardless of how this has been framed by nightly pundits, this isn't and never was the budget debate. If we want a balanced budget, let's draw up our plans and bills and debate them in congress like it was designed to do. We're not even to that point yet. I understand the tea party says that this is their best chance, by holding the country hostage, to gain “leverage” in the debate. That's their justification? That they want a better hand? This isn't poker it's democracy. When you're ideas sway enough voters you can exercise them, otherwise it's not your place. If another country threatened our economy like this we'd have sent in SEAL team 6 by now.
The Chinese couldn't do it, the Russians couldn't do it, the Germans couldn't do it, the English couldn't do it, but the tea party is knocking us off our perch as the best, claiming to be serving us, the people. Yeah, we're in debt, but should we sell the house, the car, the stereo, and the kids just to get out of debt right away? So we can look at our cardboard box and proudly say, "This... this is all mine! The deed is in my name and it's all mine!?" Or do we work on paying it off over the next years and save the things that make being an American worth bragging about? Losing an empire to win a battle is no victory, and losing a battle to save an empire is no defeat. ^^
Fareed, I just listened to you on Anderson360 .. and you've convinced me.... you're an idiot! Here's your logic: If people elect representatives to Congress to limit the size of government: you accuse that they don't know how Washington works. If the Tea Party advocates a different opinion than you: you accuse that they're economic terrorists. If Obama can't attain a legislative effort to raise spending: you advocate to do it anyways without them. You are un-principled. And you are the worst and most dangerous kind of hypocrite: you have a microphone.
Two big lies from Fareed. He makes a big deal that Republicans voted for this "budget" with deficit spending. When exactly was that? There has been no budget passed by Congress for two years now.
Second, he says we face a downgrade, not because of deficits, but because we haven't raised our debt limit. I suggest you check the S&P warning published 18 April 2011. It specifically warns of a downgrade unless we address our debt situation. It mentions nothing about our debt ceiling.
Hi Michael, To answer your question. Did you known that the United States is the only country in the world with a 14 trillion dollar GDP economy in bad times? Chine in good time is only at 8 trillion GDP and only 9 other countries have trillion dollar GDP's economies in the world. Did you know that the only time in are history we did have a deficit was 2001, so 1776 to 2001 we had a deficit, as our GDP gets bigger we can make the deficit smaller. We have to get the DOW back to 16 and good times again Michael.
Republicans and Democrats alike need to recognize the United States' position in global trade and finance. Like Zakaria and so many others noted, politicians in Washington are playing with fire, risking everything for absolutely nothing. I happen to disagree with Zakaria on the note that damage may already have been done, because financial markets are more rational than our politicians. As the electorate, we do not authorize politicians to risk our national interests and livelihood for their personal political gain. Do not be mistaken, this is about November, 2012. We, as Americans, are caught in the cross fire of an ideologically charged debate. How about the ideology of the silent majority? How about simply being an American and doing what is right for America, not for Republicans and not for Democrats. It seems as if the people we trusted to do what is best for us not only let us down, but worse, put us directly in harms way for their own sake. Cowards!
David, I heartily agree! I would also like to remind Mr/Ms "Thecrookedleft" that countries continue to stand in line to lend the US money. I realize that you are probably not familiar with things called "facts", but it would reflect well on you to become familiar, if not conversant, with this concept.
If Zakaria were president, the U.S. would have already defaulted due to excessive debt. Zakaria is DEAD WRONG. We need to cut spending and the debt ceiling is a great way to get politicians to stop adding special interest pork to each bill for once and concentrate on cutting some of that pork out. Zakaria is DEAD WRONG.
Zacharia,
You are a smart guy. You know about the fraud perpetrated against the American people by the bankers. The debt is not ours, over 1 Trillion is THEIRS. Why you don't mention this, and ways for us to keep the banksters out of the American economy is beyond me. But, please in the future, give your people who listen to you the WHOLE picture. Not just the side main stream media wants us to hear. I don't get my news from CNN anymore. You and Dillan used to be people I thought saw things outside of the box. How to fix this problem. Reinstate Glass Steigel. Slowly phase out the Fed. When the banks come to us with threats of failure, let them phase and slowly sell off their assets to the private sector. The debt problem is 90 percent resolved then. Problem is that politicians are in the pockets to their bankster benefactors. Not a way to run the country...
Wow 99.9 % of your pieces on cnn , make me wannt to slap you fareed, This one you hit on some points i actually agree with.
"To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought.""
A better analogy may be to say that we ask visa to increase our spending limit so we can pay them back the money we owe them.. Using credit cards to pay off credit cards is unsustainable. Raising the debt ceiling is unsustainable. We will end up defaulting via inflation if we keep raising. Fareed forgot to mention that China had already stopped buying most of it short termed bonds from America. He also forgot to mention that China, India, Brazil and Russia have been trying to get away from the U.S. dollar for over a year. He say's we were getting money from investors easier? Sure maybe from those tied up in the U.S. dollar and the IMF and western europe, and they are having some serious financial problems as well. No debt ceiling increase. It is unsustainable. Balance the budget.
where are the rich billionaires, can we just knock on their door and make them pay the bill for once. Tax cuts over the last 100 years should cover it.
Have I been banned, my post aren't showing up???
Reading all these comments has made me realize all the people who are caught in the middle. Take me for example. I'm in the US Navy serving to protect this country. Over 300,000 sailors serve currently, and a lot more than that serve the rest of the military. Yet whenever this budget crisis comes up, whether it be our debt or the fact that we don't have a budget yet, it's always our pay that gets put at risk. Already we sacrifice so much, we sacrifice our time with friends and family, our ways of life, and sometimes, our lives and limbs. With boots on the ground in Afganistan and Iraq, that is not the time to say "oh, well since we screwed up, we're not going to pay you, but you'll still have to continue to die for us". It isn't about political lines, it's about making this country run properly. All you people don't want to give up stuff to help cut spending, and you don't want to pay higher taxes to increase revenue. It's like a business that's going bankrupt because they refuse to turn off the lights to cut their electric bill and won't raise prices in their store to pay for the electric bill. The next time you guys want to argue about this sort of thing, think about who else is caught in the middle besides yourselves, then call your congressman and tell them what you want.
Mr Zackaria, sorry.
Zakaria, you ding dong.
Hi is a ding dong???? Why? Because he tells it like it is or for who he is? Explain yourself.
He is paid by CNN, which is hardly neutral in this.......
Ken, as you said, you are not from this country. Do you know what it means when I say 'you don't have a dog in this hunt?"
Research more, talk less.
To DC, everyone in the world has a dog inthis fight. We are not on this increasingly networked planet by ourselves. If the rest of the world has any interest in this "dogfight" it's because the corpses we throw in the water afterwards are likely to have far-reaching ripple effects.
DC:
You say to "research more, talk less", well you should do the same my friend. Even though I am not from the US, I have been watching and researching this topic since long before people thought it to be a problem. Why, you ask? Because I, like the rest of the world am enjoying watching your crooked nation crumble. The only reason America has any power whatsoever, is due to your "redneck" mentality and your weapons. Every empire must fall, and it looks like the USA's time has come. The sad thing is: ITS YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT! Ken, like most outsiders, including myself, see your problem the same. Maybe you should listen to outsiders for once, instead of being brainwashed by the republicans and democrats (who, by the way are both to blame in this, although, maybe one side a bit more than the other (aka the Tea Party)). Bush basically guaranteed that this would happen in his 8 years of terror. Now people blame Obama and why? Because he isn't white??? Get over yourselves. Obama is trying to fix the mess left by by GWB, with republicans (and ultra-liberals) trying to screw him at every chance they get! This is where a parliamentary system works much better. The ruling party tells their MP's to get in line or face expulsion! You should do some reading DC, maybe then you will understand. And yes, I do have interests at stake in your country defaulting, because it will bring my country down as well as we are basically attached to you due to that stupid NAFTA crap.
When you're at the extreme right, relative to you everything seems left leaning, right? So how could CNN not be biased against it? Even John McCain is biased against it, and he's a true conservative patriot.
I also want to point out I'm a different adam from that guy two posts above. I actually have something invested in America, as I was born here. I just don't want to see my country crumble and end up like the evil adam's country, where I'm assuming I'd have to wear a gotee and say stupid crap on the internet. =P
And btw, evil adam, our weapons and rednecks didn't make your people sign nafta, self-interest did, so maybe there's something more to the neighbors to the south. Not everything is a conspiracy, and just because something is large doesn't mean it's an evil empire. When are leaders are the best of the best, our system works well; when we elect leaders based off emotion (to which they all now seem to pander) we get this. Hopefully this whole incident will teach a whole generation exactly what not to do
The President must invoke the 14th amendment, and unilaterally raise the debt limit, if Congress will not act.
Such a response will show the world that, no matter how stupid our politicians are; we are NOT deadbeats.
Sadly, such a move would be political suicide for President Obama; and only appreciated at a point in the future... after the Hope has been destroyed.
Mark, we are not deadbeats because of the debt ceiling, rather we are deadbeats for permitting such ludicrous waste of our public, taxpayer money. We are deadbeats for not paying better attention to the votes of those who are supposed to be representing us. We are deadbeats for throwing ethics and morals out of the window in exchange for amassing more stuff, gaining access to greater amounts of pleasure, and one-upping our neighbors. We are deadbeats for enabling laziness in ourselves, our children, and our society. This situation shows that we are already deadbeats. But it does not have to be the final chapter. Instead of pointing fingers and labeling people, we need to place the blame squarely where it belongs - in our own laps. Republican and Democrat alike. The problem is an American problem.
And there you have it.
Cindi, well said.
You are absolutely correct, Cindi, in your assessment of the American people. I have traveled extensively in Europe and have found out that the Europeans know much more of what is going on in the political arena of the U.S. than most of the Americans. We seem to be in deep sleep when it comes to what is going on in Washington. We can describe with great detail the current goings on of popular entertainment figures, but, for example, only 10% of us can name even one Supreme Court justice – a branch of government whose decisions can have a tremendous impact on our lives. For another example to solidify your point, a recent poll indicated that an astounding 37% of the young people in the U.S. cannot name the country from which we declared our independence. Of course politicians know all of this too well. That is the reason that our government is no longer by the people, for the people and of the people. Sadly, it has become a goverment by the few, for the few and of the few. Unless we wake up from our deep sleep, take the time to know who our Congressman and Senators truly represent, and fully understand that elections have consequences, the situation will likely get far worse. Like Pogo said many years ago: we looked in the mirror and found the enemy.
George in Virginia
At last! Fresh air, clean water. This woman is so intelligent it makes me cry. All you Dems and Reps who are caught in a cycle of blaming others, look at yourselves and ask what you can do to get this problem under control in your own households. Stop using credit. Stop buying junk. Work hard.
Acting like a deadbeat is what hurts. When you make statements like you might not be able to pay someone. I guess you should never do that.
Sorry, as much as I agree with most of your post we are deadbeats because we are not paying our bills.
We already spent the money (appropriating it is the same as spending it) and now the bill is due.
The discussion in Congress right now is a good one, and about time. The problem is it should have been had at budget time, not at repayment time.
Appropriating funds is not the same as spending it. If I say I'm going to buy a new tv and start putting money aside for that but can't pay my mortgage... Guess which monies will be getting reappropriated! The fact if the matter is we've run out of money- we can either get more credit cards to pay off other credit cards, or we can cut back on our unnecessary spending (which I think we all agree exists). For my family that meant not going out to eat, not taking out loans so that we could.
Well put Cindi, enough of the Us vs Them. We are Americans and must as responsible citizens take ownership of our parts in this debt mess. With the economy in the current critical state it is not the ideal time for pushing so close to defaulting on our debt.
I don't agree with raising the debt limit every 6-months. That is like a kid in college calling home every quarter and asking mom and dad to raise the limit on the credit card. Out spending habits have to change or we will always be raising the debt limit. I can't and don't want to imagine what our number could be in 10 years.
Where's the like button on this forum? Cindi, the real question here is how come all the "great" journalists of our time aren't writing articles about your very point? Instead of furthering the divide that already exists and continuing to polarize the "demoncrat" / "Republicant" – you're either with us or against us mentality. The fact is neither party seems to care much about doing what is right – or best – for our country except as it relates to their public opinion numbers.
CNN, send a reporter to interview this woman.
@Robert, "great" journalists are few and far between today and what we see on TV news is corporate news; the majority of them bought and paid for by Big Corporation to espouse their propaganda.
What exactly does the public's addiction to stuff have to do with the national debt? And how can you spend half your post calling people names and then close by saying we need to stop calling names and placing labels?
To Josh: Huh? Please point out where Cindi called anyone names. She pointed out that we have all been lazy in certain ways, but that is not calling people names. Laziness is an unpleasant character trait, and no one likes to believe it of themsleves, but she makes a lot of sense.
Cindi well said indeed. Everything is the truth. Your statement should be the one posted by CNN instead of this article.
Well said cindi, we all need to stick together on this. I'm not going to lie and say it isn't going to be easy, in fact it's going to be hard, really hard. But, we will better off in the long run if we get our house in order, sooner or later the debt will destroy our economy, better to start attacking it now then 10-20 years down the road when we can't even pay the interest on the debt.
I thought they announced that it would not be legal for Obama to use the 14th amendment on this.
True. The 14th only allows payment of debt post civil war, and wash out confederate debt. It is a broad provision. " payment of debt shall go unquestioned". There was no debt ceiling in 1865.
Nobody "announced" that. It would be for the Supreme Court to decide, and they couldn't decide it (lacking of standing) unless Obama did it and somebody objected to it (I'm sure there would be many).
Mark,
That's a problem though. If there's a better time for President Obama to practice the pragmatic hope he ran on, is now not the time? I'd rather a four year stint of a President who was willing to sacrifice his near term national image for the sake of the nation than 8 years of a leader who was concerned more about political capital rather than doing what he knows is right.
The courts decide the legality of laws, not the president. If he believes this is an option, he should have been in court.
Oh my God you poor SOB, they've done it haven't they you finally got lobotomized.Brain washing you wasn't enough they put you under the knife, either that or your so stupid that it defies belief. Can't you see what's happening here or you think you'll have it better in a socialist nation with someone like Chavez as your leader or maybe Castro. Because that's exactly where obama (he doesn't deserve a capital O) is taking us. You must be a grubber democrap with no education and no common sense.Or we just start at the beginning of this reply!!!
How old are you? Your comments look like they were written by an angry 10 year old. Shouting & name calling does not make your beliefs any more correct or true. Grow up and let the adults handle this.
I'm sorry, but you are an idiot!
What proof do you have of that? I should think you'd be more worried about the Theocracy/Oligarchy that the Repubs are trying to force down our throats!
All the 14th says is that the debt can not be denied. Not that the prez has the power to raise the debt ceiling.
A first year law student could rip that argument up in a minute.
Zakaria - "That's not how it works. First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits."
I am currently trying to get out of credit card debt. The above statement, although it sounds tough, is only a way into further debt. Anyone (private citizen) knows that both solutions have to take place at the same time: paying the bill and changing the spending habits. In fact, it is usually recommended that money be put into savings at the same time so that if an expense does arise that one is not forced to use the card.
I think a more realistic example would be the following: A person who has great credit rating, has made good investments, has a life style that others admire and desire to emulate, but is at the max limit on their credit card. Further minimum payments on the card are not be possible because income is not enough, although he does not want anyone to think that is the case. So, what to do. I know. Let's call the credit card company and raise out credit limit. That will solve everything.
It's like saying, 'First lose weight and then change your eating habits.'
So you think the finances of a society are exactly the same as the finances of an individual. That is a very small minded and uneducated view of the world. Study some sociology before spouting off about things you obviously are incapable of understanding.
It's called math...or accounting and you spend what you can afford. That's how it works...which is why YOU don't understand! If you think poliiticians get this you are wrong.
Actually, no I do not think they are the same. But since Zakaria went that route with his illustration then I thought I would continue it to its logical end. Zakaria – "To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought.""
By the way, it would be better to study economics in this matter than sociology.
Down boy, down.
"...is like calling up visa and telling them you don't want to pay for all those things you bought". Not exactly- it's more like deciding you can no longer afford HDTV and high speed internet service so you choose to drop those services, but a better example would be like calling up Christian Childrens's Fund and telling them that you can no longer afford to make monthly payments to support a children's charity. That is sad, but you can always join the program again after you get back on your feet.
Actually, that's not correct. Even if you told the cable company you cannot afford cable, whatever bill you already rang up, you have to pay for.
It may be just math in the household, but for a country it"s socio-economics.
It may be just math in the household, but for a country it's socio-economics.
I'm where you are, Cindi, trying to get rid of all my debts. Your analogy is apt, but I think a fundamental point that needs to be made is that it is paramount to pay the bills that you already owe. Much of the debt ceiling increase would go to pay off services that we as a country have already bought, promises for social support we have already guaranteed, and most importantly interest due on loans that we made a long time ago. In your analogy, you're at your credit card maximum. But this credit card is your only source to pay your bills and rent - you then have two options: 1) request a credit limit increase to pay bills that you already owe, or 2) don't pay all your bills. I would have to say paying past obligations is being fiscally responsible. Budget deficits is a linked, but separate issue than the debt ceiling.
Peter, I agree. Quite a pickle we are in. The problem with all of this and politics, though, is that people love to put off the hard decisions for the next people to make so that they come out smelling like roses. I think that the debt limit will have to be raised, but I fear that it will stop there, or at least any attempts to fix the beast will only be cursory.
No- it's not something you bought. It is a program you donate to. You can stop payments to a charity and someone will suffer after being accustomed to your generosity, but you can join the charity again after you stabilize your finances and pay off things you did in fact purchase.
Social security and medical care for your fellow citizens isn't charity. It is your patriotic duty to your countryman. If Americans sunk so low that they believe they owe nothing to their country, you people don't deserve your country, let alone credit ratings.
I would take Peter's analogy even one step further. One of those bills that needs to be paid is your prescription for insulin, without which you will die. And another is to completely pay off a loan shark, who is threatening to triple your vig, and break your knees.
The bottom line is that these bills are due. These items are part of spending bills that both parties approved – at least a majority of either house. The argument that there needs to be budget cutting is perfectly valid. Then again, the notion that Social Security and Medicare would have expenses exceed revenues is not a new concept. I am 50. I realized this in high school – back in the 1970's – when we studied demographics. This issue did not just arise today. And it can be dealt with, just as effectively, tomorrow – after a vote to raise the debt limit.
well said. United states has already lost its credibilty due to the 14 trillion dollar deficit. Not sure Zak is talking about here. Again it all depends on whether you are blue or red i guess. Nothing is black and white.
Hi Cindi,
no, it's not the same.
The USA made legal promisses to lenders, business owners, military personell etc. to pay a certain amount. It's not right to break that promisse. If a household or a company is no longer able to pay all the bills it goes into bancrupcy.
That is the absolute last resort. Simply saying "We could pay our bills but we decided we don't want to spend that much money" is just unethical.
Well said Cindy. Can't put it any better!
"Zakaria – "That's not how it works. First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits."
I am currently trying to get out of credit card debt. The above statement, although it sounds tough, is only a way into further debt. Anyone (private citizen) knows that both solutions have to take place at the same time: paying the bill and changing the spending habits. In fact, it is usually recommended that money be put into savings at the same time so that if an expense does arise that one is not forced to use the card."
OK, so you say that Zakaria's above statement is "only a way into further debt" (First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits). Then you go and say: "Anyone (private citizen) knows that both solutions have to take place at the same time: paying the bill and changing the spending habits." Heh.
Also, I don't know why people are even trying to compare government spending with individual spending. They are two very different things and on a completely different scale. Remember, the US government defaulting would affect ALL Americans, not just a single individual, and the consequences of a default are NOT pretty. With the current situation that we have at the moment, there is little choice other than raising the debt ceiling in order to avoid a default. In my honest opinion, Zakaria is very right in his assessment. We pay our bills now instead of letting things blow up on us, then work to fix our spending habits. Or would you want the alternative option of letting things blow up in your face, then trying to fix it? That's just making it harder on yourself. Raising the debt limit wont "solve everything" like you said in your analogy, but it will lessen the damage considerably, if you compare it to what might happen if we did not raise the limit.
Once they raise the debt limit though, congress must immediately act to reform our spending habits. I would really rather not see them debate this for another few months, just get something done! And seriously, enough with all the rhetoric (I think most people would agree with me here)!
I'd skip the eating analogy all together and go for the train analogy: When you have a train (budget) going in one direction (debt) fast enough, you need to slow it down before going into reverse (surplus to pay off the debt). If you try throwing the train into reverse going at 60 mph in the other direction, you end up in a crash.
I had to dig my way out of large amounts of CC debt due to unemployment once I got a new job. It took a couple months of increasing CC debt to turn everything around to going in the positive direction.
Thank you for illustrating something in the "language of the dumb" that seems so simple. THIS is what people don't get. We DO need to turn our spending around and get a balanced budget. It starts with spending less. If we can't cut enough spending then we need to take in more. But expecting an instant set of cuts isn't reality. It's got to be a controlled change.
I'd skip the train analogy all together and go with the spaceship analogy.
Imagine you go to space in a spaceship (debt) , and you are traveling in the direction of Jupiter. And if you see aliens, you will be scared, puzzled, excited. And then they tell you to ditch your spaceship and get into theirs. But then you feel bad leaving your spaceship floating in outerspace, so the aliens shoot antimatter beams and turn the spaceship into pure energy which you can take back home as revenue.
- You are welcome!
I like the spaceship analogy but let me add something to the train analogy. You are right to conclude one must be careful putting on the breaks to slow a speeding train. However, the average yearly deficit (speed increase) under Bush was only about 100 to 200 billion per year and coming down. Under Obama (and somewhat understandably) the speed has increased to way over one, trillion, dollars, per, year. That is like comparing a train speeding down the tracks at 60 mph with a locomotive in free fall approaching the sound barrier. Right or wrong, what ever the reason for the extreme deficits, we have got to address the problem (debt) now. If the debt ceiling issue has been used to help us look out the window and see our train is in free fall, that's good. I certainly hope the train has a big enough parachute.
So you agree that the Bush Trillions of Dollar Tax Cuts to the wealthy should be repealed. The Wealthy & Corporate Tax rates raised to the level under President Ike? Cut the Armed forces why do we need troops in every country of the world? That is a big savings.
Wrong Cindi. It is not a question of same time. Only that you can not spend first and then cry about it later. His statement is that you do not negotiate after the money is spent. You are willfully ignoring the clear point he is making.
This is not quite correct. In theory, the 17 countries in the Eurozone also have a debt ceiling. According to the so-called Maastricht Criteria, total debt may of any Eurocountry may not exceed 60 percent of its GDP, and the annual government deficit may not exceed 3% at the end of the preceding fiscal year. Very few countries however respect these criteria, and particularly in the last two years the debt ceilings have turned into an open roof, where not even the sky was the limit. Greece for instance now faces a debt of 160% of GDP whereas Ireland has a government budget deficit of 32%. Had there been a more restrictive debt ceiling, as there is in the US, the current euro crisis might have been avoided...
Thank you for the clarity you bring to the situation. Your post should bring clarification to this article and give pause to those who are examining this issue with an open mind.
Cindi thinks very very highly of herself.
to Josh: I may not agree with every single thing Cindi say, but she is articulate, calm, and obviously intelligent. When you say things like "Cindi thinks well of herself," you are engageing in personal attack, not a good way to make a point.
The debt ceiling is appropriate for Governance and it is working as designed. It's preventing Obama from becoming our Ruler.
Really, your the problem with America...Ya you, go take a look in the mirror and realize that yes our current president has some faults as did our previous, but he still is our president and untruthful accusations such as portraying him to be a tyrant is dishonorable....and before anyone says anything else im independent with a family serving in afghanistan. Shame on you Tom stick to the facts
His backroom deals with the pharmaceutical lobby was tyrannical and the insurance-care law cast upon us in the cover of darkness was tyrannical. Had the insurance or pharmaceuticals been squeezed their lobby would be taking out full page ads condemning obamacare and we would be deluged with similar tv ads that now protest potential medicare cuts....instead – not a peep out of either. Their silence is deafening.
I hope you were defending Bush when the liberal media called him with so many disrespectful labels.
I love the folks the blame this all on President Obama. I love the others that say we shouldn't play the blame game. The first seem to magically forget that the Bush/cheney Admin almost doubled the national debt while in office and I believe the debt ceiling was raised 5 times without question. Of course then you'll say but we were fighting Patriotic War's – Bush/cheney lied to the American people about their reasons for wanting into Iraq, of course using 9/11 as their personal stamps of approval (disgusting!!!!!!). Meanwhile how much more could have been done in Afghanistan and at our borders if we weren't drawn so thin because of Iraq (which of course will revert back to a hell hole as soon as we leave, heck maybe even fall to Iran). Companies like Haliburton (cheney connection), Blackwater, and many others that landed no bid contracts to profit off the Iraq war and American tax payer (Corporate welfare???), and what, stole money and in Haliburton's case (one of many jobs) was hired to provide water for our troops – yeah non potable ask some of your returning GIs. Not to mention Walter Reed Hospital, send the boys and girls to fight them forget when they get home. Then all the while passing tax breaks on to the richest of the rich (while adding to the debt which you obviously forgot). The next group doesn't want to play the blame game for all the reasons mentioned above and so many more. One of my favorite – how many jobs left this country under the Bush/cheney watch..... and if it had happened under President Obama's watch would you have noticed then????????? HMMM??? Tom this isn't aimed at you (necessarily) with all the hatred for Obama and so little reflection on the Corrupt and I contend treasonous prior Admin. it does make me wonder how much of this is plain bigotry. (By the way the first 800 billion in stimulus was signed by Bush/cheney I'm sure you forgot!!)
So how does this comment help us today, right now, in this problem? The way forward is not backward. Granted, things need to be called as they are. But discovering whose p00p we are walking around in does not keep us from the fact the we are all in a mess, all need to pull up our boots, right now, and all wade through it hoping that we can eliminate it before it eliminates us.
Bush sucked.and I think Reagan did too, but Obama's stimulus paid for acorn workers with caulk guns, billboards, and the Fast and Furious debacle. The man and his spouse have been spending like a drunken sailor. Nixon was rightfully chastized by the media for running the WH air conditioning on succh a low setting he could enjoy a hearth in the heat of summer, but obama got a break when he allowed his relatives to buzz the statue of liberty in air force one with a fighter escort – scaring the bloomers off bloomberg.
The help is to increase spending due to our economic state, not contract. The discussion going on right now goes back to the depression and cutting government spending ended up extending the depression. You will have more to worry about soon enough, it's not this silly discussion but the effect on our economy
Shame on you, Tom. You are part of the problem. Obama is not a dictator anymore than Regan or Bush were dictators. Oh, and Obama is not the antichrist notwithstanding what Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck say. When you get your information from entertainers like RL and GB, expect to sound like a raving maniac, bigot because that's what they are. Grow up, respect your president and hope the teabaggers don't sink our ship because they are using axes on the hull as we speak.
@Tom & Roger..
Let's talk backroom deals that produced an unfunded drug benefit that didn't even dicker with the pharm's for a price break on drugs for seniors, let's talk about unfunded wars on the U.S. credit card that made profiteers rich (Halliburton, Blackwater), let's talk about the fact that the system was rigged to roll senior's of their life savings in a Wall Street scam, and take the middle class home buyer with shady dealing home mortgage loans. Let's talk about 22 million jobs and a healthy surplus under Clinton and 1.6 million jobs created under Bush both served 8 years. The debt ceiling was raised 7 time during the Bush failed administration, and the federal deficit was doubled twice. The bulk of Bush's debt was created by two tax cuts, not paying as you go for wars, and the TARP bailout were pushed down the road to come due in the terms of the next two congresses, and the next president
Where were you and why were you silence when that was going on?.
I can't believe Fareed is still acting as if the Tea Party was ever a credible political force. Just stop and think for a second: How in the world could a bunch of average, ordinary Joes off the street, who can't even spell right, get the capital to fund hundreds of buses, hold dozens of rallies all in the same day (at nice, posh venues I might add), and crank out thousands of ads without even telling anybody who they came from? All this despite clearly being in the minority of the American public. If they really wanted to cut spending, then they would have protested at Wall Street or protested against Tim Geithner. Fareed knows these Republican freshmen are getting their money from Wall Street, right? That's supposed to be "raising awareness"?! Nah... Anybody who pretends the Tea Party (who at this point, really, has fallen off the face of the Earth) is worth talking is playing you and isn't worth your time.
**I do like your foreign affairs analyses though!
The Koch Brothers have very deep pockets and are paying the tea party bills...
What happens if majority of americans over 250k do agree to pay higher taxes? Think about it. Not eveyone won war contracts or made money off of war. Not everyone made money off of housing dissaster. In fact, mostly global investors made money off of housing disaster. Now banks own houses and land. If people were asked to pay higher taxes, they'd be asked to pay for other people's mess. Technically majority of americans are paying for it because of inflation, decling income and continuous loss of jobs. I don't think people mind paying for social security, healthcare but people are really mad about other people's mess. This is why I think tea party is getting lot of support against any sort of tax increase even for rich who are only paying 15% tax.
the teaparty was created by the republicans to win the midterm elections. they were paid for by dick chenny, and his rich friends, for one reason to get president Obama out of office. they are racist and want this country to become their country and not the majority of the peoples country.when American people realize they have been brainwashed by these people the damage will be done!they knew noone votes in midterm elections, so who's fault is it that they slipped into the door? we have our right to vote and get the right people in office. but we must use this right and really study who is running and for what real reason. folks for the future of our children. get out and vote every election not every four years.
I do not mind paying taxes in fact I am good with it. I do not make 250k a year I understand taxes are needed for paying for the programs that run this country like police firefighters schools and many more. A few problems I see are religious groups pulling in billions of dollars with no taxation at all. I am not getting why peoples spiritually needs mass amounts of money unless they worship money. Also when I hear about all these jobs that could be lost because of taxing rich people it makes me wonder does it really matter at all these individuals or people like them already sent jobs over to other countries for cheaper markets and less regulations in the work environment and still would even if there were no crisis.
Yeah well, that whole thing about taxing the wealthy and loosing jobs is bull anyway. Companies don't employ people because they have extra money lying around. Companies employ people because they need employees to do work. If I can comfortably afford to pay more taxes the people in the two brackets above me should be able to as well. Also, I pay every penny of what I owe every year and believe the wealthy and corporations should have to as well.
"Tea Party Astroturf Funders Caught On Tape (8/14/2010)"
"The Rich Have Misdirected the Anger of the Right into Silly Tea Parties (4/15/2009)"
"Who Funds the Republican Tea Parties? (4/13/2009)"
Nice cartoons but I prefer a little more realism like Bugs Bunny.
Maybe if someone dropped an anvil on your head you'd come out of that mental coma you're in now.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped
A ceiling is not the issue. Running a country will a balanced budget is the issue. Period!
"Don't look at reality #1 - only look at reality #2" Oh, yeah, that's smart. (NOT)
Your right the tea party is not made up of professional politicians, the pro pols have gotten us into this mess, now its time for common sense joes to get us back on track. It will be hard but it must be done and as quickly as possible or it will be to late to keep us from falling into national bankruptcy.The dems and some repubs just want to take baby steps and gently ease our way out with little or no pain, it will not work. cut,cap and balance is the only sensible approach!
CCB will never happen...neither party REALLY wants it to happen.
We already were aware of the problem of our growing national debt; the Tea Partiers' making it a much bigger problem than it actually is has only served to make the cost of servicing that debt higher, which means we get less for what we pay in taxes since more has to go to interest on the national debt. Thanks for nuthin', TPers.
The Tea Party didn't create the debt....and if 14 trillion worth doesn't get your attention what will? We have poor management in DC and have for years all the Tea Party is doing is bringing that to your attention.
No, that isn't all the tea partiers are doing. They are intimidating Republican representatives worse than any lobbyist ever thought of doing. They are making threats and calling for the ouster of anyone who doesn't agree with them. These are not just calm people who disagree in conversation. These are people who spit on Congressmen and opening carried guns to a town hall meeting by the president. These are people who believe Sarah Palin could perform well as president! Jumpin Jehosaphat. Don't believe they are grown-up, sensible people. Just listen to Bachmann sometime or Pawlenty.
Not just regarding your statement, patcee: But I guess what all of you are saying, those who can't get over blaming the "other side", is that the only answer is a civil war - cause that's just how productive your comments are. Is there anything else that can be done, or are all of you content with allowing someone to label you (or go on labeling yourself) blue, red, democrap, republicant so that you can blame the other side? This is NOT about Bush, Obama, Palin (Lord help us), or any individual. It is about a way of thinking, a lifestyle of enjoy the now and let others pay later. Well, later has come and the majority still seem to be content with blowing a peashooter at the rider of the elephant storming through and crushing our lives.
Read these, Cindi, to see how you are contributing to and perpetuating the problem.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/the-cult-that-is-destroying-america/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/opinion/krugman-the-centrist-cop-out.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
that is so not true! anyone with brains knows that this party was created so the repub could win the midterms to get rid of President Obama and to hell with the country. they do not care if they destroy us. their main goal ,which they have admitted too in poublic is to make president Obama a one term presient, no matter what the cost.
Many teabaggers are on social security, medicare. Many of them voted for Bush who led us into two wars. Many of them allowed the Graham Leach Bliley Act to pass leaving investment banks free to trade in securtized mortgages. Oh, yes. This debt was created equally by everyone.
why dont we cut all govt assistance from tea bag members. social security, medicare, food subsidies etc. Theyre so naive, they choose to ignore how much they really need the govt
Michelle Bachmann just admitted that its almost impossible to buy a home without federal loans.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/28/282221/bachmann-defends-using-federal-loans-she-denounced-its-almost-impossible-to-buy-a-home-without-them/
As a single working parent I know that when things get tough, as they often do, I cut back on spending while at the same time bring in more money by working more overtime or taking on a second job for a while. Neither are very fun but it works. More money coming in & less going out till I get back on my feet again. I realize that is very simplistic but the basic premise works. Our country needs to do both. Raise taxes for now and cut spending. But it takes people who are willing to work together and right now our country is so divided and so concerned with trying to be right and make the other side look wrong. God, my kids even understand this! ! But right now there are so many so called adults out there that are acting like children about this issue that I really dont see them being able to reach a compromise.
Where was this "Tea Party" outrage when George W. Bush slashed taxes while starting two wars, thus making these huge deficits inevitable? Frankly, I don't buy their claims for one minute. They were completely silent during all those years of fiscal irresponsibility, but they suddenly discovered a deep and abiding love of fiscal responsibility the moment Obama came to office.
The fact is that deficits are not necessarily irresponsible. In fact, you SHOULD be willing to run a deficit during times of crisis, just as a guy who loses his job might have to borrow some money until he gets back on his feet. The problem is borrowing when times are GOOD, which is just absurdly irresponsible: that's when you should be paying down debts and saving up for a rainy day. We did that when Bush was in office, but now that Obama is in office during the economic hangover from Bush's binge, we suddenly want him to balance the books. This is exactly backwards. You should run deficits during crises, and surpluses during good times.
Times haven't been good for a long time. The big problem is that right now things are much worse than we were 5 years ago ... and we are borrowing at a greater rate than we did then.
Where is the Republican outrage that one of their own – a Bush, in fact – was so unbelievably focused on one thing – get the bad guys no matter what it takes that we spent our way into 2 protracted wars to the tune of 2 trillion dollars, and we have lied to ourselves while being lied to by the President and Congress about it for 10 bloody years! There is no freaking way Barack Obama alone could have spent enough money in 27 months to get us to where we are now. People like Rand Paul simply doen't want to have to pay. They feel they are special. In the last 50 years my taxes have been raised so many times I lost count, but I will bet you he finds as many tax credits as he possibly can find to not pay taxes. No wonder he is so upset; he would actually have to pay his fair share for a change.
Bush didn't even really want to "get the bad guys"! Recall that George Bush wasted about $8.5 bil in the Iraq War that never went accounted for. Bush gave up looking for Bin Laden six months after 9/11 and called off the search for him when they cornered him at Tora Bora!
We don't have ourselves to blame, we have the Tea Baggers to blame.
and also the handful of smart GOP members who either bought into the tea baggery, or let themselves be hijacked.
The teabags are a sentiment, but obviously not based in reality. they are a nice hallmark card of naive but good intentions.
How did the GOP lose grip on reality and follow such naive persuasions.?
fareed, thru the year i disagree with many thing u point out but this time i do agree that u hit the nail squarely on the head. the tea confederates party push the democrat way too far, and now the people are turning on these confederates, they are seeing just how dirty the dishes the people been served all these year. with that said, the american people have created a detergent call 'fair taxes' to clean up their plates.
Im from the south, myself, where the tea baggers have regular round ups. We, in the south also have the worst education systems in the nation and I think that has a great deal to do with it. The republicans politicians work against any education reforms with good reason. To stay in power, they must keep the masses poorly educated and thus easy to control with lies and rhetoric. Our massive defecit was caused almost entirely by the republicans. It started in the reagan era with massive tax cuts and defecit spending, then onto bush senior and finally bush junior with more massive tax cuts and massive war spending. Keep em dumb and uneducated, that way you can convince the masses that a 1st term president caused the past 30 years of defecit spending and waste. Even after him trying his best to negotiate a 4 trillion dollar defecit cut over the next 10 years, the tea baggers and their lap dog politians put their spin on it. Noooo, we didnt cause this problem, it happened in 2 years since the new guy took office. What the world must be thinking looking at such ignorate masses. So easily led astray. We would have even more worries if there were any warring superpowers left. A country where the masses can so easily be fooled and led astray is surely in for a big fall.
spot on. what a great point. the un-education of our society has been fomented by leadership so they can retain power. I would agree in many cases that is true.
the GOP obsession without any decency or reality is teh smell of tea baggery. which is the smell of uneducated, single-minded maniacs - serial killer minds.
hey the tea party in Congress is doing just what Bin Laden would want them to do create havoc on the eeconomy and burden the American middle class with rising interest rates
wow. such logic. such foresight. such an ability to tie everything up into a nice little package and give it to us so we all understand it.
i guess. (please note the sarcastic tone with which I write)
P.S. bin laden is dead, or are you channeling for him?
Damn, you're stupid. Don't forget to breathe.
Cindi is right when she says we have ourselves to blame, in some measure anyway. For years we have been willing to vote, if we voted at all, for people who kept telling us that we could have everything and not pay for it, or that the "free" market will solve everthing. Has it worked? I believe we do have to raise the debt ceiling and that at this point in our history this is a manufacturied emergency, but we do need to think of some new ways to fix things. Sitting by our typewriters just yelling the same old things at one another might feel good, but it really does nothing for the situation. There are some good ideas here, Tyler's public finance for elecions law, for example, but we have to gett off our duffs and fight for them. Calling each other morons and idiots make us sound like junior high school students saying Nyah, Nyah, Nyah. For starters, when we quote figures back and forth, how about we name our sources always? If figures don't jive, and one set comes from Fox News and one set comes from MSNBC, why don't we consider the sources and think that maybe the truth is somewhere inbetween. How about we stop thinking "Rush Limbaugh said," or "Thom Hartmann" said, and go look up stuff for ourselves? Yes, it's work, but otherwise we are just thinking what others tell us to think, and that is what power-hungery people count on, that we will not do the work of thinking for ourselve. Just a few thoughts . . .
So the Teatards want to take credit for bringing all this attention to the National Debt? Congratulations, front and center it is. Are the Teatards responsible for the National Debt being so high? No, our government is and has been for DECADES, so that means not just our current administration which Teatards seem to like to mainly blame. While the Teatards are not quite responsible for where the National Debt is, they sure seem Hellbent on making it 10 times worse. Cut, Cap, and Balance, ugh, a terrible proposal. Cutting spending, good idea, but as the Debt took decades to build, you need to let it decrease over the same sort of time period, not in a single decade or 2. That just places extra-heavy burdens on all of us. I dont mind sacrificing some of my fair share, but not to the point of being bent over and sodomized. Also, cutting government spending means cutting government jobs, creating more unemployment (and more people needing unemployment benefits), thats JUST what we need right now. Cap and Balance, great for a perfect and ideal world, unfortunately, we live in the real world. Cap and balance will make our government unable to effectively respond to any major and unanticipated crisis. Also, requiring a balanced budget every year will just lead to a yearly political fight that will lock up the government just as this current debt debacle is doing right now. Those months of protracted fighting each year could be used better, and we deserve better. WE DESERVE BETTER.
The article is spot on. The spending amounts have already passed congress. That is over. We have to pay the bills. But I have seen this from many Americans in their own practice. When times get tough, they stop paying their bills. Not because they are totally out of money. They just believe once you don't have enough to cover the month to month expenses your obligations to pay for what you aleady bought is over. Look at t party star child Joe Walsh. Owes over $100k in child support for years now. Claims he doesn't have the money to pay... yet gave $35k to his campaign which then in fact paid back much of that loan. Yet the man still feels like he should have to pay with his 'new' money because that was past debt.
Obama does have an ace in the hole though. He can issue an executive order to the treasury to borrow the money and pay the bills. Essentially congress has given conflicting demands to our treasury. They have created spending and debt obligations that under the 14th ammendment we are obligated to pay. There is no getting around that. Then they have passed financial legislation known as the debt ceiling which will now conflict with the demand to pay our debt. In the end, the financial regulation will lose out to the 14th ammendment and the debt WILL BE PAID! Obama will have to put his presidency on the line to make the executive order. With a right wing leaning supreme court they may just try to stick it to him and tell him he essentially broke the law. I doubt that would happen because they are not nutty t baggers and know what it would mean if America can't get loans except at staggeringly high interest. Essentially this game of chicken could pretty much mean 25% unemployment and a dow at $4k. America's wealth could pretty much be wiped out in a year or less.
Zakaria is a tool. He will never criticize his buddy Obama. Hey Fareed, instead of acting like you're better than all of us, go fix your failing marriage and focus on being a better husband and father.
Raj,
Get back to your desk at the call center in New Delhi and answer the phones!
Hey Chris, get back to your job flipping burgers and wiping cr@p off the bathroom floor at McDonalds.
Its a shame you can't have an intelligent debate without attacking people personally and their characteristics.
No sure why Zakaria keeps perpetuating the myth of a 'debt ceiling'. There is only a payment ceiling, there is no debt ceiling. The debts incurred already exist, and there is no legislation whatsoever preventing the accrual of more debt. The ceiling governs payments not debt. That is why we are at risk of 'default' (that's happens when you stop making payments, has nothing to with whether or not you assume more debt). Perpetuating the myth of the 'debt ceiling' is making things worse not better.
Wow – that's news to me. If that is the case, then there should be no argument. Perhaps there should be a debt ceiling then?
"To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought." WELL, MR. ZAKARIA, THAT IN FACT DOES HAPPEN ALL THE TIME. THE SOLUTION: GO BACK TO MACY'S SEARS, WAL-MART OR WHERE EVER YOU BOUGHT THE THINGS ON CREDIT THAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD AND RETURN IT FOR A FULL CREDIT ON YOUR CREDIT CARD. THE SAME LOGIC SHOULD BE USED HERE; WE NEED TO RETURN THE ITEMS (medicaid, all the multiple programs for the poor, pensions, social security, federal salaries and benefits, pork programs ect) TO LEVELS THAT ARE AFFORDABLE WITHIN THE U.S.'s BUDGET.
Dave, I would return "W" and Cheny and his war in Iraq in a heartbeat and get all those dead soldiers back on our credit card. I am sure since you are a republican god you can make it happen!!!!
Has anyone thought that this whole things is being allowed, encouraged, at least not resisted enough, so as to stick it to the Chinese? I mean, I think something like 70% of China's foreign exchange reserves are in US dollars. If the dollar tanks, China is going to be a hurtin'. If they were on board with us about Iran, North Korea, the South Seas, etc., perhaps our government would be more concerned than it is. But perhaps this is a round-about-way of getting to China? I don't know. Just a wild thought that flew into my uneducated brain. Surely our country would not resort to that. I mean, we can trust our politicians to do the right thing. (again with the sarcasm)
It is definitely organized but not for sticking it to the chinese. There are those who will manipulate the US currency for credit default swaps just like they did in Greece. In fact it is already happening as the DOW tumbles. The people who are rich enough to play that game have infested the US Government, and neither do they care about the US Taxpayer. It's "cashout" time (remember the last year of the BUSH Adminstration?) This is US Politics at it's ugliest, but at its most financially efficeint for its real "backers". The Chinese are loving this, and probably part of that crowd reaping big profits as the US economy crumbles. Oh yes, make no mistake, it's definitely very well planned and orchestrated. All you have to do is watch and follow the money trail.
The Chinese only own $1.5 trillion of our $14.5 trillion debt. 68% of the debt is owned by US interest...
China is doing a good enough job sticking it to themselves.
The US debt ceiling was set high like Denmark, however, the Democrats and Obama went on a spending spree that blew a hole in the ceiling. They followed the mantra of giving to the less fortunate/lazy so that they can the same lifestyle of the working public (free medical, free housing, free transportation, free money). It never occurred to Democrats that the working public deserve what they earned and it should not be wasted on the leeches of society.
Workers in China work hard because there is no safety net. Negative reinforcement is a great motivator.
Bart
Get some facts before you demonstrate your ignorance.
Bush requested the debt limit raised 8 times.
How is that the Dems overspent when for 3/4 of Bushes ter,s he had Repub congresses.
IDIOT
Scott, there was someone earlier had a great name for Bart, he called the teatards. Bart- it fits dude.
The reason the debt went up so much under Obama is that he put the two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, on the books; which Bush did not do. $2.5 trillion dollars worth.
Another Republican in denial.
You know, something people don't realize and haven't really talked about lately is that most of those Democrats got voted out of office because they didn't act like real Democrats, and they didn't keep their promise of 'change'. So in a way, despite the fact that what we got in 2010 was much worse, those midterm elections were a repudiation of conservative policies and giving breaks to corporations. The Republican party and "Centrist" Democrats are a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America.
Here's an idea. We stop giving billions of dollars to countries that hate us and use that money to pay our bills and take care of our own first.
You mean like Pakistan. But then how are the Taliban going to be supported? }:-\
The voting public chose this. Members of Congress were duly elected. This situation did not arise yesterday. My take... There is a responsibility to report to the public "Truth", facts. Facts do exist. Reporting accurate consequences, would serve the public interest. I do not see this...Why?
You and Paul Krugman seem to be on the same page. As Cenk Uygur said, the media has become so obsessed with access that they've come to the point where they have forgotten their two most critical functons: to challenge the government rather than empower it, and to divulge facts. I highly recommend reading what Dr. Krugman has to say about the "Centrist Cop-Out" of our press.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/the-cult-that-is-destroying-america/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/opinion/krugman-the-centrist-cop-out.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
US losing it's leadership ability around the world. Who is responsible to this disaster?
Republicans? Democrats?
New Tea Party?
Voters who vote for Tea Party?
World need a new leadership?
The only problem with this piece of writing is the use of the word "we"–unless by "we" you mean the right wing of the Republican Party. The idea that we can charge things on the credit card and then call the company and say, oh, no, we've decided we don't want to pay for that stuff we bought after all–that comes entirely from the Tea Party.
"Because when a legislature votes to authorize spending at a certain level but authorizes tax revenues at a lower level, it is assumed that the government will have to borrow the difference."
Since that is an unsustainable path, as is raising taxes any further, the only viable choice is to cut spending.
My fellow Americans,
This country is going to debate and itself into oblivion.
Clearly it's past time to stop debating and pay our bills. We're a nation whose debt has been hemmoraging since President Bush (part III and IV) was elected. We ALL know (including the GOP)how good we had it, as a country, when Bill Clinton was in office; surpluses and balanced budgets. Now the Republicans (bullies) who ran the economy into the ground during Bush presidency (and who ate up the surpluses) are trying to steer President Obama off a cliff AND they're willing to take our country right along with him.
This country doesn't even feel like a DEMOCRACY anymore. Franlkly, I feel like I'm being held as a political hostage and I wonder about my kids futures too.
PLEASE get behind the President who this country elected. I'm originally from Ohio so I know how some Ohioians think. John Boehner is not fighting for this country. He's fighting because a Black man is in charge of this country and he can't accept it.
We elected President Obama, now damnit let's trust him and support him!
If the debt problem is to be solved, then getting behind the guy that is the worst offender (Obama) seems like pretty bad advice. I am sure you are nice but you sound like a democrat slogan machine.
Atlanta is in Georgia, Georgia in a brain washed Republican state, so this statement figures. Feff, use google, I am sure you can, google THE HISTORY OF THE US DEBT , You will find that your illustrious Ronald Reagan , Bush and "W" got us in this mess. They alone own around 9,6 trillion of the debt. Be proud of that.
We're all at fault for our debt, but Republicans are the worst offenders. They reduce taxes, thereby massively increasing wealth held in individuals hands to such extremes eliminating the middle class. At the same time, all of us continue to spend. Republicans on police state actions and Democrats on social programs. There was once a great country that did the same and they wound up in the same spot we're going. No middle class, high inflation, high employment. It's called Mexico.
For Marc below,
Facts are on my side. Google I did and found the following
"According to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, during his eight fiscal years Bush ran up an average of $410 billion in deficit spending per year, while Obama is running up an average of $1.413 trillion in deficit spending per year - or $1.003 trillion a year more than Bush.
The numbers forecast for Obama were low. Actual were higher.
Face it Marc, they are all bad but your guy is the worst by FAR!!
My son was born here in the USA I am a Canadian, my wife American, I just registered him as a Canadian, the USA is not a safe place any longer.. we are in the process of finding jobs in Canada.
Thank very much for the hospitality.. Drop by
What damage? The end of the "TAX AND SPEND" mentality has finally arrived. We should be rejoicing, not fearing! Some call it "damage", the rest of us call it necessary surgery!
Fareed has forgotten one salient fact in his thesis; the United States has not had a budget in almost three years, 800 days and counting. So there is no budget to borrow against. That plus the fact that two wars and the Medicare Part D plan all not paid for, we can thank GW Bush for. He inherited a 200 billion surplus and left us with a 1.5 trillion debt. Thank you George Bush.
I believe every one underestimated the danger of the tea party. We practically now have 3 parties republican, democrats and new members of the congress better known as tea parties. The fact is the democrat and the republican have long history of pointing issues and putting in place plans to solve them. In the contrary the tea party has a well known history of pointing out issues and problems but apperatly enough the tea party does not have the mechanism and the tool in their tool box to present solutions. Republicans are not the party of NO but certainly the tea party is with no doubt the party of NO. Unless someone can deal with the tea party NOTHING will be achieved here. The 14th might be the only way out of here.
If I ran my house like Congress ran the country I'd be out on the street. Someone toss Congress out on the street and get someone in there who will pay the damn bill and manage the money better. Those deadbeat Tea Party people need to go along with the rest of em.
Almost every Tea Party Republican I know thrives on talk of crisis AND is heavily invested in gold (on the advise of Glen Beck and others). Is self-interest in play here?
The problem is not that the debt cieling is pointless, it is that the debt cieling is toothless. Congress should not legally be able to pass a budget that exceeds the debt cieling without FIRST raising the debt cieling. Make that little procedural change and your point of not paying for things we already bought becomes moot. They shoudl have had the debt cieling debate before they passed the budget.
What's going on in Congress is exactly a macrocosm of what probably happened to millions of unemployed Americans. Out of a job they finally found themselves on reduced income. They could not raise their debt ceiling without a job and their credit rating slipped. THey had to make choices on which creditors they could pay, and they had to cut spending. Without jobs America DEFAULTS. GET A CLUE CONGRESS!
One other thing, when President Clinton was in office we even had a Vice President (AL Gore) who was concerned about our environment, our climate, and about greenhouse emmissions. The GOP sat back and laughed at him; now look at what's happening; year after year people are drowning in major floods and hurricanes, tsunamis and it's warm outside in the mid-west until thanksgiving to where you don't know whether to eat turkey or go to the pool. And let's not even discuss gas prices.
Republicans quiet down and wait your turn. Give Obama a chance to fix the economy so you all can screw it up again later with never-ending "wars" and big tax rebate checks and by not using diplomacy with anyone who doesn't look like the white man in the mirror.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. We have run out of gas! Cut, cap and balance does not feed the machine.
GREAT!!!!
More scare tactics and political rhetoric... I wonder how much of my 401k I will loose this time. I wonder how much of my house value will I loose this time.
I hear you MightyMoo. Let's get rid of these folks that use self-serving rhetoric and fear mongering and scare tactics to cause political and fiscal distress.
By the way, this Nancy Grace Style news for all news stations with scare tactics, self-serving rhetoric, and fear mongering isn't cutting it for me any more. Why is everyone adding drama. The US has been through much worse financial woes than this. If we want to solve the country's financial woes, take control of fiscal responsibility out of the executive and legislative branches and create a fiscal branch separate of the two. After all, we have a judicial branch that isn't accountable to either legislative or executive branches. Why not a fiscal branch. I am tired of self-serving political rhetoric tearing this country apart.
Yes...if only we could get rid of the debt ceiling,then we could be like Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc...and other countries whose debt is not questioned.
Strange to me how this logic does not apply to abortion. We all know how babies are made, but that's not how the pro-abortion logic addresses the issue is it? First you have the baby, then you can change your sleeping habits. Don't decide you don't want kids AFTER spreading your legs...
Donald Trump is being awfully quiet these days, isn't he.
Thank God for that...
No Zakaria the world will not wonder every time these issues get raised if the US will live up to its debt obligations. Even liberal CNN studies showed the debt would be paid if we don't raise the ceiling, it's just other items we'll live without. It is the propaganda of the left that negotiating about the debt ceiling is a bad thing when in reality it is a good thing. This is how we get our financial house in order. Now go watch the cartoon, "I'm just a bill" and chill.
Does the author have a tent ceiling so he can fit all his camels under one roof?
He could probably fit them all in your skull because it's pretty much empty right now.
Your racism only makes you look weak and lonely. The contempt you have for Fareed comes from a place of hate and ignorance for anyone who is not white and successful. Perhaps you should go to college and work hard like he did and maybe you might learn a few things. Individuals like you are a minority in this country and are afraid of the changing landscape. Please to us all a favor and take your racism somewhere else. You are touched.
Let's look at some numbers. If you watched the 1st video David Koch stated that were about 800,000 tea party members in the U.S. The ADULT population of the U.S. is approximately 208 million. So now you have a group that comprise less than 1/2 of 1% of the adults in the U.S. basically holding this Country hostage.
Wake up tea party, you are being used by the Koch brothers through their funding of AFP to simply make them richer and richer while the vast majority of Americans suffer the consequences. The tea party is no more than "America's Taliban" doing the dirty work for the ultra rich Koch brothers.
Usama Bin Laden often stated his goal was to destroy the American economic system which he couldn't accomplish. Today it's being accomplished from within by "America's Taliban", i.e. the tea party.
The budget was passed and is already law. The 14th Amendment implicitly and explicitly provides that we will, we must, pay out legitimate bills-and since the budget is law, the bills are by definition legitimate. Invoke the 14th and screw the "debt limit".
I'm afraid that Zakaria is spot on this one. The rest of the world has now clearly seen the ugly face of America and I don't know why any of them would want to do business with us. Great job, republicans. We're now the laughing stock of the world thanks to you. At least McCain is starting to wake up, but it may be too late.
Both Republicans and Democrats are and have been the problem for many years. The Tea Party is just a collection of like minded citizens that feel like government is way way too large and intrusive. Nothing more. Good thing they showed up to try save this country and get it back on course.
They just need to realize that it can't be done overnight. It took a long time to get here and will take a long time to get out. We need to just raise the debt ceiling and work on a real plan.
The funny thing about the whole debate is that they are arguing about 1-4 trillion in saving when we need to be talking about 10-15 trillion.
Our present course will have us 23 trillion in debt in 10 years. A few trillion is not going to save us. Time for a long term plan that will solve the problem.
Why haven't we seen any Tea Party rallies at Wall Street? Why are they taking money from the richest people in the country who are contributing the most to our deficit? Be honest with yourself, what do you think would happen if the Koch Brothers and Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street execs pulled their money from under the Tea Party rug? You aren't foolish enough to think they'd still have the capacity to organize themselves do you?
This all boils down to color; black, white and a lack of green. I suggest the red (neckers) go back to the woodpile they came from and let the country dig out of the red that Bush put us in.
Increase taxes across the board, reduce spending and leave review social security and medicare in terms of ensuring that it exists for generations to come.
Zakaria's analogy about the Visa bill is backward. He says: "First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits." However, when your spending habits FAR EXCEED your ability to even pay your bill, and the only way for you to "pay your bill" is to borrow more money, then you are not, in fact, truly paying your bill. He should have said, "First you change your spending habits (i.e. you immediately begin spending as little as possible), then you pay the bill (with the money that resulted from spending less)."
Dear Rob,
WRONG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zakaria's analogy about the Visa bill is backward. He says: "First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits." However, when your spending habits FAR EXCEED your ability to even pay your bill, and the only way for you to "pay your bill" is to borrow more money, then you are not, in fact, truly paying your bill. He should have said, "First you change your spending habits (i.e. you immediately begin spending as little as possible), then you pay the bill (with the money that resulted from spending less).
Rob, you have it backwards, not Zakaria. His main point when he said that was that we must pay our bill no matter what, and to do that the debt limit must be raised. Why pay the bill on time, even if we have to borrow? Because we can avoid most of the problems that come with a government default if we pay our bill. Then after that we could work on fixing our spending habits. This is better than NOT paying the bill, dragging EVERYONE off the cliff, and THEN finally trying to fix things (which by this point would be much more difficult to fix). Thinking about it though, the situation you described (change spending habits in order to pay the bill) would be ideal. However, you do understand that the government has a few days left before defaulting right? With such a limit in time, how do you suppose the government can "save up" some money after enacting some spending cuts, then using that money to pay the bill?
Last years budget was never passed. The democrats never passed a budget. Giving a president, who has repeatedly shown that he doesn't care how much the government spends, a bigger spending limit without concrete spending cuts is like giving a shopaholic another credit card. If each of you were $100,000 in debt, would you continue to pay just the interest payments without some plan on how to pay back the balance. I doubt it. The democrats need to stop saying that the government is in debt because the wealthy don't pay enough taxes, when Obama's favorite company (GE) didn't pay a dime in taxes last year. Jeffery Imelt, CEO of GE, is getting his moneys worth out of his friendship with Obama.
It's time to cut spending and raise taxes for all. All Americans are responsible for this mess we are in, so all Americans should have to sacrifice. Of course, both sides will just call me names and whine and complain, but the taxes of this country are far, far below what they should be already. A country that starts to depend on the government for everything has to have higher taxes to pay for those programs. Yet, America thinks somehow they can support everyone but never raise taxes. It doesn't work.
To avoid raising the debt ceiling, all we have to do is immediately cut spending by about 40%. We could do this be eliminating Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, as well as end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Problem solved! No taxes need to be raised.
Problem not solved. Now millions of grannys and grandpas are living in a cardboard box on your street. Diseased, starving and crying children are sleeping in front of your house. Adult robbers, highwaymen, and burglars are killing you and your family for food, medicine, and money. Welcome to the Dark Ages II. (p.s. are you really that dumb?)
The damage has already been done. Michele Bachmann stopped wearing makeup and Sara Palin opened her mouth. But are the politicians to be blamed for the stalemate and gridlock in Washington or rather the stupid and complacent American voters who keep electing these deceitful politicians to office? let's face it, we know what are the interests of the GOP. They are those of the wealthy in America. But sadly to say, the ill conceived American people flocked the polls in record numbers during the midterm elections to give back control of the House to the party that is anti-American. Go figure that out. But why? Well, sadly to say because they would rather see the GOP be successful in setting up more roadblocks and stalling progress in Washington so that America's first African-American president fails. That is America for you.
When the Democrats had control of Congress and the white house, all they did was run our deficit from 1.2 trillion to 3.5 trillion. Exactly, how are the Republicans responsible for this mess? That's like you going out and buying a $75,000 corvette and then blaming your wife on the fact that you are in debt. Get real. There is too much finger pointing and not enough solutions. CUT SPENDING
One thing I disagree with this article is that after this is done, The republicans would not dare comeback and have this fight again, It has been damaging for Boehner, the Tea Baggers, the Republicans, with public awareness and dissatisfaction totally against them.
2001 – Bush is president. He declares war on Afganistan. He declares war on Iraq. He gives tax cuts to the rich. He passes the medicare subscription bill to pay for seniors meds. When Democrats screamed that you can't declare two wars, give tax cuts to the rich, and pay for meds for the elderly - you'll bankrupt us! When American buy homes and junk they can't afford. When we are finally bankrupt, the teabaggers blame Obama. It really galls me - it outrages me - it is stunning in its ignorance and bigotry.
Democrats controlled Congress and widly suported the prescription drug program. In fact most Democrats ran on the idea and Bush took it up and in my view made a mistake with it. Argue all you want about Iraq and I will call the same on Afghanistan for your party. Obama said time and time again we were fighting in the wrong place. Now we are fighting in Libya. If we want to control spending bring home the troops. I get that but assigning blame to only one party is insane.
Caron,
I agree. It is interesting that the Tea Party was not making any noise during the Bush years when our country plunged into two wars and went on a spending spree. During the years of Raygun who announced at the New York Stock Exchange to "Let the bull run loose" to which people cried with glee marked an era in which free trade and capitalism could not be stopped.Trickle down Raygunomics was clearly a disaster for the poor and middle class and we began to see a rise in the homeless population not to mention dozens of mental health facilities that were shut down by Raygun, leaving the mentally ill homeless.Then there was El Salvador which was a large scale slaughter led by US backed forces which was really just about us wanting to police the world and call anyone out who refuses to ket us steal their natural resources. It is amazing to me that the middle class still holds Raygun up on a platter when he did so much damage to them and the millions of ignorant people that voted for Bush TWICE. My contempt for the Tea Party folks grows by the day and it was clear to be from the start that this was all about racism but since our media has become so p.c. we cannot talk about racism and bigotry without a sever backlash. These folks will not admit their ignorance and racism but they don't have to. It is evident in every move they make to try and bring our president to his knees. They are voting against their own best interest and if they can't see that then I have no empathy for them. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking. I suppose the Republicans have amnesia from the eight years of Bush and is spending spree. They certainly do not want to talk about it.
While I agree in principle to most of what Mr. Fareed Zakaria states, we part company over the following,
"From now on, every time the debt ceiling needs to be raised, the world will wonder: Will the U.S. stand by its promises or will it break them? Something that was taken for granted – the credibility of the United States – is now surrounded by uncertainty. In her interview with me to be aired this Sunday at 10am ET/PT on GPS, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde says that "Global markets have always had a positive bias towards the United States but that is now eroded somewhat." For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame.
Here's my response: I owe nothing to any Government or its people beyond the borders of the United States of America and frankly, don't give a tinker's damn what they think. I have a responsibility to my immediate family and my children...period. And don't even think about including ME in your self-serving comment about 'we have only ourselves to blame.' BOVINE SPATTER
I'm not the one who got the good citizens of America into the state of affairs we're facing, that blame rests directly on the shoulders of each and every one of those snot-nosed, whinning bureaucratic , no-backbone, thieving idiots that call themselves "leaders" in Washington, D.C., regardless of which side of any party line they're standing on.
You need to do your homework, Mr. Zakaria, and take a hard look at any human being that votes themselves pay raises in the dark of night on backs of hard working Americans, and the only answer they can come up with to solve problems THEY created is to steal more money from already empty pockets with spaceous talk of more taxes.
What a crock. Knightsix
The Hill's predicament just highlights just what kind of problem solvers, strategists and individuals, not team players representing the best interests of the American people are in those offices...it's very sad..they are mostly thinking about themselves and their future...not the country's future.... as the saying goes..."It's all about ME."
Their 'on-stage' behaviours reinforce the fact they want us to pay attention to them and hopefully we'll think they are doing a great job.....far from it
They are attention seekers.."HEY look a met, look at me, hey, over here, look at me."
It's obvious when elections come around for those representatives, they will go silently into the night....they will not be re-elected.
Sometimes it takes a situation like this to allow us to see just waht kind of people we have elected...we won't get burnt the next time we vote...hopefully...but again WE put them there and thank goodness we can take the mout as well...it's our choice.
why is no one talking about justice system cuts? Our Justice system and the prison system which it supports is out of control. The U.S. has 748 prisoners per 100,000 people, #1 in the world, at a cost of almost 78 dollars everyday per prisoner. I find it unacceptable that a felon can go to prison and get a free college degree. Unacceptable that there are so many non-violent offenders serving long sentences. This system has been corrupted by private business sector profiteering and no longer represents justice.
Such a minor point. Like concern over a freckle in a patient in septic shock.
just one example of private business run govt programs. thats the broader issue. big business raping the taxpayer and forcing debt through politics by means of bribery and fraud.
Thank to bush we have exhausted our credit in order to police the middle east. Forget repairing our infrastructure. forget being a super power. Our countrys greatness was sabatoged by greed and corruption. Too bad we didn't vote for Ron Paul.
Thanks Fareed,
For making it easy to understand.
The damage is not only economy it is also equally
damaging to western democracy
Our main problem is that we have a government so dysfunctional that our survival as a prosperous nation is threaten. AlQaeda could not have accomplished what Congress and our wet noodle president has done to us. But , on the other hand, does it really matter what happens to sheep?
Fareed, your amplification of congressional grandstanding only hurts America and prolongs this sideshow. Do you work for CNN or al-qaida? Their plan was to disrupt our economy. I'm sure they appreciate your efforts...
Fareed will not become an ostrich.
An ostrich? This is the top story on many stations. The media is in a frenzy. Not exactly breaking news here, duh. The problem is, this media/24 hour political talking point union keeps us from solving problems and increases the damage
You are correct in stating that this crisis was created out of whole cloth. But you left out the part where you identify where it was manufactured. Republicans made the unfortunate decision to fight the 'raise debt ceiling' vote.
Ignoring that fact allows Republicans to act irresponsibly and recklessly. They create a controversy out of whole cloth and then "both sides" get blamed for the irresponsible and reckless behavior.
To say, "we have ourselves to blame" conflates the irresponsible behavior of one party with the other party.
My point is two-fold. I agree that we need to address a US debt issue and fixing Medicare is a big part of that. The second part is this is no way to run a government. Republicans can chose responsible ways to address important issues or they can choose not to.
Republicans should be held accountable. I see very few media outlets holding the GOP accountable for their irresponsible choice to use the raising of the debt ceiling as a way to garner leverage to address an important issue.
As a side note, I thought Democrats and Obama have been more than willing to 'compromise' and work with the GOP. The GOP has shown no effort to work with them. No one wants to appear partisan so they make this issue into 'what's wrong with government' argument.
Now and from here on out, the GOP has been given license to manufacture all sorts of irresponsible and reckless behavior, at the detriment of our ability to govern, because no one will hold them accountable.
Their behavior is not acceptable. It's not responsible and until we acknowledge this, they will continue to act this way.
How has Obama shown that he is willing to work with the GOP. By saying publicly that he will veto every bill that the republican congress has come up with? By saying that Granny will starve to death if Boehner's bill passes? By embracing Harry Reid's bill democratic bill? By lambasting the republicans in every campaign speech since this mess started? Yeah right.
It's not the fight over the debt ceiling but the reality of the debt load on the ceiling that's going to make us lose our AAA rating. The spending cuts proposed by both parties are quite frankly not enough to keep the rating. The facts are if we did not spend a dime more than we have this year, in other words spend the same amount next year, the CBO would rate it as a cut of 9.5 trillion. Put that in perspective now with what the Democrats call draconian cuts. The balnce of the media coverage has been to rage on about how the Republicans are extremists and I quite frankly see it the other way.
I'm sorry, but what makes Zakaria an expert in ANYTHING?
Frank
"I'm sorry, but what makes Zakaria an expert in ANYTHING?"
To answer your question Fareed is far more qualified than anyone that's posted on this board, so far, and he has the credentials to back it up. Go back to the funny papers Frank.
Ha Ha. That's why is rating are so high. They are in the tank because no one wants to listen to someone (like you, Bob) who actually know next to nothing!
Let it collapse.
Fareed is just afraid of what will happen 'afterwards', that's why he thinks mainting the system at all cost is the solution. That is wrong. It is wrong to live off the next generation/s who will have to foot the bills for insanely costly wars, for instance.
The economical and financial systems on this planet have to go.
I hope this is one more step in this direction. Good riddance!
"it was put in place during World War I " Eventually the sickening cost to everyone when the U.S. becomes just an AA bond rated country may prod us to undo the very existence of a debt ceiling.
It is always possible that the so-called Tea Party acts entirely at the direction of a few billionaires, who will eat short term losses just to get that non-white President out in 2012. Bad new for everyone else if so.
Why does it always come down to the fact that Obama is black? He has added more debt in his Presidency that all other presidents combined and the Tea Party folks, who by the way are both black and white, are simply saying enough is enough. CUT SPENDING. REDUCE THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT. We didn't elect a King to take care of all of our needs. I can take care of my own needs. At least in the America I know, I can.
This is the result of continuing to kick the can down the road and not taking the approprate actions to get our spending under control for many years, Republicans and Democrats both use our tax dollars to buy votes so they can be re-elected, if they would have thought about the country all these years we would not be in this mess.
What? "We have ourselves to blame." BEG PARDON? We have the Republicans and the Tea Party Faction to blame. Treasonous acts by one and all. They should be arrested and tried for their actions! (or inaction, as the case may be here)
Would you blame the guy who repossesses your car on the fact that YOU spent too much and can't pay for it. This government takes in 2+ trillion dollars a year in tax revenue and spends 3.7 trillion a year for a yearly deficit of 1.7 trillion dollars and a total debt of 14+ trillion dollars. If you add in the future promises to Social Security and Medicare (Unfunded liabilities), that runs our total debt to 60+ trillion dollars. And it is the Republicans fault? Stop being a pawn and know the facts. At some point we've got to stop this madness.
I don't think I'm intelligent enough to understanding all the workings of the debt ceiling but I know that I'm way more intelligent than Sara Palin for sure. However, I have a problem with people saying that if we don't do this or do that with our debt, then other countries would wonder whether the US would stand by it's promises. I have a problem with that comment because the US is in debt in the first place, not only because we have invested wrongly at home, but because throughout our history as leader of the free world, we have recklessly loaned and bailed out, funded and aided every God forsaken country in the world.
And could you just imagine how much money the US would have had in reserve if we weren't giving billions of dollars to these countries we called allies and if we weren't going into every country where there is a natural desaster or civil unres, spending untold resources? Yea, we are now paying a costly price for being the police of the world, God's gift to the world and "Uncle Sam."
Fareed, you are misrepresenting the situation. We have wanted fiscal responsibility for over a year. You act like this problem showed up yesterday. No! We knew the debt "bill" was coming, and we have wanted congress to show fiscal responsibility for over a year, and they still haven't. This problem wouldn't be here if congress balanced things a year ago. They better do it now. Again, don't act like the high spending with low taxes problem appeared yesterday with the "bill" appearing today. We didn't just find out how big our bill was going to be, we knew how big it was going to be, and the Americans have been telling congress to change things for a long time. Raise our taxes already, and cut spending at the same time. I've been saying that for years. Of course I'd enjoy having a few more thousand dollars a year, but I'm not stupid, I don't want to pay interest on the public debt. Just pay the thing off instead of wasting my tax money on interest.
Zakaria is a unrepentant apologist for Obama and the liberal left. He writing is either pure delusion or extreme rhetoric, and I am fed up. No more Zakaria. CNN, you should be ashamed to have him as a commentator even if you only half believe you are a center-left new organization.
I hope all you obama haters GO DOWN IN FLAMES...BURN BABY BURN...
HAHAHAHA! Eat crap and die you liberal bas......!! You've really done it to us now but, not for much longer!
Zakaria is wrong again, of course. Amazing he can make a living this way.
First, it's clear he is not listening, nor trying to understand, what the opposition is upset about. He keeps trying to reframe the problem in his own paridgm instead of breaking out and trying to see what other's see.
Clearly, the tea party thinks the horse has been out of the barn for a while and that arguing over the size of the door is not going to get it back inside. Kabeesh Fareed?
The scary thing about this is that the tea party is looking in the right direction, but walking in the wrong one. Reducing govt spending without a plan for how that spending will be replaced by private spending is like walking on the edge of a sword.
Here is a something to ponder. Wouldn't it be easier to reduce the debt by turnning 5% of the unemployed into taxpayers than to try to squeeze one more penny on the dollar out of the weatlhy? Wouldn't it be easier to figure out how to create more wealth to employ that 5% than to try to do it by redistributing the existing wealth? Wouldn't be easier to partner with the rich to create that new wealth than to try to convince them they should pay more taxes because they can afford it?
Of course it would. So why isn't anyone in Washington talking about this? Answer – because they are not visionaries, they are hard-core politicians making a living off getting elected.
Wow it seems like you failed to even read the article! Where does he try to reframe the problem like you said? Zakaria states that the tea party is right about spending (wow!) and that we need to get it under control. HOWEVER, he also states that the method they are using to accomplish this (by refusing to raise the debt ceiling) is NOT the right decision. We're in a situation where we can either raise the debt ceiling and then pay our bills, then figure out a way to fix our spending habits OR let everything around us explode, then try to fix out spending habits. I don't know about you, but if you want to let everything around you explode first (by not raising the limit and not paying our bills), dragging EVERYONE ELSE down with you, and THEN finally trying to fix things (after you KNOWINGLY caused a huge mess for yourself), then you must be pretty stupid. Why would you want to make it so hard on yourself? So yeah, that's it in a nutshell. While the tea party may have good intentions about fixing our spending, their method is NOT correct in any logical sense.
Friend, you have the same rose colored glasses as Fareed. You seem to think not paying the bill is the biggest problem we face. No.
The biggest problem we face is that we are paying and have for some time, paid bills with fake money. Money printed out of thin air. So, paying bills with fake money is even worse than not paying them at all. That's what you don't get. Hey, I know this is scary. That's why you don't hear anything from the folks that created this mess. Where are: Hank Paulsen, Alan Greenspan, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush? Why are they so quiet? They weren't quiet when they crashed our economy into a brick wall.
Fareed, the damage was done when Obama got elected. $5 billion in new national debt in 30 months as President. $1 trillion stimulus lie about unemployment not going over 8%. Obamacare tax increase. The Senate hasnt passed a budget in over 800 days. Obama has no plan. He has acted like a President for only one day since he began – the day we got Bin Laden. He is back to Candidate Obama – playing the class warfare. The rich pay 90% of the taxes in America – whats the matter, that isnt enough? when the 52% who pay no taxes start kicking in, i will support a tax increase on all.
I hope all you obama haters GO DOWN IN FLAMES...BURN BABY BURN...
It all reminds me of a dysfunctional family that has, for years, had no problem with carrying the debt of a mortgage, a couple car loans, and credit cards with big balances. Now the family members have written to the mortgage servicer, the banks and the credit card companies, and said, "We are having huge disagreements among ourselves about our large debt and whether we should spend less or earn more. So while we argue about this among ourselves, we are not going to pay you our monthly payments. It's not that we can't pay you. We won't pay you. Know you won't like that, but too bad. Until we can get our house in order, we are not going to pay for our previous disorders."
In the meantime this family is enjoying the house, the car, the stereo and all the furniture it bought from those who, silly them, expected they would be paid for them.
This, of course, is such a capricious, and egregious, breach of trust that, even if the family has a change of heart and decides it will pay, lest it look irretrievably stupid, nonetheless still looks incredibly stupid. Even worse, it has lost a level of trust that can never be replaced.
As a medicare provider, I will never again take a new medicare patient. I could not avoid the nagging thought that, when I submit my bill to the federal government, it could at any given time be rejected, simply because a bunch of crazies in the House decided not to pay government debt. Capricious behavior always sows the seeds of its own destruction. And in this case, there is no question in anyone's mind who the sowers of this destruction are.
The damage was done when you racist white people came to America and kill out all the Native-American Indians. Just leave America and go back to Europe.
Oh but it is I who is staying and you will rot in ......
"To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought.""
The simile is wrong. A budget is an intent to spend, not an outlay in and of itself. To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like saying, "Actually we don't want to, and can't afford to, buy all the stuff we planned on buying."
Fareed–I agree with what you've written here. People keep trying to use the personal bill or diet analogy and it doesn't work here. This is something (Federal Govt.) that eats once a year (when the budget is passed). It's a purchase that happens once a year (when the budget gets passed) and even then that's misleading b/c some of this "purchases" (like a weapon's system) are multi-year. I guarantee you that right now, if the govt. pulled the plug on some contracts and didn't use it, and the end of the FY there would still be a bill (just like there would be if you signed a lease for a year and then never occupied the space). The debt ceiling is about paying our bills. If we didn't want to have such a large military we should have made that choice before we put troop in Afghanistan (who now may get IOU's–as well as the contractors who provide them fuel and commo and support on the FOB's). If we didn't want to have have food inspectors, we should have decided that before purchasing the equipment and leasing the space for a workforce with that responsibility.
One other element that gets lost in all this foolishness is that that the best way to be wasteful and ineffecient is to made big cuts right way. For those fond of the diet analogy–what would it take for you to lose 20 pounds THIS WEEK? You might have to starve yourself–or have a leg amputated. Certainly not as health or efficient as a program of diet and exercise and nutrition spaced over 1-2 years. For those of you using the personal budget analogy, what would it take for you to reduce your expenses by 30% THIS WEEK? You could do a fire sale on your car and house–that would do the trick. But then you'd take a horrendous beating (b/c you wouldn't wait for a fair price).
I get the anger and frustration over the debt and spending. But massive cuts or shutdowns that need to happen "right now" or over a month are epic fails. They're a way to waste money, be inefficient and actually lose money in some cases. Right now, the FAA is furloughed. I know of at least two "small govt is best" fans who have told me that is good. Until I told them that by furloughing the FAA we are INCREASING our deficit (and thus debt) b/c the FAA isn't collecting about $10 billion in airline ticket taxes.
Bloviate! You AND FAREED no nothing about which you write! Fareed needs to go back to his muslim country, wherever that may be and quit trying to tell the Americans what he thinks! Who give a rats sss what that idiot thinks?!!
We've gone from Reagan's "The government is the problem" to the Tea party"s "Dismantle the government at all cost even if it means economic chaos."
Note on the economic front, to create jobs, demand must go up, and for that to happen, the money supply must be expanded. Cutting government spending, and/or raising taxes will do exactly the opposite, and therefore the unemployment rate is going to go sky high. A similar situation happened in the 1930's when Roosevelt had deficit budgets, but in 36-37, he gave in to the popular outcry of balancing the budget, and the result was a double-dip recession.
On the political front, both parties must compromise. So far the Democrats have been willing to accept cuts to their cherish programs for the average American; the GOP has been unable to accept tax increases on the wealthy. It is no surprise that the polls show that voters are blaming the GOP for the possible economic fallout. It is no surprise that the Democrats don't want a second round in 6 months since now raising the debt ceiling, a common routine until this debacle, has now become a political weapon.
Reading comments about the debt ceiling online is enough to make anyone understand why our founding fathers so feared democracy and instead created a republic. Now we have taken their carefully crafted republic and turned it into a circus full of mindless demagogues.
Congress needs to developing a real jobs package to create TAX payers. Problem solved. The congress is pathetic–shame on all of them!
Sorry Kathy, but that's a copout. Blaming congress as a whole let's the zealots in the Republican party, who are holding a gun to the heads of the American people by not raising the debt ceiling, off the hook.
Reading through comments, most focus on microeconomic issues. What's not discussed is the larger issue, we are in a fragile global economy which is based on as much perception as reality (it doesn't matter at the macro level). Here is the most likely outcome of the idiotic moves of the US government.
- Double-dip recession
- Ultra-high inflation (circa 1979)
- Massive unemployment – 20%
It's all about the jobs in the macro world – we're headed on fast train to a 3rd world country. We should not have played Russian roulett with a fragile economy. Unfortunately, it's probably to late now. As Zakaria states, the world doesn't trust us anymore which leads to the perception issue. In the world of macroeconomics, perception is reality.
Can't help but agree with you. The scary part is that they have incredible financial resources coming from our richest corporations.
The corporations are just as concerned. While many are making high returns with minor increases in turnover/revenue – the companies are concerned about the macro issues so they continue not to hire. They are not outsourcing jobs to somewhere else right now – they're just not hiring anyone. That's the problem.
We now have the Hee-Haw republicans, Tea Baggers, who are working hard for Koch Industries. They have a choke hold on our government and Nothing good for this country will come of their time in office. We can only have faith that the intelligent people of our country will vote them out very very soon.
Fared, We don't have "ourselves to blame" as you stated, we have the Republicans to blame, and they will be out on their ears come the next election, and if I had my it my way they'd be in jail for treason, in addition to being out of Congress.
Then the Democrats should also be charged with the same thing for spending money we don't have.
We don't have it because your boy Gearge started two wars and not only didn't request that the American people pay more to fund their added expense, but at the same time reduced taxes on the rich.
I agree that George Bush agreed to more spending than he should have. He started a war in Iraq that he shouldn't have. But to excuse the democrats for blowing the federal deficit sky high is ridiculous. Vote them all out, and put in fresh faces that will do what is best for this country and not for their reelection chances.
Please explain why you feel the Democrats blew "the deficit sky high". If you're referring to the stimulus, study some macroeconomics. When Wall Street blew up the world's economy due to inadequate regulation that the Republicans today want to dismantle, and underfund, even more, demand collapsed and a recession ensued. In order to stop the economic freefall, the government needed to inject stimulus into the economy to stop the freefall, and break the self-perpetuating negative cycle. Due to partisan politics, once again, by the Republicans, the stimulus was not sufficient to get the economy back on its feet. If you don't believe that, that's your perogative, but do the math at least. 800 billion stimulus, 2 trillion tax cut for the rich, plus 1.2 trillion added expenses for two wars, does not add up to the Democrats "blowing the deficit sky high", it, instead points, once again, to the Republicans being most responsible.
Explain how the republicans kept the stimulus from helping turn the economy around. Democrats controlled how big the stimulus was and where it was spent. By increasing the debt to its current levels, it has actually done the opposite. This debt is an 800 lb albatross around the neck of this economy and the lack of clear leadership and a clear roadmap of how we are going to get out of this mess is keeping business, both large and small, from hiring. Ask any businessman why aren't hiring and they will tell you that it is the unknown threat of more taxes and regulations that is keeping them from spending on jobs. Reducing regulation and corporate taxes, even if temporarily, would help stimulate economic growth. Notice I didn't say eliminating regulation, just reducing the over-regulation that is prevalent in Washington right now. Both the Democrats and Republicans in Washington are trying to increase their power while reducing ours. This country was created with the power in our hands, not governments.
There is a spending problem on both sides of the isle, this is obvious and if you can't see it you are just a partisan goon that isn't doing any good for the country. "He spent it, no he spent it, waaaaa!" We need to fix the problems instead of playing these worthless Dems vs. GOP kindergardten BS, you all aren't any better than the people in Washington.
It's quite hilarious when you have people on these boards telling Fareed he is wrong. The average American doesn't have a college degree, has never left the United States, never studied economics, and has thousands of dollars in debt. And you think you're qualified to critique Fareed Zakaria on this issue?
Develop your credentials before your discredit the perspective of someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Bwahhahaha! Zakaria iis an idealogue. Credentials have nothing to do with it. I have a degree in Finance with a minor in Economics. This is not a math issue. It is an ideolgical issue. Big gov't or no big gov't. Go back to sleep.
I disagree. It's not about credentials. You can be wrong or right with a PhD from anywhere.
That said, I agree with Zakaria base premise. The world perceives us in a different, more negative way. Some commented that they don't care – that 19th century way of thinking – will not cut it in the 21st century.
Somebody commented about being very happy that we're a Republic and not a democracy – after reading many of the posts. I 100% agree. It scares the hell out of me how some of us think.
lol it's obvious you don't live in America and believe everything you see on your foreign TV...
@ John the Baptist, I lived here and abroad, and I tell Americans are "politically Dumb" and AIPAC is riding these dumb Americans.
This whole argument is idiotic. With an economy struggling to gain its footing, it is not the time to play with fire. Its like Dr Strangelove. The Tea Party seems way to anxious to blow us all up. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that Americans can finally see how demented they are.
To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought."
Excuse me, WHAT budget are you referring to? There has been no budget in two years. The democrats refused to pass one last year, remember?
Correct. No budget submitted by Democrats in almost 3 years. Obama's demented budget was defeated, with not 1 vote for it....including his Dem buddies.
Yes, I like the scorched earth budget that is being purposed far better! Let’s destroy the economy and blame it on the other party so we can win the White House in 2012. Do they think we are stupid? You do realize that this is severely damaging the Republican Party? Those guys are kicking themselves for aligning with the Tea Party. Now they are at the mercy of extremists.
Alex, extremists? Really? People who don't want an out of control government spending their grandchildrens money, with no end in sight are extremists?
Scorched earth budget? Spend only what we can afford is scorched earth? We can debate the implentation timeline, but really? Scorched earth?
Wow, we really are in trouble. The trolls are up early today! It must be welfare check day.
The Tea-Party ARE the extremists for using the debt ceiling, a common routine until this debacle, as a political weapon. It is no surprise that the Democrats don't want a second round in 6 months. And no American wants to go through this nightmare again.
@ Steve; Who spend all these money? Bush!, Who gave away the Treasury to Zionist Bankster? Bush? and then Obama under the AIPAC pressure. Wake up America. When bush started there was $600 bi in Treasury, and when he let there was $10.5 Tri IOUs, How stupid can you be "Americans are Politically Stupid". Is there any other way to SAY IT?
I say put the bums in prision until they work it out.
Bums the whole bunch
I'd like someone on CNN this weekend to write an article and do a piece on the current breakdown of U.S. spending in dollars; transparency into our expenditures as a country would be nice, even if things were only broken down into sectors such as health care, defense, foreign aid. Lets give the American people a global persepective on where tax $ is going. I hear a lot of folks say that the defense budget is a large drain of our funds. I'd just like to see the data.
Good Luck...CNN is not in the 'facts' business.
I think you can get that on the CBO website.
Do people realise that if the main republicans in the house and the dems in the house get together for a simple bill, they can easily bypass the minority tea party. I assure if they do this, the American people will be thankful and come 2012 the Tea Party will be out of Congress and a forgotten thought. Hell, most of them won't even make it out of their Primaries.
The nation has a whole cannot be held to hostage on the extreme view of a few. Yes spending is out of control, but on the same vain a lot has occured over the last decade that we need to man up to. Our revenue has decreased (Bush cuts) and our spending increased (2 Wars, Bailouts and Healthcare). Lets not push blame put a solution. I am very sorry to say as much as he is absent from the public right now, Big O's plan is the best solution. Cut Spending, close tax loopholes (there increasing gov't revenue).
It is simple economics and by the way all of us here posting won't feel a thing should O's plan pass (no tax increases just loopholes closed for the weathly), as it will rein in spending and increase revenue to pay debts. If the ceiling isn't raised I assure you we will all most definately feel it.
Really, one of the loopholes that the little O is pushing is getting rid of the mortgage deduction. The last time I looked, that would hit about 62% of middle America.
I saw on the news that one of these Tea Party clowns, Joe Walsh, doesn't even pay his child support? He thinks that it shows he is a real person with real problems. Hey, I pay my child support every month for my three daughters. Does that mean I am a fake person with fake problems? The Tea Party has truly hijacked our government. As a Republican voter, I am so mad about this that I may never vote Republican again! I guess I will just have to be an independent now because my former party is out of touch and full of far right extremists! Shame…
Okay, so Uncle Sam has a fourteen trillion dollar mortgage and has not missed a payment over the past three hundred years or so . . . and has still not missed a payment, as of this writing. Whether Uncle Sam misses a payment or not is no big deal, regardless of what "Mr Moody" says about US's AAA rating. This is just a political technicality that will be solved in short measure. Once this minor glitch is resolved, I expect that some protocol will be put in place to rectify future spats on this issue between political parties.
This not an issue of "can't be paid" or "won't be paid", it's just a glitch in the system.
As for the fourteen trillion dollars Uncle Sam owes, I would be happy to assume the mortgage if I got to own the federal assets that it represents. Running up a tab of fourteen trillion over three hundred years or so (even if much of it has been relatively recently), when you look at what you have down there, I think your country as been managed exceptionally well.
I like your logic! Unfortunately, it's hard to mangage 300m people well unless you're China
. Our problem is not based in Americas, but in the EU and Asia. You could say they have their problems too and they have bad politicians. That said, none of them will cause of a global double dip of this recession. The US can and probably is. That's a 2011-2014 issue.
Long-term, the US is on a downward spiral that appears to complex for anyone to unravel. The question is how will impact the rest of the world. Interesting enough, the last super-power in the Americas was the Mexico.
Socialist Countries are going to have a better credit rating than the USA if we default on our loans. How is that for irony?
"If the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2, Americans could face
rising interest rates and a declining dollar, AMONG OTHER PROBLEMS."
AMONG OTHER PROBLEMS really means worldwide market crash and chaos,
50% or more unemployment, continued Foreclosures, tent cities across the
US, unprecedented crime and looting, Martial law enforcement, possible
foreign
invasion or attack, the beginning of WWIII and life as we know it
irrevocably changed forever. All of this because of the sins of Pride
and Greed on the part of our so called 'Leaders'. Oh, how the mighty
shall fall and we all shall pay the ultimate price. Make way for the one
world currency and universal persecution of any and all Americans.
Atheists don't believe in G0d? You will now after the S***t hits the fan.
Yes folks, it could get THAT bad or worse. This is all part of one big
worldwide plan. Fasten your seat belts. The ride is about to get pretty
bumpy.
Go ahead CNN moderators, keep deleting my comments because they are the TRUTH
I agree completely. And our "leaders" know it too...the real question is...if they know it too, why aren't they doing anything to stop it? Hmmm?
All the Dems need to to is make real spending cuts...not artifical accounting gimmicks. The debt ceiling will get raised and then we could all go back into our Pollyana slumber till the next manufactured crisis hit us.
Fareed, my gosh why does this have to be such a gloom and doom assessment? A slight downgrade, which better reflects the reality of the situation, lets a little -just a little – of air out of this gargantuan balloon. The inevitable collapse is going to be less devastating the more we can take this pain a little bit at a time. We're now paying for the good times rolling for a decade or so, like the 30s were in part the result of the excesses of the 20s.
Correct. Can't have the gravy train go on forever. It wasn't reality.
Ditto Kathy #4
That's a clever opening ploy that nobody else has a debt ceiling. How about talking about how many other countries currently have a debt problem which is the real issue. the debt cieling is just a warning flag.
If only we had elected adults instead of children. I am so tired of the speeches, the blaming, etc. Shut up and DO YOUR JOB! 90% of why it has not been settled is that both sides are simply posturing for the next round of elections and that should never be the reason things are voted for or against. It angers me that these idiots who are positioning themselves do not have worries about their mortgages, health care or retirement.... Both sides can go eat a big fat di.ck
Ditto Cindy #4 just common sense.
Mr. Speaker has already shown his lack of experience in leadership and negotiations skills when he walked out from a bapartisan meetings almost a week ago. If republican party is still playing politrics in order to get their bill at the last minute at the senate door and hoping that Senate will have no choice but to accept a crap bill, because of no time left, I would tell you that they are playing with fire. They should set aside politics and "put country first" when it comes to matters like this one, which have long-term impact on our economy.
A question that is lingering in my mind is that a debt like 14.5 trillion is it really a big debt for a country like US? Bill Gates himself is worth over 50 billions. Mr. Buffet may also have either close to or a little over than 50 billions. Neither of them is the richest. There are several others who could stand next to them. What my point is that 14.5 Trillion that we are talking about is exactly 290 times of 50 billions. Do you think that a mammoth country like US's credit is a little over 250 times the worth of a single perosn? If you think like that, there is some serious issues with that kind of thought process.
The tea-party people may be living in the start of the 20th century. Unlike an individual, a country like US has immense untapped resources in the form of people (that also include people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, WB, and future BGs, SJs, WBs and average joes like us) and second raw materials (oil, gold, mines, spectrum and and list is limitless), and finally the end-products that can be produced by putting these two together (already invented as well as to-be invented).
Comeon, this is the era of internet, iPads, and so many things . Tea-Party, please stop living for the past and start living for now and future. "Be Here".
all that history will remember is that obama was president, and he defaulted the entire country
Wow? This guy just doesn't get it. Virtually everyone is on the road to financial ruin so we just jump on the bus? Who does he think is going to pay for all of our excess spending? I know who. My 5 year old daughter.
Your thinking is over-simplified. Federal debt is not designed to be paid off completely.
Cheer up. In 1946, the debt was 120% of GDP, and we survived.
Why do I care I don't have credit anymore I'm fine. We are too powerful for anyone to collect on us.
Business borrow money on the back of the federal credit rating. If the credit rating goes down, interest rates go up, Businesses pay more on loans, Businesses charge more for there goods, etc., etc. Do you buy food or toiletries or household items? Do you take vacations or drive a car? Then suddenly your spending more money on necessities. I appaud the fact that you have no debt, I wish everyone could be that way, but this will effect you.
You are correct in stating that this crisis was created out of whole cloth. But you left out the part where you identify WHERE it was manufactured. Republicans made the unfortunate decision to fight the 'raise debt ceiling' vote.
Ignoring that fact allows Republicans to act irresponsibly and recklessly. They create a controversy out of whole cloth and then "both sides" get blamed for the irresponsible and reckless behavior.
To say, "we have ourselves to blame" conflates the irresponsible behavior of one party with the other party.
My point is two-fold. I agree that we need to address a US debt issue and fixing Medicare is a big part of that. The second part is this is no way to run a government. Republicans can chose responsible ways to address important issues or they can choose not to.
Republicans should be held accountable. I see very few media outlets holding the GOP accountable for their irresponsible choice to use the raising of the debt ceiling as a way to garner leverage to address an important issue.
Now and from here on out, the GOP has been given license to manufacture all sorts of crisis with irresponsible and reckless behavior, at the detriment of our ability to govern, because no one will hold them accountable.
Their behavior is not acceptable. It's not responsible and until we acknowledge this, they will continue to act this way.
Are you that naive? What do you think would happen if the conservatives didn't push back hard? I'll tell you what. NOTHING!!!
This problem will never get fixed. That's why they are forcing the issue. Democrats are the last people who would correct spending problems. They just want to raise taxes. That's how they maintain power. Remember, more people in this country DON'T pay federal income tax than those who do. How does that work?
Zakaria was a Political Science major, and openly endorsed Obama on his show. That's all you need to know about this guy.
The truth of the matter, I can't even really be mad at the TP, GOP, or DNC. Know why? Because they aren't the problem, the idiots who elect the extremists into office are the problem. The politicians are doing what they told you they're going to do. The didn't elect themselves into office.... How did they get there then? By the US citizens that voted them in. So you're getting what you asked for. Be mad at yourselves for electing politicians that aren't willing to hear you and compromise.
You're looking at a bunch of people in 1 party that won't compromise because instead of americans actually listening to what they are really about during their campaign, they instead let 1 idealogical principal be the deciding factor for their vote! Forget the fact that they may be extreme or radical with their intentions. Just vote someone simlpy because they said they don't like the govt., or they're for abortion, or they're for tax breaks, or they're for immigration reform, or they're Catholic, or whatever. One issue seems to negate all the other principals these politicians hold essential to who they are, but no one thinks those things are important in general elections in america; until, a situation like what's going on at the moment with this debt ceiling issue. Imagine if we voted civil & criminal court judges to a bench based on the same principals that we voted politicians by? Ignoring whether or not they really know the law, or are impartial.
Well america, you put these people in office that don't have a clue of what they're doing; hope you enjoy what you asked for...
Actually putting an end to running these huge deficits is important and the Democrats have given no indication that they stop deficit spending once the debt limit is raised. On the contrary they have shown a propensity for spending more and more and more, they do not get it anf they donot care. At some point the American people have to take a stand. I believe we should raise the debt ceiling but I also don't trust the American voter or the Democrats to do what they know is right and get our fiscal house in order.
The only issue that I have with what you are saying, which I do agree with your prinicpal, is; why now all of a sudden is this an issue at this very time? Why now have people seem to hold the fire to Obama's feet as such a garganutan shift of huge spending in America? Where were ALL of you same people that are soo concerned about spending during the previous administration? And please don't give me any crap about trying to blame Bush. There's a difference between blaming someone for something that happened, and stating a FACT of what really did happen.
It may not be what many in the GOP want to hear or admit, but there was an unprecedent amount of govt spending on whatever GWB deemed necessary, and I didn't hear any of you complaining. None of you said, I want my country back, or we need to take fiscal responsibility. None of you. In fact, when people did try to call out the GOP about this, they were labeled as un-american, or being just as bad as the terrorists.
Now all of a sudden, spending is OUT OF CONTROL? The GOP walked out on the president of the US trying to negotiate a deal for this debt ceiling debacle. Who's not compromising? The democrats even were willing to stick their neck on the line to consider some things that are their principals, like SS and Medicare. And the GOP STILL said NO if it means not extending tax breaks for the wealthiest. Is compromising defined as "unless I get what I want" ?
Steve, if you're going to accuse somebody of saying something, at least provide a link to the video or transcript of what he specifically said. Otherwise, I don't believe you.
Here you go, Troll....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXIG_dNFcrA
"First you pay the bills and then you figure out how to change your spending habits."
That would be nice but we all know that isn't going to happen. They will just keep spending, raising the ceiling, spend some more, come up with a few more programs to to steel money from, give a little more to our already failed school system and before you know it we all work for the government and we don't get to see our paychecks anymore.
Just because few countries have a debt limit doesn't mean it is a bad idea. There are many nuances amongs countries that others don't follow. Pointless article.
to MB2010a
If then 1st term Senator Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling he knew it would pass, then it shows his two-faced political wily-ness. He learned nothing from that, and now in the WH 3 years, he has not delivered 'change' = improved fiscal responsibility. He signed into law the budget that busted through the current debt ceiling. He's duplicitous in this mess, the red ink is all over his hands as well as Congress.
I agree with everything that you said, but the dems didn't pass a budget last year. The government has operated without a budget almost the entire time Obama has been in office. They just want to keep spending without any oversight.
guarnold, I hate to tell that they had 60 senators after Franken came to the Senate but then the special election after Kennedy's death ended it. At least know your facts before lecturing everyone.
I take a lot of grief from my Libertarian brothers over this, but I feel IF you INSIST on spending an amount of money, then you darn well better have the revenues to pay for that spending. I say lets eliminate Medicare part D, which the seniors survived without until it was passed in 2003. Lets stop trying to be policeman to the world and worry about direct national security only, which would allow us to cut our military budget in half.
What a crock. US will be downgraded because 43 cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed money! Tell poor grandma that 43% of her SS check is borrowed from Chinese and see what happens!
She'll use it to pay for her medication instead of going without.
Most U.S. debt is internal not foreign
The US government has been hijacked by uneducated rednecks (tea party) and has now lost all credibility. There needs to be a law that people are NOT allowed to breed with vegetables in this country so this never happens again.
Unfortunately we cannot do it retroactively or we could have your Mother sterilized and we would not have to listen to bigots like yourself.
The ratings agencies have already stated that raising the debt ceiling is not enough to prevent a downgrade. So Mr. Fareed's take is therefore grossly incorrect. The US is facing a downgrade because we've borrowed too much money and we are not doing enough to pay it back. Paying back the interest is only a small part of it.
Absolutely correct.
"Please understand that none of these things are happening because the United States in running deficits. There was no indication – by any metric– that the United States was having difficulty borrowing money one month ago. In fact, the world has been lending money to the United States more cheaply than ever before."
Very true – unfortunately, the Federal Reserve was doing most of the buying of our bonds by printing more money and thus devaluing the dollar. This guy is just another liberal Obama supporter who conveniently leaves out critical facts in his so-called "analyses."
Absolutely correct
Not 100% correct. Most recent treasury auctions have seen foreign indirect buyers purchase around 40% of bonds. This is after the fed program ended. Demand to availability was still above 2 to 1. Not far off from historical averages.
To resolve all this, the government will just release the T virus. Then there will be a global zombie apocalypse... problem solved.
Fareed is correct, the financial damage has already been done by the Republicans. There is no actual crisis, just the heated atmosphere of a created "crisis" that the GOP hopes to use to eliminate America's social safety network. Why they are so intent on destroying what many old, sick, and poor people depend on is another question.
Lies
That's laughable. At what point does our country collapse because the welfare state becomes larger than the taxpayers. It is easy to spend other people's money and the government does not have any money of their own, they actually produce nothing. So when is enough enough when they confiscate 70%, 80%, 100%. UNSUSTAINABLE
Welfare in 2010 was 11% of the total budget.
Not only common sense, but ethical behavior in owning up to one's debts. Both seem to elude many in Congress.
Do we need a federal government?
we need a responsible Federal Government – trouble is the voters and lobbyists!
This article is 100% correct. It's a shame that many Americans don't have a concise understanding of the federal budgetary process or understand the nature of how the government finances things. The author is correct in saying that we had no problem borrowing. People were not doubting our ability to pay and if you look at the interest rates we are paying one could make the argument that they were becoming more attracted to buying our bonds (Fed Reserve program influences this as well). Americans are too programmed to assume that the federal debt is the same as personal debt. It is not. Sure, we should control our spending, but don't argue over the money you already owe.
I should also add that it might even look worse on us to refuse to pay our bills when we can pay them that to truly not be able to pay them. Its arrogant and is just basically saying "we don't feel like paying."
Republicans are the termites in the American dream house.
You mean the house that nobody paid for.
What a ridiculous analogy Fareed. A deadbeat would purposely not pay his debt obligations which we will be, both interest and principle.
A RATIONAL ADULT would run into a financial situation like this and say, "You know what? We probably don't need the gardener or HD cable until we figure this financial mess out." That's what we'll be doing if no agreement is made by Aug 2...or 10th...or whatever new day they come up with, not the "America is a deadbeat" scenario you would like to paint.
You are a moron! NOT raising the debt limit is acting like a DEADBEAT!!! There are republicans who don't want to raise regardless!!!! So your right that is morally irresponsible no to pay your bills. The decision to cut the gardner..etc is to save on your next month budget. This is about not paying the gardner AFTER he has already provided his service...
Not raising the Debt Limit has nothing to do with defaulting on our loans. It would just mean that the government would have to prioritize what programs to pay for and what programs to cut. Which, by the way, we wouldn't have this problem if the politicians hadn't overextended the government spending. Interest payments only account for less than 5% of the budget, it they had passed one.
DB, we don't OWE that money...other than principle and interest on treasuries, that money HASN'T BEEN SPENT YET! It's only been allocated in a budget. Contrary to your and Obama's lie, a budget doesn't spend money and it doesn't require the money to be spent. It simply allows money to be spent in the future. When the financial situation changes, so does what can be spent! Since we have not spent most of that money on credit, we do not owe that money!
So basically does this make the tea party sort of a fiscal Taliban?
It is they're way or the highway, NO compromise!
Compromise is NOT a four letter word.
Now that's laughable. How was that compromise on spendnig and Obamacare whent he Democrats controlled congress and the White House? I remember Dear Leader telling the Republicans...."I won, you lost" in the meetings. What a joke you people are to make accusations like this.
He can eat his own damn peas. He's a loser.
I said tea party NOT Republican.
The congress is more than welcome to revisit health care whenever they have the time or interest.
Wow! There are so many connections – it's actually very insightful.
The Tea party are also leading there own band of suicide followers – that really don't even know what this is really about.
The ceiling is needed as the USD is the world currency and from all that has happened over the past five years with increased Government spending in the US, the world needs some discipline over the expansiion of the only real reserve currency.
The US lives off the rest of the world – oil and trade deficits. This has got to stop.
Obama was totally irresponible in introducing his changes to Medical Care with the associated increased costs when he knew that the Republicans and many others were so against the changes. He pushed the measures through when he had control over both houses. The worm has turned and it is not going to happen that he will be given a blank check until after the next election – a period which incidentally is much longer than over the past 50 years during which time there have been 78 extensiions. Why different this time?
The profligate spending of the US Government has got to be curtailed. Politicians must lead. As it is the cuts proposed are derisory 2.7% pa over the next ten years when the Government is currently running a deficit in excess of 30%! The American public has to get real unless it wants to go the way of Greece or become a "communist" economy as was the USSR.
Let's be clear – no one has at this point refused to pay any government obligations or is acting like a "deadbeat". The political parties are doing what they are suppose to do – push for and yes battle for legislation that they believe is needed to correct what is causing the defecits of the past 30 years. They believe in totally different solutions, so yes there is heated battle. But talk of refusing to pay bills or being a "deadbeat" nation does not come into play until it actually happens. If it happens, which is very doubtful – THEN Zakaria has the right to talk about deadbeat and refusing to pay.
US will be downgraded because 43 cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed money. Tell poor grandma that 43% of her SS check is borrowed from Chinese and see what happens! So raise taxes on rich – really high... Oops – that's not nearly enough money, but in global economy – money moves so government actually gets less money and makes matters worse. Technology has changed the world. Less government is the answer.
we need leaders not politicians. We need people WILLING to work together and not be consumed by re-election.The need to be willing to even get their LOCAL people upset if their decision means the country in the LONGTERM- not next 20 years will be better off. Sadly I have refused to vote for anyone for over 20 years, because they people would not Do as I have stated.
And we have no one else to thank for than the neo-FASCIST TEA PARTY !! The TEA Party is going to drive this nation of ours into the ground. We are going to become a third-world nation. Welcome to the United States of Somalia !!!!
Bunch of COMPLETE IDIOTS – Both the TEA Party RADICALS and the COMPLETE MORONS THAT VOTED FOR THEM !!!!
Do you have any clue as to what a FASCIST is? Or are you one of the many ignorant who use words and have no idea what they actually mean?
strike a nerve ??
The debt ceiling serves a valuable function....it limits unconstrained growth of government. Zakaria is correct that in an ideal world our politicians would weigh the increase of debt whenever they propose new spending, but the world isn't ideal and it's doubtful they even think about it. Until a better tool to put limits on governmental spending comes along, I'm quite happy to leave a debt ceiling in place. I just wish we all could vote on raising the ceiling rather than leave it to the idiots in Congress and White House.
I am sorry but I dont agree with you. Yes there are some that may complain in Europe about the game but with exception of few politicians who are known for their socialist agenda the rest of the Europe seems to understand what this fight is. You should read the comments on boards after UK's minister blasted republicans. People in Europe are also fed up with their governments borrowing money to pay for socialistic utopia. People in Europe are also fed up with their governments spending money to bail out Greece. If anything US just got more respect for willing to fight with politicians enslaving their citizens in more debt. Why you think parties from far right had been steadily winning elections in Europe. Times are changing. Funny you put Denmark as example, did you know Denmark had put back border checkpoints? Please check why.
Greece did not have a debt ceiling.
Mr Zarkaria you say "From now on, every time the debt ceiling needs to be raised, the world will wonder: Will the U.S. stand by its promises or will it break them?" but what you are forgetting to mention is the Tea Party is trying to get this country to a point where we don't borrow money any more therefore making a debt ceiling moot. If we live with in our means no more borrowing. How nice would that be?
Can't live without borrowing, either as an individual or a nation. There are always times when you need more than you have, and have to borrow. That's what keeps economies afloat. World without borrowing is a pipe-dream. Fantasy. Impossible in this global economy. A fairy-tale wish. What century are you from? Hey! It's the 21st century, come out from under that rock ! Or stop smoking whatever you're smoking.
Republicans (and the people who voted them in to office) are to blame and will pay dearly in future elections.
"We face downgrades and investor panic not because of our deficits but because we are behaving like deadbeats, refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door." Wrong Fareed, the ratings agencies have said it's as much about the continuing level of our debt and deficits as it is about the current debt ceiling crisis. You really ought to read what others are saying before you misrepresent them as facts to support your liberal viewpoint.
All the money that the party of NO wants is destined to go to the banksters.
So go take your money out of the bank in cash.
Let US see if they can handle a bank run.
Otherwise come early next week the banks may shutdown, the ATMs will be emptied, your debit/credit cards won't work & the real fun will begin.
I'm not taking any chances with these idiots, I've got a amily to feed & bills to handle.
So let me get this straight… We can't borrow more money in order to pay our bills.. How are we deadbeats again? I'll say it again,,, if we don't BORROW more Money, We can't PAY our BILLS…. Isn't there a root cause issue here, are we asking the right questions?. The question the Media continues to ask is Why Don't We Raise the Debt Ceiling? But the question they should be asking is Why Can't we pay our Bills if Don't Raise the Debt Ceiling? Peter to Pay Paul…. Sound like the Government.. You call the Tea Party Hobbits and backward, Throwing Stones in Glass Houses is not a policy we should stand on.
What about the mentioning that President Obama is NOT defending this country by simply stating "our bills will be paid world, the USA will pay" instead he says things like, oh i don't know about the creditworthiness of the US... he is a horrible leader, he doesn't defend this country or protect her. ONE TERM!!
Neither I, nor any real American, Zakaria – which I guess leaves you out – cares one iota what other countries do regarding a debt ceiling or any other internal financial matter. This country has a debt ceiling in a desire – so far unrequited – to keep our nation from going into too much debt at any given time. I hope the patriots in the Legislature who are, so far, stopping this madness where it stands, continue to battle those who would destroy this country's core by placing it in an untenable situation and causing Socialism to become the only course available to it. That is what the Democrats and people like yourself are attempting to do. "Negotiation" always, by definition, moves the spending to a higher level because that is what the Democrats want to do. Even when they feign austerity which is what they are currently stating. NO NEGOTIATION ANYMORE ON TAX ISSUES!!! STOP SPENDING NOW!!
Gosh, Larry, do you really think racist comments will validate your opinions?
I wish everyone would stop using the "race" card. I believe he was talking about Zakaria being a European Socialist, not the fact that he is Indian American.
Your "patriots" are will to hold this countries head under water til it stops struggling to get what they want!
Really, holding current spending levels at 3.5+ trillion dollars is "killing" this country. I would say that borrowing even more money to continue on a spending binge would be what would "kill" this country. You can't buy your way out of debt. If you did that, you would be in jail.
This is just more proof on how the current world economy does NOT serve the planet.
There is NO ONE who can save it.
Only the collapse of the stock market will force us to change the way humanity operates as a WHOLE.
You can save yourself...go to the bank & draw all your money out incash, noa check, cash. As they're reporting i the news IT'S TOO LATE!
No matter what they do YOU will end up without a penny in your pocket.
Let US clean out the banks!
Everything was spot on until this last sentence: "For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame." No. Blame the idiots in DC for this mess and how we got to this point. It's a shame we can't vote them all out at one time and get a fresh start with some people with common sense and the understanding that the country comes first – not their own egos, their own interests and the partisan BS from their parties. They work FOR us.
Trolls...go outside...get your welfare checks out of the mailbox, and go back to sleep. Please let the people who are paying you debate the issues.
All you baggers think you are accomplishing something great, and all you are doing is hurting the country more. You say "let it burn" and you don't seem to understand just how bad that could get. You are not necessarily wrong in your principles, yes we all can agree they need to stop spending more than they are getting, but you have just selected to absolute worst way to go about it. And the worst part is, it is all politically motivated and you will cry and blame Obama for it when we are sliding down the tubes. Where the F were you people 10 years ago?
The Tea Party makes the rest of our politicians look competent in comparison.
WRONG!
A serious downgrade could raise the interest rates on the money we have borrowed already. The number I heard this morning was 1.3 Trillion added to the debt for every 1% added to our rate. How is adding more money to the debt in order to stand on your fiscal principle even remotely fiscally responsible!?!?!
I wonder if the insurance conglomerates that financed the Tea Party are having regrets, or if they actually have some scheme to profit from this debacle.
Your an idiot. Go live in Greece and see how you like a government that spent themselves into oblivion.
We have run into the debt ceiling many times in the past where Congress has failed to raise the debt ceiling and we have NEVER defaulted. Recent examples include:
December 1973
March 1979
November 1983
December 1985
August 1987
November 1995
December 1995 to January 1996
September 2007
This is no different, EXCEPT the hype that has been produced by the banking industry. If we reach the debt ceiling, we will do just like we have always done in the past – pay our bills and spend within our means. When we reach the debt ceiling it just means that we will not be able to borrow to take on new debt/projects. Economist John Lott has a great article on the Debt Ceiling myths – the default being one of them!
Zakaria is correct. The damage IS already done. America's position as a world leader and economic power is forever gone. Congratulations – well done !!
Fareed, the reason we have this problem is because the DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS DOESN'T HAVE A BUDGET!! They haven't passed one in two years, therefore, we haven't been able to argue about how much they have spent us into oblivion! if someone doesn't stand up to them and say Enough, we will face a much bigger crisis soon.
If find it so funny that you and the other "lame stream media" call the people in congress that want to quit spending more money than we have "radicals" while the liberals borrow and borrow and borrow and borrow. I suppose they are the clearheaded responsible ones to you?
Nice 2012 damage control. So Bush CAUSED the depression and the GOP maintained it! Right! That's just the excuse I needed to pull the lever for Obama in 2012. I'll try to forget the doubling of spending, the void of job-stimulating policies and the biggest growth in government since FDR. It's the other guy.
Why dont we stop helping evey other country,and start collecting the money we have lent out. Like givimg 100 millon to pakistan,collect on restructioning afgan!
Is the Tea Party that wants this nation to only spend the money it actually has without borrowing going to make this a third world nation, or is it the spend, borrow, raise debt ceiling, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow, raise debt ceiling business as usual that is going to? I would suggest that with a nation already over $14 trillion in debt, now with over $1 trillion dollar deficits each year, and with no plan to fix it – past time for a Tea Party. The best way to become a third world nation is for business as usual. What this nation really needs now is to replace the liberal and democrat politicans with Tea Party supported policticans. Time to cut government spending to the bone, eliminate defecits and start to pay down the national debt.
Yes, the downgrade brought to you by none other than the Teabagging idiots we allowed to get voted into Congress. Wake up, Dems, and show the vote in 2012. These idiots want to destroy America under the guise of faux patriotism. What a bunch of crap. I will thank them for tanking my 401(k).
Moody's and Standard and Poor's have both stated that simply raising the debt ceiling may not save us from a downgrade. The fact that we have no plan to reduce our debt is the biggest factor. I have yet to see Obama's plan on reducing spending and the Democrats plan is to count the already planned drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan as "Savings". So how exactly is it the Tea Party's fault that any of this is happening? Stop parrotting would you read on the liberal blogs. The Tea Party just wants to get back to healthy spending limits instead of the out-of-control spending that has occurred over the past 6 years.
The debt debate was already being used as a hammer to crush Obama, ie. make him a one-term president. Prolong the economic misery and gullible Americans, who don't know who the real enemy is, will vote him out even tho is trying to protect the middle-class and do real tax reform so we middle-class don't get clobbered with costs the special interests don't pay.
However, when the economically pea-brained Tea Party freshmen got in, they hi-jacked the "dump Obama" effort and have turned it into a national disaster. They turned the "Stop Obama" movement into a "Stop America" movement. Policies sure to raise interest rates, and invite recession with all the ills that entails, and creating the very economic conditions they say they say they want to prevent. A nation in recession CERTAINLY cannot pay its bills. And pay bills we must – first – or else. Our current predicament happens when you give people more power than they are educated or prepared to handle. We voted them in, and now we find their lame-brain short-sighted policies will send many of us to the homeless dumpster.
Now the nation is stuck with this Tea Party cancer which is hell-bent of getting its way at all cost – even trashing the US economy if necessary. Not much different than the suicide bombers who self-destruct in the name of their "cause." Their fervor reminds me of the "martyrdom mentality" that characterizes the suicide bombers. It's "their way or the highway" and BOTH of those ways lead straight off a cliff into extended recession which has already proven incredibly difficult to reverse.
I agree with Fareed, the damage has already been done. Enough Americans got sucked into putting these fanatical pea-brains in office, and now we pay the price. The people who voted them in should feel "buyer's remorse" as they contemplate their coming days in the financial dumpster. The world – and economic market – sees this stupidity, and loses one of the very things that makes us a world power: trust in our word that we pay our bills.
Aside from calling "Tea Party" people names, how have a few new Congress people resulted in anything? Are you really so partisan as to think a debt-ceiling debate has had any material affect on the economy? Fareed is spinning for the Dems as he always does and you refuse to acknowledge the economic calamity that has been in progress for 3 years. I know pointing at boogie-men is great theater, but it's just hilarious to hear that kind of demagoguery bolstered by attacks on everyone's intelligence.
The loop between America's rich and the government is the problem. Tax cuts feed our tax money to richies, then, our government has to borrow! INSANE!
Insane for our country, but genius for the wealthy. Somehow the wealthy are able to get half the country to willingly vote against their own self interest. The other half is also voting against their own self interest, but at least they were promised otherwise.
47% of americans don't pay any taxes. The top 5% of wage earnings pay over 90% of the taxes. Where do you people get your information. Were you ever hired by a poor person? How is raising taxes on the people that start businesses and hire, going to create jobs?
I don't understand why there needs to be such a tension between parties? We have a week left until the deadline. Our stocks keep dropping due to debt fears, investors pulling out. People are doing NOTHING but blaming each other that sits in Congress and White House. Why blame each other? Every single representative in seat are ALL politicians. They are ALL looking to get re-elected. This is nothing new. It's been this way for a LONG time. If you want to blame any of these people, blame yourselves whoever voted for them. And if you didn't vote for them, suck it up. Nothing you can do about it. I respect you for voicing your opinion but right now is not the time for biased criticism.
Does the well-being of America as a nation mean nothing to them? When has this country become so selfish? Majority of the people refuse to trust each other (even though majority of people are at the very least decent human beings) and are only out for themselves. How do you expect to have a successful nation where no one trusts each other? To be a strong nation, there needs to be unity. You don't have to hold hands, but it's important to stick together. In case any terrible incident occurs, the people you don't trust and condemn are the ones that will be standing next to you possibly saving your life.
Now this whole debt deal. We know how stupid it is. We know the problems. We know why they won't sign off on the deal. Both sides don't want to reform their main political stance (ie. tax reformation vs SS/medicare reform). Now both sides have somewhat agreed to reforming yet we've gone backwards now and the deal debate has broken down to another war waged between Republicans and Democrats. Two different parties with two distinct priority but honestly, we're both Americans. Stand up, grow a pair, and shake hands like a civilized adult. Whatever you want to be priority can be dealt with AFTER the debt deal is made. We're going into circles because the politicians possible votes are dropping... Meaning they are scared they will get pushed out of their seat. Sounds like a bunch of tyrants and dictators fearing a rebellion from the people.
Fareed, you are barking up the wrong tree and preaching to the choir. We all understand what you say; it's the stupid and ignorant ultra right wing minority in the Republican Party that does not. I am not sure what kind of drug the Tea Party folks have put in their tea that they have lost it. I suggest that if not for anything else, the Democrats and the main stream Republicans, come together and vote for an increase in the debt ceiling, without the need and support of the Tea Party minority. Between the Democrats and the main stream Republicans, there are enough votes in the House and the Senate to give the current administration the power to increase the debt limit and get on with the business of running the US Government. Then once that is accomplished, both the parties can go back to their ideological base and "fight" to reduce the deficit.
They have a narrow agenda: get the black man out of the white house. Any casualty is justify. ANY casualty, including the nation.
More leftist spin and apocolyptic language about what is happening. Wake up Mr. Zakaria and face reality, the real issue is the debt not the debt ceiling.
No duh, Blake. Don't people get that a lowered credit rating means debt will dramatically increase, regardless of any imposed ceiling?
Bob, not raising the debt ceiling will dramatically increase our debt? That's brilliant.
S&P has already stated that they might lower our credit rating even if we increase our debt ceiling. Out of control spending is the problem.
There is already a bill that passed the House. It's Cut, Cap and Balance.
I hate this one-sided opinion and reporting by CNN. It's as bad as F-x News. While a default would trigger a credit rating downgrade, so would continued deficits and irresponsible spending. Why are people so resistant to the idea of cutting spending? What's common sense in the rest of America is "radical" in Washington.
They all get that point. What many don't get is that the debt cannot be reduced by cuts alone. There is too much debt, and cutting too deeply from functional programs would cause a disaster that could only be met by throwing up inefficient emergency programs. In the end, the buffoonery of an unbalanced approach will cost us even more money. It's as "common sense" as "the Iraq war will pay for itself in oil revenue", "they will welcome us as liberators", or "drill baby drill".
A lot of fat is hidden in these "functional programs." As an example, the side-debate over the FAA re-authorization bill. FAA funding has expired, and only the mission-critical portions are operating (air traffic control, aircraft and pilot certification, etc.). Are the planes falling out of the sky? No. Then why did we need the rest of the aviation fat to begin with?
There is no respect for the President and the office it represents. I'm a Republican and frankly I am embarrassed on how this entire situation has been handled. Speaker Boehner has FAILED as a leader. After seeing him on television the other night addressing the nation ( Why are you even on television ) all I see is a man playing politics to further his own interests. It is a disgrace what is going on in Washington. The ENTIRE world is laughing at us. The voters need to get these people out of office in the next elections. I do not agree with everything The President says but I RESPECT the office. The Blame game and political posturing needs to STOP. The damage has been done, NONE OF YOU will get re-elected, save face at least and get a deal done for the sake of the country. Step up and do your jobs.
You are a moron. The debt ceiling is doing EXACTLY what it's supposed to be doing. If it wasn't for the debt ceiling, we would continue overspending for decades to come. This is forcing us to address the problem now before it becomes an even bigger issue.
哇！好热闹啊！呵呵。。。。。。
共產豬, 回去你殺嬰兒的地獄.
The Great Firewall apparently allows access to CNN. Says something, doesn't it?
是的！好開心！
the Republicans plan was simple ..cause fear about jobs ,and economy ,reinforce it with fear of terrorist... divide the Democrats &then break Obama's political back with raising the debt ceiling....make him look like a failure so they could win the white house and get fat again on the bones of the American people...but as usual the Repubs didn't think think this through...and it now looks to me like they broke the country they had designs on getting fat on ....NOW LETS ALL SAY THIS WITH ME OBAMA 2012 ..IN THE BAG...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
It's not laughing matter. Breaking the country out of spite, greed, and some racism is not at all funny.
Ya know, after reading all of your comments, I see the exact same rhetoric that both political parties are using. either they reflect their respective voters views or you are all sheeple either way you both deserve each other
Everyone wants everything and no one wants to pay for anything. Now the whole country is going to get repo'd.
zaki you moron – don't you GET IT. We pay our creditors based on the $$ we have – with OUT going into DEBT. NO MORE DEBT. NO MORE DEBT. GET IT? If not go back to India. I hear they an opening for an armchair economist over there.. Maybe you can apply.
You must be confusing the debt issue with your IQ ceiling
We don't want him back either. See, we import American jobs and export stupidity. All sales are final, no refunds.
The only reason there is a fight over raising the debt limit this time is because fiscal conservatives see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to impose some cuts on Washington spending and restore some fiscal restraint to this country's habits. S&P already noted that it is not this fight, but the systemic deficits and increasing debt itself that are the problems.
I'm all for eliminating the debt ceiling...THomas Sowell wrote an excellent column in favor of that...but I also realize why fiscal conservatives are playing hardball: not to reshape this country according to theocratic dictate but to get Congress' and the President's spending under control.
As for Fareed's argument: that can/will already happen out of the $160 to $180 billion the Treasury takes in each month, unless Geithner (Obama) decides to default on our debt. It's choice, and it's in the Administratin's hands.
Raising the debt ceiling will not prevent out stellar AAA rating from being downgraded unless some serious spending cuts go with it. Reeds plan is smoke and mirrors with little real cuts. If his plan passes our credit rating will be downgraded.
Never ceases to amaze me how people blame the republicans for this mess instead of recalling that the dems had quite a window to do pretty much whatever they pleased before the republicans came around again. That some people think that a business as usual approach would solve our issues (simply raise the ceiling) is even more ignorant. Not one person in the country could run their homes the way the idiots in Washington have been running the country for decades. Those who have tried quickly went bankrupt. Also, it doesn't MATTER what happened in the past. What matters is what is happening NOW. Spending has to be under control or we're going to be screwed by inflation.
Yeah, you make it sound like the Democrats came into a perfectly functional situation in January 2009, and didn't have to spend any effort and resources on damage control. Rewriting history must be fun, because partisan rightwingers sure seem to enjoy it.
So,
Just print more paper and pay yourself back...It's paper get it paper...
Fareed is right. You control spending with the budgets. Having to raise the debt ceiling is the after effect of the budgets. Not sure why people don't understand this... There is a reason this is only happening because a huge flood of amateurs are in the house.
In the meantime I'm going to buy some chickens and a rooster...
Zakahoo? This is o"dumbos buddie ! The DEMONCRATS were in control of the senate, house and O'dumbo in charge a year ago? They could have done it then but one congressman said they he might not get re-elected if they did this back then as they were control of it all. The republicans in congress only took control in January? more scare tactics from Od'dumbo who did take time to get "dont ask and dont smell" repealed...........................
The author is correct................the damage is already done.............however I disagree with calling MY country a deadbeat! The term "deadbeat" as far as I am concerned applies to Mr George W Bush and Mr Obama and Mr Boehner and also to ANY news writer or commentator who tries to make a buck off my country's mistakes!
Two things are evident by alot of these comments. 1) Americans are poorly educated in economics. 2) Americans can't stand the truth.
Blame it on the educational sysytem which has been suffering for decades. With the coming spending cuts, it will only get worse.
Sad, but true.
when are (most of) you people going to understand that the budget and raising the debt ceiling have NEVER before been put together, one has nothing to do with the other, this is all an invention of the republican and tea party and the US is now the laughing stock of the world.
You are also on the verge of causing another world economic meltdown but I guess that doesn't matter because for most of you, the rest of the world doesn't count. Something will have to be done, and it will be, to stop the US from having such an impact on the world's economy. Don't worry, it's coming, with all the stupidities out of your country these past few years (Obama is the only good thing you did), the rest of the world will get tired of your idiocies and don't think that you are the superpower you once were, you're not but you'll have to find that out the hard way!
I like the simple responses in here regarding the issue being less tax payers and we need more by creating jobs.....
Thanks captain obvious.
The problem is, even if there is a demand for your product, in order to hire you first must come up with a budget within a system that is GEARED toward debt funding growth. The only way that works is if the banks distribute cash and allow it to flow.
The question a lot of people should be asking themselves is this "why are the banks sitting on stimulus money that was injected with the main purpose of redistribution?" Without that money being circulated a huge chunk (something like 2 trillion) of the "bail out" was for not.
If the interest rates are too low there is no incentive to loan out $ as a bank. Even though some of them owe their very existence to the bail outs their personal interests don't change. You basically have given the carrot to the rabbit before he even had to jump on the tread mill, no chase needed.
^ correction........ I meant 200 billion in stimulus cash is being sat on, not 2 trillion
There is no problem with cash flow. Business is sitting with billions of dollar in profits. But they won't hire until demand for their products/services goes up. That isn't coming, and hence the recovery has been sluggish. With the debacle in Washington, and downgrading plus hikes in interest, that could very well tank the economy.
There is only one reason why this has happened. The GOP want to use this as a political football next year against Obama. It's an act of desperation. And an admission that he's done a decent job as President. This is their "saving throw". They know they have horrible "Presidential Timber" next year, and they need all the help they can get! So just as Bush carpet-bombed the entrance for Obama, the GOP is setting off another round before the election cycle.....
BD
Spending is like an addiction. If the past two months is not enough to even decide on what to cut, and if Boehners time of an additional year is not enough (he wants the vote again next year) , then how much time is required to even decide to cut spending.
Of course we want to pay our defense bills, of course we want to pay our senior citizens and so on and on, but there is reality as well, where may be we cannot afford to pay some and there fore we have to cut spending some where.
What ever be the outcome, it is good that at least people are talking about finances and cutting expenditure. Increasing revenue is a good idea, but some how thinking that increasing taxes is the only way out is also not a good idea. Every one has to pay their due share of taxes, but some how getting stuck on that idea alone is wrong.
Increase tax collection by increasing the number of people who can work and also by attracting more companies. I expected more from Obama, where he at least had his plan, instead of asking others to bring their plans. If he had a simple blue print and at least set it as a baseline, it would have been better. People would have deviated a bit there and here, but we would have known where he stands.
FYI, simply doing nothing–letting the two wars wind down on their current schedule, letting the Bush tax cuts (all of them) expire–reduces the debt by more than $5 trillion over the next 10 years. Also, "doing nothing" with regard to the AMT will produce tons and tons of extra cash from upper-middle-class folks.
Congress is good at doing nothing. The President has the power (the veto) to all-but-assure that Congress does exactly nothing.
So this is what democracy is all about? How can we convince the rest of the world this is the path to success if our leaders are making a mockery of the system. Absolutely embarrassing!
Fareed, please please please stop feeding the myth that the US budget can be understood in terms of a family budget. You know better.
The United States is a sovereign nation with a sovereign currency and a sovereign debt. We never have, and we never will, "pay off" the federal debt. In all actuality, we will probably never be able to even balance the budget, let alone pull in a surplus, for very long except for maybe a year as a fluke if the economy grows faster than expected and stronger-than-expected revenues come in and (pleasantly) surprise us, like they did at the end of the Clinton administration.
At best, getting our "fiscal house in order" will consist in lowering deficits to some proportion of GDP–about 3% or a little lower is what I hear is economically sustainable. This means the debt will always grow in dollars (though it may go level or even shrink a little as a portion of GDP) and absolutely none of the bonds will ever be paid off–we will always be paying debt service (interest) to them and that expense will always go up in dollars (though perhaps not in terms of percentage of GDP).
This is NOT how households act. This is NOT how states act. Stop it with the comparison to household and state budgets. There is no comparison. Households, and states, are not sovereign.
Actually we did pay it off under Andrew Jackson for a few years.
Well, willofva, I don't see anyone (except maybe Ron Paul) actually calling for the United States to go back that far, to shrink into a shell of our former selves, to stop engaging the world, and to shrink our GDP to a fraction of what it is today.
Is that what you want? While admirable, and while it may be where we end up (though not by choice), it doesn't seem to be a very popular choice.
So Fareed's solution is: "Don't worry about it. Borrow more from China, a Communist country who we share no values with and which hates us. Worry about it later."
Confidence in the US erodes or increases directly as a response to our real power, nothing more, nothing less. No one is doing us any favors. And I am sick of this IMF chief shooting her mouth off. Oooooo European politician takes pot-shot at US, clearly resents US power. Stop the presses!! Maybe she can warm up for Obama on his next World Apology tour.
Stop showing pictures of SS checks, you morons! If SS checks don't go out.... there will be a revolution in this country.... mark my words! How dare the government threaten people, many of whom SS is their ONLY means of sustenance.
Thanks to the wisdom of the Tea Party// sarcasm off.
I'm wondering: will the masses of Republicans on government assistance continue to insist on the GOP not to give up on their fight to slash those programs?
SS receivers are for people that can't physically work. Or aleast they're supposed to be, that's how the system was set up 85 years ago. So why should I be scared of a bunch of elderly people?
The premise of this article is ridiculous. A budget is a plan, not an immediate expenditure. If you plan to spend more than you have coming in, you then revise your PLAN to not spend so much.
There are times that you do budget to spend more than you have. If you have access to a line of credit, and you can invest that borrowed money effectively, your budget will reflect spending more than you have. That's true at every level.
The problem we have is that after a cycle of borrowing and investing in growth (or recovering from problems), you then have to have a cycle of repaying debt and consolidating. We have been in the borrowing mode since Reagan, without ever changing over to repayment, and we have built up a terrible and crushing debt. We do have to move into repayment mode, but we can't do so in a reflex, knee-jerk way. We can't do so as a political ploy to damage the opposition. We can't do so by refusing to pay debts. Everyone in credit trouble has the thought that they could just walk away from the debt and suffer the consequenses. It's a natural thought. It is also, usually, a very bad idea. People who take that approach often never recover, financially. For our country to take that approach would be crushing. We can't even imagine what it would be like to live in a US economy with no credit.
My generation is exceptional in that we are not doing as well as our parents did. Now it looks like our children will have it even worse. Thanks boomers. I live in a townhouse, and I am already renting out my spare room. I'm not going to be able to take my parents in when their 401ks fail and we dismantle medicare. I hope you enjoyed living on credit, because we are not going to enjoy repaying it for you.
No, a budget is actually a LAW that REQUIRES the Secretary of the Treasury to cut checks for a certain amount, on time.
Nobody is talking about changing that law and directing the Treasury to reduce those checks in the short term. Nobody.
TEA PARTY = FASCISM, FASCISM, FASCISM !!!! Keep voting in the TEA Party, America and witness the complete demise of our GREAT Nation !!
imwrong
"For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame – BS, I had nothing to do with this. The problem is democracy is an illusion. I did not vote for two wars, or for tax breaks for the wealthy, or for war on drugs, or for providing monetary help to every rogue country, or for ... "
July 29, 2011 at 8:40 am
I really like what your are saying, imwrong.
MWolve
"Crooked, how hard is it to understand that the $5 has already been spent? Even if the U.S. did not spend a single new dollar tomorrow, the debt ceiling has to be raised to pay for past debt that is coming due.
And imwrong, we live in a republic, which is a form of representative democracy. The U.S. never has been a pure democracy, which would make the current form of government look stunningly efficient. In my opinion, the current break down in the system is that it was set up based on the concept of having the best and most intelligent people run for office and win, and we just arent' seeing that happen on a consistent basis."
We don't even live in a Republic anymore. We live in an oligarchy period. Everything is controlled by money including us.
Why work hard, 50-60 hour weeks, hardly any vacation just to have a busted economy and no pay raises? I'm getting sick of this, if we are going to be bankrupt and poor we might as well have some fun instead of working ourselves into the grave for no reason.
I couldn't agree more. At least we'd have some photos, adventures and memories to show for our lives well lived, rather than images of the office, the desk, the commute, and the pink slip.
How would you pay for that fun? My 70-hour work weeks don't even pay basic necessities anymore.
Well I know how to fish, ride a bike and have lots of you know what.
The Fall of America, where a child murderer becomes a millionaire and those who have worked hard and lived as honest citizens are denied the benefits promised to them for their entire working life.
Zakaria do your homework on US Government before you write your non sensiscal article. Peopel like you who always tout the Muslims should not be allowed to discuss important matters like this in the world forum because you are always against the US no matter what. Go home where you belong and write your biased articles. Pakistan is a great place to show your editorial talents.
1) The pro-Keynesian stance Zakaria takes is about as pro-American as you can get. Look at American history and things like the New Deal and the Interstate Highway System (from that p1nko-comm1e Eisenhower...) to find out what Keynesian economics has done for this country.
2) Zakaria is a naturalize US citizen who was born in Mumbai, India. Why is it that all the idi0t redn3cks like yourself need to insist he's Pakistani?
^
ahhhhh..... the guy is Indian-American. In case you don't know Pakistan and India have been and continue to be enemies and India is far from Muslim. Calling him Pakistani is like calling an American a member of the old Soviet Union.
Perhaps before you openly come out of the bigot closet you should try and educate yourself before promoting such gibberish.
Vijay, pack up your stuff and go back to India. We don't need your nonsense.
I am continually amazed at how divided America is along political lines, with neither side seemingly able to comprehend the other's point of view. Regardless of how your government got to where it is, whether it was Demorcrats or Republicans controlling the Senate, Congress, or the White House, the fact is is that your country is dangerously close to being unable to service the interest on its' debts. Never mind paying off America's debt – you cannot even cover the interest payments. That is unprecendented. This is not intended to be a Canada vs. America rant either, but I wanted, for myself, to understand how our nations' debts compared, as I don't track these things as clocely as I should. In round numbers, America is 10x Canada's population. so it seems reasonable that debts and deficits over time may come close to that same multiplier. It turns out that assumption is way off. Canada's federal debt is ~ $550 billion. America's is ~$17 trillion, or roughly 31x Canada's. Your annual deficit is running at ~$1.5 trillion, meaning your budget shortfall is 3x Canada's TOTAL DEBT. Canada had been reducing its debt annually for 5 consecutive years until 2008. I'm not sure if America was in an actual surplus in the past decade or not. Nevertheless, it would seem to me that America has been writing cheques on an empty account for too long and the only way to reverse that trend is a logical combination of tax increases and a dramatic tightening of the belt. Why those two seemingly obvious conclusions have to become political footballs makes no sense. Yes, the left historically spends more than the right, yes the right likes smaller government and lower taxes. That's not news to anyone. I belive I read that America's net tax rate is at it's lowest in 65 years – how can you lower taxes when you can't pay your bills? Isn't this far simpler than it's made out to be?
It's interesting that Canada's GDP is just shy of 10% of the US as well–I had thought it might be significantly lower than that.
Look on the bright side: when you go south on vacation, your loonies will buy a lot more stuff!
Please realize the American people "We the people" are marginalized and have little to no control over how our funds or lack of funds are appropriated. You see in theory, we elect people in office to make "wise" decisions regarding wars, taxes, etc. However, this process is far from how things actually work. Voting for American's is a formality as a college degree for most is a formality for obtaining a job. Politician get into office largely by Corporation endowments, hence why the richest people and Corporations pay the least in taxes in proportion to their income. In the end just like people in Canada or in other parts of the world, "We the people" have little control over this process. Partly because we lack critical thinking skills, are too busy worshiping God's we cannot see or chasing the "American dream" that only truly exists for the rich.
It pains me to make those admissions but I think there is truth what I have stated.
/Rant
CanadianView, Obama is black. To many whites in the US, he is not legitimate. The present debacle is a result of the GOP which has sworn from day ONE, to oppose Obama, even on programs they once supported. They have called him a commie, a Muslim, a Keynian without an American birth certification and on and on. They have only one purpose in mind is to unseat Obama, even if it destroys the economy. Even better, if the economy does tank, they will squarely blame it on him. They want to make sure that the first black American president is to be looked at as the worst president ever, and sadly, they are doing a great job at it.
Use your brain zaybu, not your emotions. How much debt did we have when Obama took over? How much do we have now? Do you WANT to be owned by China? Do you feel proud to live in a country where 50% pay no taxes?
Maybe our credit should be reduced. I know if a person can't afford to pay his/her bills the don't give that person more credit unitl they can pay off what the owe. Maybe the goverment should be treated the same way.
We have only ourselves to blame? How about the boneheads in Congress have only themselves to blame.
To those that want to keep playing the blame game, don't you think it's time to stop and start compromising to get things fixed? By blaming this party or that party (1) isn't going to fix anything and (2) isn't going to convince the other side anyway.
So what's the point to keep arguing?
What all this "we" stuff? I didn't vote for the Bush tax cuts way back when. Heck, I didn't vote for Bush and don't believe he was legitimately elected in the first place. Anyway, anyone with an ounce of brains should have known the US would be in a boatload of debt by cutting taxes and then getting into two wars and all that other Bush-era crap.
Getting out of this mess will take cutting back but also giving back, which means higher taxes. And it means raising the debt ceiling and then getting down to the business of responsibly running the country by spiking taxes on the rich (since their tax breaks are doing the country absolutely no good right now), checking waste in spending, and seeing that programs for the elderly and indigent are kept steady.
I'm nowhere near being rich and I'd give up a little more in taxes if it meant a more economically stable country.
We need compromise. That way I can make a national cancer like over-spending look like business as usual. If we just pretend that Federal workers don't make 2-3 times more than taxpayers and we just pretend that spending cuts are never on the table (just less spending increases) and pretend that Obamacare, Stimulus, spending and huge unemployment are not linked, we can say that "compromise" and " getting along" are good enough for Washington.
Zakaria is NUTZ : Everybody knows that this entire matter is nothing but gross, stupid political theater produced by clown politicians who have ecaped from protective confinement. Anyone who attaches any real significance to it belongs WITH them.
Fareed for PRESIDENT ! ! !
I have worked in collections for several years & unfortunately, not paying for debt is the American way. We have a credit reportng system for people, but that means nothing. No matter how bad your credit, some GREEDY company will be willing to extend you a loan. As goes the government so does its people. DO NOT LOOK FOR ANY CHANGE IN THIS MANNER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See, that is exactly the problem. Everyone thinks that the same thing that works on the individual level will work at the federal level. We will just dump the old debt we can't pay, and get a new line of credit from some other source. We may not like working with them, but, hey, it works and everything will be fine. That works when you need $200 on a payday loan. It doesn't work when you need $400,000,000 to buy gas for a couple of weeks. There isn't another lender down the road in a cheap suit ready to rip you off with a smile and a confusing contract.
This guy went to Harvard and Yale and the only thing he learned was how to say stupid things more eloquently. Zakaria looks at a 14.3 trillion deficit like it's some minor annoyance but any effort to actually stop it - well now that's the REAL problem. "Oh, of course, we should get our fiscal house in order." In know for a fact that anyone that uses phrases like "getting our fiscal house in order" isn't serious this problem. It's the same lip-service that got to this point in the 1st place. The voting public and our representatives are always wanting to avoid dealing with the problem for the short term and definitely for the long term.
This has nothing to do with the U.S. not honoring it's obligations! We're not saying that we don't want to pay the bills we've already run up. What we're saying is that we don't want to continue doing so into the future. Even the tea party conservatives agree that the debt ceiling has to be raised, but they want it tied to restraints on FUTURE spending.
Either we face default now or it will default later. Government spends too much and needs to stop.
We all face death, too. Why rush into it?
The problem is the deficit–it's the fact that we spend way beyond our means and that we have, without a thought to the future, raised the debt ceiling so we could simply borrow more 78 times since 1960 ... perhaps it is a good thing that lenders will now think twice when the government tries to borrow beyond its means in the future. Yes, it will hurt now–but we'll be better off in the long run (when those of us now alive will all be dead, of course, but our childrena nd grandchildren will have a better future if we knuckle down now).
In 1946, the debt was 120% of GDP, and we survived. Secondly, there is no lack of borrowers on US Treasury bills. This is not a financial crisis, but a fabricated political one by the Tea-baggers and the GOP to unseat Obama even it means to tank the economy.
Are you in favor of "building down' the Federal government as was done after the close of WW II? Unless Federal spending falls dramatically, the debt will overwhelm us. This escalating Federal debt will lead to hyper-inflation or economic stagnation for decades.
Fareed, thank you for helping me understand something here. This is really about Republicans knowing the time has come to pay for their folly. They're trying to evade responsibility.
The tp idiots in Congress forget who they work for. Congress raised debt limits under Bush with no questions asked. I think everything should be on the table;
1) Cut spending (cut some jobs);
2( Add 10% reduction in SS, medicare;
3) Remove half of the tax breaks Bush gave to the rich;
4) And Defense is not "sacred cow". We have no business being the policeman of the world.
Nick, it's actually easier to remove all of the Bush tax cuts than to remove the cuts just for the rich. Even if Obama loses the November election, he can still veto any bill in December (as a lame duck President) and just let all of them expire, putting us back to the days of the Clinton tax rates (which didn't tube the economy, as history tells us).
The other things you suggest will all lower the GDP and increase unemployment, at least in the short-term. Is that okay with you?
I greatly appreciate Fareed's insights on the current political situation. It helps me feel more at peace about what's happening which is so harmful to the country. I hope we will live through this and fix our political system. I also greatly appreciated reading Mickey Edwards article in The Atlantic "How To Turn Republicans Into Americans: An insider's six-step plan to fix Congress.
How many Republicans voted for the current budget? When was the last time a budget was passed?
once the GOP took over the House in Jan 2011 they immediately pass a supplemental budget to get us through 2011 – a budget, mind you that the Dems failed make/create (let alone vote on) in the 4 years they held the House. They are now working on a budget for 2012, something again the Dems are fighting against. If theres a budget, then the Dems can't spend wildly...without one, they can continue there spending binge
Mathew 6:33
If you voted for obam in 2008 to prove you were not a racist, vote for someone else (anyone) in 2012 to prove you are not an idiot!!
ok Who have we not paid? i understand that this is bad but you say that we are not living up to our obligations? so again who have we failed to pay? next question, who do you think we will fail to pay? some of the frivolous programs that the government has signed up for that is who... three legged turtles seem to come to mind. and the thng that burns my rear is that they are lookng to pass legislation that will take care of this until 2013? huh??? shouldn't they be passing something that takes care of this once and for all so that the debt get lower instead of continuing to grow?
Our debt trajectory is unsustainable. This is undisputed. Without drastic reform in how U.S. voters view the scope and role of the U.S. government, we are destined to hit the wall at some point in time. Whether the "wall" comes in the form of a fabricated construct called the 'debt ceiling' or a real wall built out of financial reality is mostly immaterial. It has long been a matter of "when" not "if" we hit the wall. Credit agencies already had the U.S. federal government on notice, some time before the current debt ceiling impasse came into focus.
We have about $180billion coming in taxes in august. Out bills – interest is $29billion. So stop saying that we won't pay our bills. It's a scare tactic. Also unless we show real $4 trillion cut without funny accounting S&P is going to downgrade us anyways. So time to stop crap by both parties and reduce spending without increasing our insane debt. Time is NOW as our politicians didn't do anything in 2007,2008,2009 and 2010. We kicked can enough. Wake up people else we are next Greece.
This is not Greece. We can solve our debt by increasing the tax on the wealthy from the present 36% to 39%, as it was in Clinton's time. Obviously, this is not a financial crisis but a political one to unseat Obama.
It has become very obvious that the debt ceiling is going to get raised anyway, and the compromise to accomplish it will be no spending cuts and no increased revenues. All this grand posturing will be for nothing and our government will go back to business as usual. Regardless of the damage that has been done, now both sides have something to debate in 2012, whereas they had nothing to debate about before simply because nothing has been done by either side to fix this economy.
Spoken like a true non-economist and liberal scare monger – so where do you think the rest of the world will do as we try to crall out of this sufficating debt – get in line and clean up you own nation like we are going to do !
Are you really that ignorant of how this works? Promises, promises from either side and as soon as they are elected they are in bed with every large corporation, and special interest group that throws money their way. This government stopped being about the American People a long time ago. "Main Street" was a nice campaign term, but none of them really have a clue, nor do they care about it's meaning. Your insults only show your complete lack of knowledge.
We have only our Congress to blame. We the people didn't do this. Congress is insane and bought by big business and until something is done to BAN corporate donations to political offices will have the same corruption year after year after year. We must return the Congress to the PEOPLE and away from the CORPORATIONS. Corporate tax breaks and loopholes MUST all be eliminated and get back to square one. We can lower the corporate rate from 35% to maybe 28% when doing this and still raise taxes by almost half a trillion dollars. It's insanity how the special interest groups have take control of our country. That is mostly the doing of Reagan but Dem's too are at fault.
Voters need more education as well as a more realistic view of the situation. It does them no good to vote to prevent more taxes on that higher income they'll never earn anyhow, because the people they elect make sure they'll never move forward financially.
Problem here is that the GOP is deadset against an informed, educated electors. They have consistently undermined the education system for the last 30 years. It's not in their interest to upgrade it.
I'm not sure where Mr Zakaria receives the authority to pontificate as the rest of the so called governing elites do. What other people or societies do is fine for them, mayby not for us. We are a culture and have evolved as such with certain likes, dislikes, customs etc. To say we are deficient because the rest of the world doesent do something is ludricious. like it or not our system is working. The pendulum is moving back, People have become aware of the excess of govt and are reacting. More civilized reaction than, Syria for instance, but reacting nonethless. The reaction will focus more attention to an issue, promoting resolution. It is easy for zakaria to take shots from the cheap seats, he has no skin in the game. However as a talking head, he needs to create some aura of controversy.
Who's going to work their rear ends off just to pay back the government in the future for their lack of responsible spending? Not me and I'm sure none of you once they try to take all our money. The future looks great doesn't it?
Wall Street, the Koch Brothers and Boehner have lost conrol of the Tea Party. These crowd of extermists have to go.
Psalm 112:3
That article was a little bias Fareed. The dept ceiling isn't the only issue here. It's not the Dems or the Reps being stubborn, it's both parties having a peeing contest. Yes, the bills need to be paid. What the two parties are having trouble with is the Dems want to play robin hood with the americans that support the economy the most with jobs and what taxes they do pay, and give it to the people (including the illegals) that don't support the economy but suck up most of the resources..... all this without changing their spending habits. The Reps want to force the government to change their spending habits, including the wasted resources, along with raising taxes. This package should be about all three, raising debt ceiling, raising taxes across the board and decreasing spending. The problem is the special interests of the politicians protect their individual spending troughs, which equals all of them. Heck, just cut out the government giving money to the healthcare systems to birth babies of illegals and you'll save a bundle when even our poorest americans have to give their last dime for the same services.
If you want to change the spending, fine, go and work on budget. Why mess up with the debt ceiling? The hidden motives is that you want to use USA's credit as the chip to gamble down your opponents. Putting the country at risk for your agenda. That's almost like traitors to me.
1 Kings 3:13
That was quite a curse!
We might have a little more money in the bank if the government was not spending $300,000 per HUD apartment. Why should the folks that don't work live in a nicer home than the people who do work? Is the new definition of poverty defined by the fact that your flat screen tv isn't HD?
Fareed, thanks for your analysis-but quit trying to fix the USA-we have watched how your political class in India treats the untouchables. You need to work on that problem as these human beings in your home country are treated worse than animals. Spend your time on that!!!
This is what happens when you protect corporate money as free speech. We get Tea Party incompetence with no plan but to cut taxes. You can't run a country that way and the TP have no business in office. The corporate lobby must be stopped.
Why don't we all just smoke a blunt?
"For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame."
Um, no. I didn't have a say about establishing the Fed where we borrow for our budget. I didn't have a say about Reagan's "starve the beast" agenda. I didn't have a say about the current administration's bailouts. But I am one of the unemployed middle class – a middle class that is about to disappear. Why is no one talking about cutting defense? Why are social programs on the cutting block? We are regressing to the atrocities of the mid to late 1800's. Our civil liberties and work reforms are forfeit. This is not America the Beautiful.
Spending is a valid issue but has NOTHING to do with paying our bills. Why do people on the right get stuck on that?
Zakaria, you contradict yourself and flat-out lie in this article. The government is paying it's bills and can continue to pay it's bills.... that we already know. They just have to make the interest payments. There will be no default, and the tea partiers know that. They're the only people who should be commended right now. They are the ONLY ones refusing to play politics as usual. John Boehner should have put his feet up after Cut Cap and Balance passed, and let the Senate and Pres. deal with it. The president is the real dead beat in all of this, he is politician through and through. Why is it you left-wingers REFUSE to understand how economics really works? What don't you get about 14 trillion in debt? Our welfare state is the real problem, it leads over a cliff. WHY do you left-wingers insist on thinking with your emotions?
In 1946, the debt was 120% of GDP, and we survived. FYI, in 2010, welfare was 11% of the total budget. Get your facts straightened before looking like an idiot.
Zaybu you're a fool. Try to live in the here and now and try, really hard, to have the tiniest understanding of economics. Try. But really, why bother, you'll go vote for Obama because it makes you feel good.
the damage was done when the democrats refused to stop overspending. then the senate democrats squashed anything and everything that came out of the house. they take after their spoiled brat commander in chief.
Do your homework. Reagan's spending far exceeded revenue. It got worse with daddy Bush, better with Clinton, and really bad W.
And extra extra bad with Barry.
Where is the incentive going to be to aquire wealth for your future family members when the government is going to tax all that money 3x over? Why work the extra hours and try hard when there is no pay raise waiting for you? Why would the brightest minds want to become doctors with all the regulations that are trying to be imposed on them? See a problem here?
Jimbo: "And extra extra bad with Barry."
No it wasn't. During Bush, the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not in the books. It was Obama who was honest to put those costs in the budgets, making the numbers look terrible in his administration, but that's not Obama's fault.
Show me the math please. Do you have a timeline you can show me? I don't think anyone is buying what you are selling, we can agree that GW spent way too much and for you to say that Obama is fiscally responsible is just rediculous.
Every single american has their hands dirty with this one.....over spending, living beyond your means...spending money on costly wars......you can't expect one person to fix the problem when all of our hands are dirty......pretty sad state....still have hope things will turn around!
I can't pay my debts and need money to buy a car. How much are all you guys ready to lend me? Brother can you spare a dime....
Where is the US going to draw the line. Don't raise the debt ceiling. Borrowing more money is not the answer. Let the US default on all our debt. This is what's needed to correct the problem that has been created by everyone. I hope we see another great depression and become a 3rd world country. The US government is no better than any other American living here. If we spend more than we make, there are consequences. Sooner or later, the Government needs to grow up and quit acting like teenagers that get their first paycheck. QUIT spending money that we do not have.
Paul, you drove to work (if you have a job) on roads that were paid for with money we "didn't have." You typed these words to a website on an internet developed initially by the US government and paid for with money we "didn't have." The computer you are using is powered by electricity delivered to you through transmission lines initially built (much subsequently sold) by government money we "didn't have."
Google some things for me: "sovereign currency," "sovereign debt," "John Maynard Keynes."
At least you realize what the consequences of austerity are: we become a third-world country. Be careful what you wish for.
I understand all of that. The US needs to learn that if we want something, there are other ways to get it instead of borrowing more money that we can afford. There were none of these issues in the horse and buggy days. Back when society cared.
Paul, the US was a third world country "back in the horse and buggy days."
It's fun to wax nostalgic about the romantic past, but again be careful what you wish for.
"For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame."
Bah... the blame is 100% on the GOP, specifically it's Tea Party fringe. Mr. Zakaria is guilty of the bogus false equivalency charge. This mess belongs to John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Period.
Wrong, DUMMY! HAHAHAHA! This is why Ohio sucks a ss. Morons like you!
S UCK IT. LOSER!
BWAHAHAHA!
Grog the problem is we have a guy in the White house whose only prior job was as a community organizer-how in the heck can we expect a know nothing rookie who has never led or managed anything to run the largest organization in the world. We were stupid to think he could do this-he is sooooo far over his head, it's a tragedy.
tell that to obama who voted against raising the debt ceiling when he was a senator? why dont you write about that? You are such a cnn hack why dont you write for the huffington post? or new york times?
It was a nice country while it lasted.
Yes, it was....but then Clinton's term ended.
"There was no indication – by any metric– that the United States was having difficulty borrowing money one month ago. In fact, the world has been lending money to the United States more cheaply than ever before."
Your commentary is misguided – if you had been reading the foreign newspapers (like I do) – Russia, China, European, Middle eastern, etc, you would know that they WANT the US to cut deficit spending and get the budget in order. Clearly, when they make these statements they know the consequences and it sounds like they are willing to take one for the team. Further, the ratings agencies are demanding cuts – both short and long term. Our current spending trajectory is simply unsustainable and everyone knows it ... except the people in DC and at the FED – yes, Wallstreet loves the "gravy train" they have been riding but it has pulled into the station and will not be leaving again ... your article makes no sense based on (easily found) facts ...
Sure they said that, right before they went out and bought US debt at historically-low prices. They weren't walking their talk.
It's probably partially their fault. They should have demanded higher returns on US debt (i.e. higher interest rates) if they were really concerned about our deficits.
All you liberal hacks make me want to puke. You stupid pigs, are pitiful. BO owns this mess.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA!
S UCK IT YOU FREAKING LOSERS!
Can you possibly join a conversation without hurling invectives? It certainly shows a lack of respect and knowledge on your part on the topic if all you can do is be rude. Braying louder than anyone in the room offers nothing but ignorance.
Jennifer, you are a pseudo-intellectual. You sit with you Roget's and try to appear intelligent. You are a slack jawed, mouth breathing LIB.
HAHAHAHAHA... then go live in Somalia, troll. You don't deserve to be part of the public debate.
I know Camel Joe, he is a leftist just trying to make conservatives look bad-don't believe a word he says.
HAHA. EAT ME! IDIOT! BO owns this mess.
NOOOOOOOO, GW owns this mess. This country was mistaken to think a rookie like Obama could fix it in one term, and he was naive to think he could. The wrong decisions were made on DAY 1 of this administration, but the mess was far larger than anyone was going tofix overnight. I have read all your comments CamelJo and I have determined YOU ARE A COMPLETE NOSE TO BUTT FOLLOWING REPUBLICAN WHO ONLY REPEATS WHAT YOU HEAR FROM OTHER NOSE TO BUTT FOLLOWING REPUBLICANS AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH THIS COUNTRY...THE PEOPLE HAVE BECOME SHEEP WHO PUT UP WITH THIS KIND OF GOVERNMENT AND DO NOTHING ABOUT IT! YOU SIR, ARE THE MORON!
You are a idiot! Drink the Kool-Aid, D umb A ss.
My , my, how articulate. As we say in the south, "Hit dog yelps". Feeling the 21st Century is leaving you behind?
When you have zealots running for office and most of those voting are like minded zealots, you end up with a government of zealots, rather than open minded intellectuals who can rationally and conscientiously make decisions.
It's not like the American Empire was going to last forever. The notion that the US is a greater nation is a pretty well-worn saw that doesn't resonate well in this world. The US is no where near default; it just doesn't want to lead anymore. The US citizens are weary of all the wars, all the armies based in far off lands, all the blood and treasure that has been spent over the decades. The want of US isolationism will become a major issue in the next election. Those who defend the US as the world's great power will be branded imperialists and ridiculed. What we are seeing in Washington DC is part of the American electorate telling the whole world to go to Hell and stay away from the USA. Some may see this as a small mindset among voters, but give it time and it will get much bigger.
this certainly wouldn't be the first or last time the want of US isolationism was a political issues. However, its never really been more than a fringe desire, and I doubt this time will be any different.
It is not that we are deadbeats, but rather spending too much money Fareed. Which household in America believes that each month they should ask the credit card company for an increase in their spending limit because they spend more than they bring in? How long will that strategy last? Ultimately adults must step forward and do what is right.
Focusing on spending ignores the real issue. The deficit would cease to be an issue by the end of Obama's next term if they simply repealed the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich. There can be no long-term solution without an increase in revenue, and repealing said tax cuts is the simplest and best way to bring that about. However, if you want to address out-of-control spending, Medicare and Social Security are a scapegoat. The real culprit is the military.
He can actually do better than this right now–today. All the President needs to do is to say that the Bush era tax cuts (all of them, not just for the rich) expire in December of 2012. Period. Even if he loses the election in November he has the power (the veto) to make that happen as a lame duck.
That singular move reduces the debt by more than $4T over the next 10 years, which is the "grand bargain" that he said he wanted.
We actually are paying our debts. When did we miss and interest payment? As for Fareed, he would like to see every person in America pay more in taxes. He is not interested in spending cuts.
Sorry, but the US is not endanger of defaulting on its debt. There is plenty of money coming in to service the debt. The issue is other spending. Frankly, US politician are generally too weak-kneed to get spending under control. They need hard limits put in place to keep them from buying off the electorate.
I hate to say this but for the time being I think the Republicans need to just make concessions to the Democratic plan, to stanch the current bleeding. Since the Dems hold the White House the only role the Republicans can currently play is that of obstructionist. Just let the Dems pass their temporary band-aid measure and then when things are still horrible this time next year, the GOP will win both chambers and the White House and it will be time for the fiscal reform this country must have.
The problem is actually rooted in the psychology of the majority of Americans, which carries over into the government as well. People aren't satisfied with what they have. They want more and more. They don't think about tomorrow. They just want to one-up everyone else. Americans have been living way too lavishly for a long time, and it's finally coming back to haunt them.
Who created all this debt in the first place? The conservatives, read republicans, who went ballistic in spending on two wars (one of them is totally unwanted) and tax breaks to companies that make billions each quarter. And the liberals we created many social programs that majority oppose. They both share blame and why don't they realize this and get this damn thing done. All this spending vs revenue thing they should have handled during the budget passing.. not now.
You make a lot of sense, Fareed.
DEMOCRATS = LOOOOOOSERS!
Frankly, all Americans rich and poor should be paying taxes. Once you have a majority of the citizens paying no taxes, they have no incentive to keeping tax rates low, since they don't pay taxes anyway.
Bad analogy: I'm afraid that there's a big difference between a deadbeat that cannot pay his bills and a person that can, but is making a choice to get his finances under control before he moves forward paying any more unnecessary bills. Of course, creditors are going to get paid first out of any revenue, but a shutdown of non-essential government functons is not a bad thing while we pass a bill that has teeth that insures that we will not have to keep incurring debt AND these services are evaluated.
People are not doing the math here. Even if the credit rating is downgraded and it costs an additional $100 billion per year to service debt incurred from this point forward, the budget cuts would counter that increase. If the budget is balanced from next fiscal year moving forward, the AAA credit rating would be restrored AND the need for it would be very rare, which is the principle by which most individuals, municipalities and states have to live.
Tell that to your mortgage company. See how it goes.
Sorry, but we're not talking about not paying creditors. I'm talking about reducing our expenditures. You are refusing to counter the point by engaging in sarcasm.
At this point I'd just allow a default and then when it comes time to dispurse the funds, simply go by the voter logs. Dems can have their Social Security, Republican voters can't. Since the republicans are so principled, they will be ok with it.
Paychecks too. Martyrs and demonstrators work for free.
Ooooooh… I like!!! What a great idea.
We can also have Democrats pay all SS taxes, Medicare / Medicaid taxes, Obamacare related taxes etc.
hahaha, you got me!
Not sure we are blameless in all of this. It appears that if you’re honest you will remember wanting something. It wasn’t just the legislature that dreamed up spending $$$ on this and that … somebody had to want something and pressed them to provide it. It appears “Our Kingdom has Come” and we NOW can’t afford it … and want to blame others for OUR overspending. Guess what … it isn’t going to be solved NOW without a lot of suffering!
Of course we all want something. We just have to be willing to pay for it, and more. We certainly can't just pay for our personal road use or specifically for our own children's education. That's just too inefficient. We have to pay, and we have to make sure the wealthy pay, too.
You suffer. I am unemployed and my savings is gone. What more is expected? Meanwhile the rich go untouched. Step outside your bubble.
Create worth.
But if we raise it and thus have unlimited credit, what would force us to stop spending? Are we naive enough to believe that politicians will stop spending (and thus buying votes) on their own????
So we should, starting on August 3rd of this year, suddenly start spending at a rate of 60% of what we are now?
The federal budget is about a quarter of GDP. A sudden drop in federal spending of that magnitude would reduce the GDP by 10%–basically overnight. That means revenues would drop by at least that amount and we would need to drop spending again, and then again, until GDP settles out at about 88% of what it is now.
Unemployment will go from just under 9% to well over 20%. Is that what you want?
No, I think we should keep borrowing and pass the problem to our children. Then they can pass it to theirs. Eventually someone will have to pay the piper and whoever it is will face 60% unemployment. But what do I care? I’ll be way dead by then.
“If there is to be trouble, let it be at my time so that my children can live in peace!”
Want? No, that's what all the spending in Washington has PUSHED us into. You can stop the madness now, or you can wait until we can't afford the interest on the debt and other countries start cashing in their bonds. I doubt you understand what "interest on the debt" means though.
No, TheThing, you don't pass the debt onto your children. The debt is never paid off. The budget is never balanced. There is actually a sustainable deficit level (about 3% of GDP) that never requires us to balance a budget, let alone run a surplus required to actually buy back bonds from the public.
This is not your household budget. This is not even a state budget. The US is a sovereign country, with a sovereign currency and a sovereign debt. Only if you want to surrender our sovereignty to some arbitrary principle that ignores the fundamental nature of what currency is and what currency represents do we ever have to talk about who will "pay" for this problem down the road.
Bruce Hello!!! We are at 10% (1.5/14.119) The GOP is not saying they will not raise the Debt limit, nor are they saying that they will not raise it only if the deficit is trimmed to 3% now. They are saying that they will only raise it if they see cuts that will get us to 3%
Everyone is okay with cutting the deficit. That's not the issue with either party. The issue is with Tea Party freshmen promising to only lower taxes and never raise them. A deficit will not go away when half your tools for reducing it are off the table.
I have no problem with raising taxes as long as we make sure its not for new spending. Raise taxes but cut real spending today, not in the future... So for example, raise taxes, cancel the JSF etc...
I will have to disagree with your example. It is not like a person buying stuff on a visa and then saying that they don't want all that stuff they bought.
It would be more like buying stuff on a visa, getting the bill and telling your spouse that you are going to cut up the visa card if they do not change their spending habits because we cannot afford to continue buying so much stuff on credit.
I can't believe how ignorant people are about money, it's scary. Spending future money is one thing, raising a debt ceiling to pay for past debt is another!
zakaria is a muslim piece of garbage that wants to see america fall. Why does anyone even let this terrorist in disguise speak in public
WOW!! You are certified IDIOT!! BIGGOT POS!
what rock do you slither from
must not be in the USA
Can you possibly join a conversation without hurling invectives? It certainly shows a lack of respect and knowledge on your part on the topic if all you can do is be rude. Braying louder than anyone in the room offers nothing but ignorance.
Hard trolling is still trolling.
It's called deadwood, not deadbeat.
I have to agree with Fareed.
sometimes I wonder if Republicans are determined not to agree about anything, so the country can purposely default and then they can blame Obama.
Are we that narrow? Shame that our leaders can't make a decision, or compromise. Why shouldn't the rest of the world back away and take precautions regarding investing in us?
the boston tea party dressed as indians so they could blame indians
limbaugh tea party dress as patriots
shirks responsibility and blames democrats
I seem to recall a multi-billion dollar bailout when the mortgage crisis hit. Where did that money come from. All because a few companies made bad business decisions? Where is the logic behind that. Let's reward a few more people or companies for making bad decisions with money that we don't have.
that's just it.
The financial decisions have all come from one source and they are raking the american people over the coals.
The "Bumm" is much more crooked then any of his predecessors.
He can and will single hand-idly bankrupt this country – hell HE HAS ALREADY.
The whole mess is making the states into a laughing stock.
So what is the strategy of the Tea Party? Destroy now and try to rebuild later?
The TP finally hijacked the Republican Party in the House, but they have no chance against the Senate and the President, and they knew this from the beginning.
This is all grandstanding for the media at the expense of the American economic system. And get this, Republican House members are calling the Limbaugh and Hannity show every day to get their marching orders. From radio entertainers. The media circus continues and guess who the winner are?
So tired of this guy. You know not of which you speak.
I thought, I was angry at the Republican Party for NOT fixing the debt ceiling problems.. I was wrong.., I am becoming very angry at the Tea Party and its movement, including their members in Congress and out. The Tea Party is doing more harm to the Republican Party, than any member of the Republican Party. I am losing money, because of the Tea Party, including my small business. Tea Party.., do me or us a favor and go away.. The sooner the better and forget about being re-elected to Congress, and if I was you, stay away from any baby-boomer, senior citizen, retirees, veterans, disabled, AARP member, the Middle-Class and the poor, because they want your hide.. August 3rd.., should be really interesting, concerning receiving Social Security checks for the people above. The Tea Party, are going to have some really mad and angry people, looking at them.., the Tea Party, what a joke. Their ruining America and doing a pretty good job of it. Mike in Montana
Mike,
I am a veteran and I absolutely support the tea party........so for at least in one case, you are wrong about who supports them. They want to force our government to shrink and to spend within its alloted finances. How can you not want that?
In addition to that, I may be one of the people who is affected by not getting a check. However, I planned for it....and I know that eventually things will catch up. But right now the tea party needs to wield a big stick to threaten with if they want to really have serious reform on our spending. Not the kind of serious reform that always leads to a bi-partisan comittee who comes up with ideas that are promptly ignored.....but the kind of serious reforms that actually happen.
It is still irrational to destroy the credit rating of the United States which will only make the fiscal situation worse, not only for the Federal Government, but at every level of government and throughout the economy for individuals as well as corporations.
Robert, smaller government is one thing. Crippling government is another. I believe the latter is closer to treason than patriotism, and I consider myself libertarian.
"First you pay the bills and then you figure out how to change your spending habits."
This is perhaps the most irrational statement I've ever seen. If you don't change your spending habits, you'll never be able to "pay the bills."
Oh, is this what you do, decide to cut your spending without paying any outstanding bills? Of course you don't and neither should the Federal Govt.
But.....if you don't have some kind of threat looming over it, then the cuts do not happen. The only time the spendaholics in congress talk about cuts is when there is a money crisis. As soon as they get past that crisis, the talk of cuts takes a back burner spot. Ensuring that the issue will come up again.
Right now we are in a spot where there is a huge threat looming. I just hope that it leads to serious cuts.
Here is a thought for you......The biggest tax cut plan floated so far projects 4.some trillion cuts over 10 years. Did you know that the current budget calls for more than 5 trillion in over spending during the next 10 years? How is it that over a 10 year period, we cannot at least get to the point where we are no longer borrowing money?
Putting the cart before the horse!!!
Good Christ, ...every article comments section you read reveals the true problem with our nation. The subject of this article could be about underwater basket weaving. If that were the case it would take all of a few seconds for a dialogue to emerge on why George Bush, Republicans, Democrats or Barack Obama were to blame for the water being polluted. We're going to wake up one day and realize that we were all Neros fiddling while Rome burned. CNN, Fox News, ABC, take your pick....they fan the flames why we fiddle. Critical thinking is an acquired taste....
Why don't these people take it one small step at a time by tackling 1 issue at a time? Why does everything have to be lumped into the "hot issue"?
It just occured to me that the Tea Party is basically the first generation to grow up watching Fox news. We are soooo screwed.
Capitalism has failed....now on to more important questions.
The Republicans have demonstrated that they are incompetent and have placed their ideology before the best interest of the United States. As someone mentioned, raising the debt ceiling only allows to pay the bills that have already been acquired, not any new spending. I think common sense would suggest that the debt ceiling be raised first to assure our credit rating, etc. and then have a thorough debate on the future budget to reduce the national debt in a fair manner over time. It is a sad day indeed!
We need to end our imperial lust for oil. Borrowing $4 billion dollars a week from China to blow up the middle east for Oil Baron profit is unsustainable. Want to fix the deficit and balance the books? End the oil wars and bring the troops home, war on credit is ridiculous!
It would help the sheeple if they showed how much the 'bum' spends compared to his last 4 buddies in the white house.
yes change has arrived.
from powerhouse – to poorhouse.
Some people seem to be under the impression that we can simply reduce spending on August 3rd to a level equal to non-borrowed revenues and leave the debt ceiling where it is.
Facts:
1. Federal spending is about a quarter of GDP.
2. Revenues are about 60% of spending, or about 15% of GDP.
3. Slashing federal spending by 40% will reduce GDP by (25% x 40%) about 10%–and this effect will be immediate.
4. If GDP goes down by 10%, revenues will drop by AT LEAST 10%. If we still refuse to borrow, we need to reduce spending even more. In theory, this cascades until GDP has lost 12% or 13% or even more in a very short period of time.
5. Unemployment is now at about 9%. If GDP suddenly goes down by 12%, unemployment will skyrocket well above 20% in a very short period of time.
6. Unemployment levels of this magnitude will cause GDP to basically free-fall. Who knows where it will settle out? Remember that our economy is almost 2/3 consumer based. The unemployed buy less stuff.
This is not your household budget. These things matter. It's not simple math with predictable results. Spending cuts don't happen in an economic vacuum.
Here comes the money bubble.
The Republucans fell into the democrats web. They were set up for failure. Obama and the Dems could care less about the American people. The Republicans have to start playing ball like the Dems, dirty. Pass whatever, put the ball in the Dems court and let them take ownership of it. They have manifested this mess to make the Republicans look bad. All a game to them. One to put Obana back into office. Americans need to wake up, the enemy is in the White House.
No they weren't. They could have easily agreed to tax the rich more.
The budget has already been passed. The Repubs should have done this then. They're just refusing to pay the bill for what we bought. Again, this isn't even a debate over a budget, it's a debate about the responsibility of paying for what's been ordered.
what i find incredibly ironic is all the people commenting on what obama's done in the 2 1/2 years he's been in office and that he needs to cut spending while he's running 3 wars. i mean, where do you people come from? bush spent 8 years increasing our debt, with republican support and never increased revenue while ruining our economy. but that was ok, because it was a rep president who was fighting a war on terror. funny, it took obama to come in and actually get bin laden and when he does, the very people who supported bush and his fiscal irresponsiblity (citing terrorism as an excuse) come out and blast obama for spending time on bin laden instead of concentrating on creating more jobs (which he's also doing). so you support bush for spending like crazy for fighting terrorism (which only 10% of the spending actually went to the military) and then say obama is spending out of control (due to wars BUSH started) and forget that the whole purpose of those wars (supposedly) was to fight terror and get bin laden, which OBAMA finally did. you people amaze me. hypocrites. all of you. get a clue. and for the record, i can't stand the leftist part of the DNC who just want to give money away but the hypocracy that comes from the right is mind-boggling.
So according to the article header, those who ignore the harassment given by bill collectors to pay the bills on time are deadbeats. Sounds reasonable if you've got a great job, but when you're a disabled veteran living on a meager $1257 a month + unemployment (which is about to dry up), it's a different story.
You want deadbeats, let's talk about the people the country elected to run this government and the first thing they say when this debt crisis hits is, "Expect us to hit social security, unemployment, soldier salaries and veteran benefits first. Have a nice day. =)" How about we cut their pay by 90% and take all their benefits away instead, we're not the ones who are too stubborn and childish to pass some ridiculous legislature that will put us right back where we are now in a few months. Too bad if it's during Obama's re-election campaign, maybe if he had solved this debt issue SOONER (he's had what, 3 and a half years to do it?) he wouldn't have to do it during his re-election. They made the bed, now we all have to get in it with them and snuggle. Ridiculous.
Things are jittery, but if we DO NOT default, then our rating will be fine. Once we prove we can indeed pay our bills, this will be forgotten, because the full faith will be restored.
But it may require the invocation of the 14th Amendment,short-tracked to SCOTUS, the inevitable 5-4 decision will be Kennedy FOR saving the econmy of the USA. We're saved! And no future Congress will concede it's power to the executive
"To come at it now after the budget has been passed"
There is no budget. The Democrats had complete control of both houses of Congress and the White House and did not pass a budget. The Republicans passed a budget but the Senate never did, and the Senate voted 97 to 0 against the President's budget.
I definitely have an opinion here as strong as anyone else's but the truth is, reading these posts is like listening to the bickering in Washington. Reason, people, reason. Listen. Think. And stop the hateful comments and responses. We have become a nation of brats.
i will match anyone who can match 902 trillion dollars for the us debt
im an angel investor with Riversource Investors/Mutual Funds/ Ameriprise Financial/Columbia Management
"refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door." We haven't missed an itnterest payment yet! And, I understand there is enough revenue to pay the interest due in August and redeem any bonds that reach maturity. So, while the situation is serious, it is not a crises. I would agree that spending cuts like a means test for SS recipients and cuts in defense along with some modest tax increases are needed.
Well, Denmark was the first country in the world to actually use Democracy as a Parliamentary system, about 1,000 years ago.
The USA has previously prided itself in being "the greatest Democracy on the planet" so it actually makes sense.
Now, you're facing the price of having a debt ceiling.
I bet Denmark has a MUCH smaller debt to GDP ratio than the USA, but they also have taxes that are MUCH higher as well.
that would work – if there wasn't so much slave labor going around from third would countries.
The middle class is dead.
and that's the key.
The government doesn't want to upset the rich. – and the poor cannot pay.
there's only so much water to the well – and its BONE DRY
Ronald Reagan, September 26, 1987
"Unfortunately, Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest markets would skyrocket. Instability would occur in financial markets and the federal deficit would soar.
"The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility - two things that set us apart in much of the world."
Two separate issues: The debt ceiling should be raised. Ways to increase revenues and lower spending should be discussed during budget talks. End of story. The Tea Party disgraces the original tea party prior to the American Revolution.
Just because the United States can take on more debt does not mean it should. The liberals who are arguing for the debt celing to be raised are not offering up any substantial cuts in the long term. The Unite wed States cannot spend its way out of a recession. Everyone on here keeps mentioning our defense budget, Medicare, and social security. The defense budget? I thought Obama was going to withdraw our troops after six months of being in office. Medicare? I thought the idea of socialized medicine was going to bring down the costs for everyone in the long term? Social security? We all know its inevitably going to fail. The truth is that we do need to drastically cut spending now. Just because visa wants to extend me credit doesn't mean I should take it. Zakaria you are an idiot.
You are correct in thinking "just because we can we should". However, Congress has already spent the money and we need to pay our bills. Discussions about how we should or shouldn't spend money and increase revenues need to happen during budget talks. We all get the point; it's time for a small group in the house stops holding all of America hostage. In that regard I regret that only have one vote to give to my country.
Craig, I hear you.. but "debt ceiling" is a bit misleading. We already have committed to the debt. In fact the expenditures have alreadly been voted on and approved by a majority of both houses of congress. The debt ceiling allows us to service that pre-approved debt, and the majority is "borrowed" from US citizens through Bonds which folks buy for a garanteed rate of return.
I still don't get how folks can link this to spending. Spending can be dealt with by holding a million other things over the democrats heads. Things that DON'T risk a default in paying OURSELVES the guaranteed rates on our own investments in our own Government. For example, the Tea Party can sign a pledge to simply FREEZE medicare and medicade spending at todays level. Never ever approve another rate increase, unless the amount of the increase is offset by other spending cuts. There, done. Nope, instead they wanted to light a stick of dynamite and like any good Road Runner cartoon, they found out later it was glued to their hands....
"Deadbeat" country???? I RESENT THAT! WHY didn't you talk about all of the billions and billions of dollars of loans America has loaned to other countries who DEFAULT???? Mexiico owes us billions and billions of dollars, they default and we forgive them and turn around and give them more money!!!! If we could get back just the money other countries owe us, WE WOULD NOT BE IN THIS PREDICAMENT!!! SO, DON'T YOU DARE SAY WE ARE DEADBEAT!!!!
The states giving aid money and loans to impoverished nations
is akin to giving a homeless person money or a crackhead
do NOT compare what others do for the states – as to what the states does from for them.
WW2 happened all to long ago.
and even THAT is suspect.
sure the soldiers helped, but the planners had alterior motives.
at the start of the war – the states was on GERMANY'S side.
until they got to big for their britches.
The truth is people voted for this type of gridlock not fun is it, and yes this article is on the money so to speak.
Oh they're all friggin' morons.
No, WE are the morons.
"That's not how it works. First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits."
WRONG you mental defective. First, before you buy anything you ask yourself, "Can I pay for this with the money I already have saved?" Only a moron buys everything with their credit card. Your complete lack of knowledge of all things financial is so typical of leftists the world over. Seriously, how did you get your job? Do you possess incriminating video or photos of someone on the editorial staff there? God help you when CNN falls off the financial cliff and you have you find a real job. You have already publicly demonstrated why every self-respecting business would kick your worthless can out to the curb before your resume had time to hit the top of the receptionist's desk.
So go on back and replant your nose firmly in O'Dumbo's fundament and spare the rest of us the Socialist stench in which you apparently love to marinate. Moron!
This bit of info actually has much worth
It shows exactly how the powers that be work and think.
Rich people think this way.
JC: Where does Zakaria state that you "buy everything with a credit card"? And speaking of morons, you do realize, don't you, that most businesses run on credit, for everything from financing investment to borrowing against receivables to using credit lines to make payroll.
Why don't you get your nose out of Fox's behind and start thinking for yourself?
So, basically, the Republicans are making us all look like jerks again.
"it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now.” John F Kennedy
Do you know what tax rates were when Kennedy said that?
The more I think about it, the more I realize that bankers are the ones that are clamoring about the debt default being so bad for the nation. While I agree some things will have to be cut, S.S. and the debt are things that have to be paid. Plus it makes me think that the only ones who stand to benefit most from not defaulting are banks. Maybe these tea party guys are somewhat onto something....not being bullied by financial lobbyists. Maybe not.
Dear America :
why do you go bankrupt fighting wars that have suspect goals and results?
slash your military spending and people by 1/2 and try to get along with everyone.
be civil towards your neighbors – treat them with respect.
Canada has more then enough to fill your unquenchable thirst.
be it water oil or beer.
image is everything – thirst is nothing
Sprite pop logo had it backwards
"First you pay the bills and then you figure out how to change your spending habits"
The problem with government, which is the REASON the Tea Party has chosen this fight, is that there IS no "and then". It never comes. Obama defended his early deficits saying they were necessary, one-time expenditures to fix the economy. The time has come and gone, the budget proposals are still $4t+, and the deficits are still a trillion and change. THERE IS NO "AND THEN".
Sen. Reid deliberately left debt ceiling out of the year-end spending resolution, and he specifically said it was to hang some of the debt ceiling on the Republicans, rather than raise it when the Dems ran both Houses and the White House. So now these freshman legislators, who WERE NOT part of those previous votes, are saying, wait, if you want us to vote to pay YOUR bills that you KNEW you did not have the money to pay, we need some kind of guarantee that this isn't just going to go on forever. That is a critical question.
Is debt time the wrong time to make the deficit a front-burner issue? Maybe, maybe not. Are these legislators unreasonable for not just falling in line and playing ball? Maybe, maybe not. But if not them, who? If not now, when?
"Sen. Reid deliberately left debt ceiling out of the year-end spending resolution, and he specifically said it was to hang some of the debt ceiling on the Republicans, rather than raise it when the Dems ran both Houses and the White House."
This I agree with. There should be a new law that comes out of this, and that is that no budget is actually legally binding to the Treasury if it calls for deficit spending that exceeds the existing debt limit. That will force them to raise the debt limit either before a spending bill is passed or at the same time the spending bill (the budget) is passed.
I do not understand why the President isn't trying to get language like this into the debt-ceiling increase package.
For once, Fareed Zakaria is right about something.
The article is WRONG. We do NOT have a budget that exceeds income because we do not have a budget. Congress has not passed a budget since Obama took office, because democrats do not want to be held accountable for doing precisely what the author is suggesting – passing enormous budget plans that borrow so much money.
Instead, they've elected to keep government functioning on a "pay as you go" basis, passing emergency appropriations bills as government agencies run out of money. It is basically the method you use when you don't want people to know how much you are actually spending.
You are misinformed. The budget LAW (that is, a legal obligation of the Treasury to pay all of the authorized bills) in effect today was passed. Have you never noticed that they (try to) pass a budget every year, but that it is actually a 5-year budget? There's a reason for this.
What I never understand is why a 5-year budget expires in a year and they face government shut-downs if a new budget is not passed in a year.
I've read most of these posts and then just stopped. The bottom line is "THE USA/ AMER EX,VI /MC CARD BILL IS DUE". We've already spent up to our limit, (maybe over) and the bill needs to be paid. You know what happens when your credit card bill, your car note or mortgage payment isn't paid, but this may be in a difference sequence. Our "account" has already been reported to the "CREDIT BUREAU" of the World and the next thing is the people we owe, want to "collect". And for all of you who want to make comments like "of he's black, I forgot", and "Obamarama" you're showing more than what this issue is about. If you don't know what you are talking about, please stop trying to add fuel to a fire that needs to be put out, then we can talk about how to prevent the next one. Will you have as much input then? You can make all the comments you want, but if you haven't done your homework, just skip school today.
I'm fine with us paying the bill that is due, I'm not fine with taking out a new loan. Everyone wants to point out how we've always just raised the debt ceiling and we should just do it again and not tie it to our budget. Well, how has that worked out for us so far? Oh, we just get deeper and deeper into debt....
Those discussions need to take place during budget talks, it's 2 different topics and and a small group in the House holding America hostage is not only foolish but irresponsible.
JenniferinTX
you're right. this is tea party politics, that's all it is. they're trying to destroy the middle class leaving only a poor labor class and the super rich. what's amazing is most reps that support these morons like palin and bachmann are in the middle class they're trying to destroy and won't end up super rich when it's all said and done. so keep supporting these knuckleheads but be cafeful what you wish for.
@JenniferinTX
I see it as quite responsible. We have too much debt, period. If we don't deal with it now the Democrats never will. What did they do when they had control for Obama's first two years? The only thing the accomplished was cramming a Health Care "reform" through that the majority of the American people do not want. So pardon me for not believing the lie of "We'll fix the budget later, just raise the debt ceiling now."
BTW, we also get deeper and deeper in debt because we refuse to raise revenues by taxing the 2% of the population that owns 95% of the wealth in this country. No other Western country has this much of a gap. The CBO states that this trend is unsustainable. Our distribution of wealth in this country is equal to dictatorships in 3rd world countries. Now, I'll just sit back and wait for all the emails "yelling" about me being a socialist, communist and an idiot....
and DanJ, were you saying the same thing 4-5 years ago when bush was spending away with no caution or concern? where was all the drama about the debt ceiling then?
@JenniferinTX
You do understand the difference between income and wealth, right? Because you are advocating that the government now start taxing people according to their possessions and not what they earn in a year. Basically, you're saying, "Hey, it's not fair to me that you and your family have a lot of money so I want to take it away!"
@juskishi
Yes, I didn't like his spending either. Bush was a Republican, but he was definitely not a conservative. Personally, I'd like to take a paring knife to our government and peel off a good bit of excess that we have. We need to take hard looks at every single dollar spent, no sacred cows.
Dan: You would be incorrect. I am not suggesting that the wealthy be taxed on their possessions, I am saying that their incomes should be fairly taxed. Some of the wealthiest people in the world pay at a lower tax rate than their housekeepers and secretaries. RM, one of the wealthiest men in the world, has been asking for tax reform for years. I ask you to do some research and read the CBO's report on the growing gap in income/wealth in this country and how it states it's unsustainable. I also urge you to read the IRS report that states if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are allowed to expire our rising national debt will level off for the next 10 years. This would allow Congress to look for ways to cut spending. Both these agencies are non-partisan, so they are looking objectively at these situations. If you think it's ok for companies like GE to earn billions in profits and pay no taxes, then we simply disagree.
@JenniferinTX
Actually, there's no such thing as a tax on corporations, it just gets passed on to their customers. It's already clear that we disagree.
DanJ: Here's a link so you can learn about the corporate tax rates in America, as they do exist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States
@JenniferinTx
Wow...you continue to miss the point. Yes, I know that corporate taxes exist. However, if you charge taxes to a corporation, they don't just pay them and say, "Oh, well, that's what we owed to the government." They add those taxes into their calculations as a cost of business and raise the price they charge for their goods. So no matter how much you tax a business, it's always the business's customers that pay the tax.
We are at a turning point. Do we move forward and continue to build a nation that leads the world OR do we now move to look like Mexico. The t-baggers want us to go back in time, turn our backs to the poor,sick,young all in the names of protecting special interst who have received massive tax breaks for 30 years... This breath holding by the T-bagers is right in line with Mitch McConnel who indicated his #1 priority was to insure that Obama was a failure.. not create jobs or help us out of a recession. This grandstanding by t-baggers will in fact turn America into Mexico. Within one generation we will have a few very wealthy and massive poor with no social system to depend upon. We will have by the push of Wall Street outsourced all of our jobs to Communist China. This is the destruction of America.. I fully and 100% blame the ubber wealthy in this country and their bought and paid for GOP congress. That and the massive propaganda machine they created with Fox, Rush and the rest of them!!
The "Ubber" wealthy? Wow, that's funny. I make $15/hr, does that make me wealthy? Well...by most of the world's standard, yes, it does. When will you understand that we can't keep spending like we do on the social programs that we have? Will it take us being in Greece's predicament? Or will you just be one of the ones protesting in the street saying "What do you mean I won't get my nice fat government check for not doing anything?! It's OWED to me!!!"
No, you're not "uber wealthy" in this country unless you belong to the 2% that own 95% of the wealth. We become Greece when we lose the dollar being the reserve currency for the world. Not paying our bills leads us down that path; China can't wait, it's already been holding secret meetings in Europe about just that....
@JenniferinTX
So you do believe that you are owed what people and their families have earned over their lifetimes? That by paying the lion's share of the tax burden the "wealthy" still don't pay enough? The majority of people in America do not understand fiscal responsibility and so they want to take money from those who do. "Hey, I've blown all my money, so I'm going to take yours and blow it too." Yep...Greece in the making.
DanJ, you're just a puppet of the "ubber (sic) wealthy", like most Tea Party voters. You vote to protect income you'll never receive, and you'll never receive it because the wealthy have closed all opportunities for you to join their ranks.
@Bob
I'm no ones puppet, and I don't have plans to become wealthy. I just merely believe in paying my own way and looking after me and mine. I don't support the notion of "Let's take more from the wealthy!" because eventually the scope of who is considered "wealthy" will grow. Already Obama wants to describe it as someone earning $250k/year, which is by no means "uber wealthy".
I do thank you though, Bob, for not resorting to the childish behavior of so many who disagree with or dislike the Tea Party and refraining from using the pejorative name that so many have taken up.
Dan: I disagree with you; I think TONS of Americans understand fiscal responsibility and are working 2-3 jobs to prove it. Again, I urge you to do research by reading the reports by the CBO and IRS. 98% of the population only has access to 5% of the wealth because of loopholes for both the wealthy income earners and the corporations. It is quite ironic, given your stated wages that you support the 2% of the population that you will never be a member of given the way the cards are stacked against you and the rest of the 98% of the population. Lies and half-truths we are constantly being bombarded with (which group do you think owns the media?) have convinced many of the 98%ers to vote and think in in their favor. That's why one needs to dig deeply to find unbiased, objective data from reliable sources. I suggest you do just that as it seems that you are willing to put forth the effort. Don't believe me, but read the government agency reports that get buried and are not reported on. Read the book "Unequal Democracy" written by a Reagan Republican. It is filled with data and if anything, he should have a Republican "slant" but seems to report fairly. I don't think there's anything left for me to say to you on these topics.
@JenniferinTX
Clearly you and I have different views of life and understanding of history. For as long as there have been societies there have been haves and have nots. As noble as the idea of everyone having equal wealth is, it's unattainable. Too many people mistake the American concept of equality to mean everyone should have the same means. America was founded on the notion of no person being better or higher than another due to their class (we didn't live up to that till after slavery was abolished though). I don't care that there is this ultra-wealthy 2% that you are so worried about. I don't look at their wealth and feel that I should use the tool of government to take it away from them. And your notion that what they have done we can't also do is a very defeatist mentality. Warren Buffett did not come from an ultra-wealthy family and has amassed one of the largest fortunes in the United States, the same could be said of many American millionaires and billionaires.
Once again, a "journalist" who is making bad analogies. Zakaria is comparing us to someone who doesn't want to pay the Visa bill when it's due which could not be farther from the truth. No member of Congress is against us paying what we owe, what they ARE against is going further into debt. There's a huge difference between paying the bills you have and taking out a new loan so you can spend more.
I actually believe the debt ceiling was put in during reconstruction period after the Civil War in order to keep the southern states from backing out of the shared repair of the nation.
Then I actually believe you don't know history that well and should find out for sure before commenting on it.
I found what jd was referring to and, he or she was correct:
“This amendment was passed after the War Between the States (July 9, 1868) to "decifer" what debt the "Newly Reformed Union" was responsible for and what debt it was not. I other words, it would not pay Confederate debt and some others."
@JenniferinTX
No, they were not correct, the "debt ceiling" they referred to was enacted during World War I. Yes the 14th amendment was from the Civil War aftermath, but not the debt ceiling.
The statutory limit on federal debt began with the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, which helped finance the United States’ entry into World War I. By allowing the Treasury to issue long-term Liberty Bonds, along with a debt ceiling, the federal government held down its interest costs. The government was still allowed to issue bonds for specific projects (like the Panama Canal) until1939, when Congress eliminated separate limits on bonds and on other types of debt, which created the first aggregate limit that covered nearly all public debt. Since then, however, the statutory debt limit was pretty much irrelevant and on cruise control…till it became a danger our country this year.
However, I also recently read a historian saying just exactly what you referred to. I think both are true and that the format changed in the 1900s with the selling of the Liberty Bonds.
That the tea party has raised awareness about the national debt is indeed 'admirable'; what's not-so-admirable is their using this self-manufactured crisis as leverage for their REAL agenda: that of destroying the Obama presidency whatever the cost! These are radicals in every sense of the word!
What amazes me is how the thug and bags convinced the idiots to wave flags in either hand: it's so much easier to pick pockets! Just remember where baggies end up: the trash.
Yeah Cariolana...funny one. The problem is your rhetoric. Between 1970 and 2007 inflation adjusted per-person income extraction by the federal government (taxes, fees, etc.) has increased 50%. In current dollars it went from $5610.68 per person in 1970 to $8317.46 in 2007. Each $1 taken away per-person in 1970 has mushroomed to $1.50 by 2007. That doesn't include price increases as those taxes and fees get passed down to the market. We don't have a revenue problem and it isn't the Tea Party who's picking your pocket.
At the same time there has been an eruption of per-person spending by the federal government. Spending on the federal level has exploded by 100% in inflation adjusted dollars between 1970 and now. In current dollars it went from $5693.35 per person in 1970 to $11194.36 in 2010. Each $1 taken away per-person in 1970 has ballooned to $2 now. Oh, and don't think the money is spent on you...the money is just spent. The problem we have is absolutely the explosion of spending over the decades.
When will CNN get a real analyst, not the Zakaria guy. He reminds me of that pompous and irritating academic who feels as if he HAS to pontificate on things that he obviously does not comprehend, and it ends up sounding silly and illogical. He should go back to lecturing about liberalism at his local community college.
And you should take a course in Economics 101.
It is sad that people think this is the end of the world. Sometimes, you have to regroup and restrategize. If we get downgraded, then we work harder to get back to the top. Americans are great at becoming leaders, but staying there is our problem.
Also, I find it really funny (I laughed, actually) that the same people who are responsible for taking away almost all powers debt collectors have are now the ones who have no one to turn to. People have whined and complained about debt collectors, so the government keeps limiting their rights. Unfortunately, nobody is going to limit China's rights or any other country's rights to collect their debt. It's about time America gets called out. Now we have to learn to get through a problem where we can't go crying to Big Brother to protect us.
i am sorry CNN.com I honestly can't take it anymore. have you ever considered making a conservative viewpoint your home page? i can't decide what makes me more sick to my stomach, reading this article or reading my fellow americans comments.
after 13 years, since my freshman year in college – i am now removing cnn.com as my homepage. best of luck!
Good riddance, and don't trip on the way to the door.
I don't think that the rest of the world is in a panic.
There are options that can be done if the congress critters can't come to a consensus.
The issue is that our government is now acting in an immature and dysfunctional manner. That is, rather than look at the larger picture on what this means to our global political picture, they are focusing on what sort of wins that they can get out of it for themselves and their parties.
I'd say vote the whole lot out because they are professional politicians who are in it for their own gain. However, if we look at how these 'tea party' representatives are acting, they are just as bad, if not worse, pretending to hide behind their religious beliefs. Any congress critter in this day and age that has to 'pray for guidance' on an issue should be pulled from office immediately. I'm not against a politician having a religious belief but that there is a separation between church and state. Its one thing to say that they have to go back and think deep and hard before voting on an issue, its another thing to pander to the Christian Right and say that they have to pray to god for guidance. The fact that they vocalize that statement shows that they are not capable of doing the right thing.
Cord, we don't OWE that money...other than principle and interest obligation on treasuries, that money HASN'T BEEN SPENT YET! It's only been allocated in a budget. Contrary to your and Obama's lie, a budget doesn't spend money and it doesn't require the money to be spent. It simply allows money to be spent in the future. When the financial situation changes, so does what can be spent! Since we have not borrowed the money spent most FUTURE government expenditures, we do not OWE that money! That's as opposed to the deadbeat that has already spent his money that you and Fareed would like to paint us as.
Reality check folks.Do it right the 1 time so you don't have to go back and fix it, that costs money to go back and fix it.It has nothing to do with the republicans.
In other words, "measure twice, cut once."
Zakaraia, you're always wrong about every piece of garbage you write on CNN.....why dont you save us "your take" on things and find another guy to write something meaningful here!
The damage is NOT already done! We can still pay our bills, as of this moment. The U.S. has not defaulted on anything yet. The "bill collector" is getting paid right now, not standing at the door being refused. What is going on is an incredible amount of arguing and political posturing, which can pretty much be expected in a democracy which is as polarized as this one currently is. The sad fact is that the media WANTS the U.S. to default badly as it will be a cash cow of breaking news and unprecedented America bashing. FZ is a champion of this cause, gaining popularity through all the America haters as he eloquently states each week why America is a terrible place.
"the media WANTS the U.S. to default badly"
Wow! Any more of those bright pearls, genius! // sarcasm.
What should come out of this mess is a new law that makes budgets not-legally-binding to the Treasury if they call for deficit spending that exceeds the debt ceiling. This would force them to raise the debt ceiling either before, or at the same time, any budget is passed.
Either that, or a commitment from the President (and all future Presidents) to veto budgets that exceed the debt ceiling that exists on the day they are asked to sign it into law.
Do not blindly follow your political party or what your favorite politicians say, but do some honest research on your own. The problem with America is not our politicians. The problem with America is "we the people" because we blindly elect people into office based solely on what they tell us. At least Tea Partiers stand up for what they tell people they are going to do. They do not lie to us and then do something different once they are elected. I applaud the Tea Partiers for putting both Republicans and Democrats feet to the fire. Sensible Americans know that the problems we face in this country are because of bad decisions by both the Republican and Democrat parties. It is about time we have some common sense in Washington.
The Tea-baggers have little common sense as you do. The present debacle is a result of the GOP which has sworn from day ONE, to oppose Obama, even on programs they once supported. They have called him a commie, a Muslim, a Keynian without an American birth certification and on and on. They have only one purpose in mind is to unseat Obama, even if it destroys the economy. Even better, if the economy does tank, they will squarely blame it on him. They want to make sure that the first black American president is to be looked at as the worst president ever, and sadly, they are doing a great job at it.
Why dosen't this fool go back to India or Packistan!! All he does is put down the US when ever he gets a chance. By the way, he is completely wrong about this.
Zakaria is pro-Keynesian and thus pro-American.
It's the GOP that is putting down America's history by saying that deficit spending is a bad thing. They've managed to get most of the Democrats singing the same anti-American song...
Bruce, how do you figure that Keynesianism is consistent with the Founding principles of the U.S.? Keynes himself acknowledged that an authoritarian political system was best suited to implement economic policy based on his theory? That is hardly in keeping with our founding Lockean political philosophy or our actual practices until FDR.
"here was no indication – by any metric– that the United States was having difficulty borrowing money one month ago. In fact, the world has been lending money to the United States more cheaply than ever before."
No. The world was not buying our debt a month ago. The Fed was buying its own debt back, either directly or via third parties with QE2 and other programs. . Its called debt monetization. There is no possible way "the world" will buy 1-2 trillion in treasuries every year for the next 10 years – especially at current return rates- and we can't afford to pay debt on even higher rates without making this much worse. .. The Crisis is real, even if its is shrouded in the Kabuki theater of the debt ceiling.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.” < - Made sense then – why doesn't it make sense now???? What's the difference between 2006 and 2011?
Congress is being highjacked by the Tea Partiers? That is polital partisan talk if I have ever heard any. All it takes is common sense to know what is going on. The Tea Partiers are the only common sense happening in D.C. The Tea Partiers agreed to raise the debt limit in their Cut, Cap, and Balance bill. The problem with the rest of the politicians in Washington is that in the same bill they required the government to balance their budget each year. God forbid we try to have the government balance their budget. If I am not mistaken, Obama said we all needed to make sacrifices and tighten our belts in this country. I guess that applies to everyone but the U.S. government. If we did not have the Tea Partiers in government, then there would not even be talk about balancing the budget. We would have the same Democrats and Republicans continuing to spend out of control with no fiscal restraints in place. I would argue that the deadbeats are all those other politicians that do not have any interest in balancing the federal budget.
Spending cuts/tax reform, those are budget talk issues that need to be held before passing the federal budget. Raising the debt ceiling is about paying the bills for legislation Congress has already passed. See the difference?
One step closer to December 2012
Pop, there goes the money bubble.
I can't wait....!
Dear US friends, Suddenly every american Politicians become like Indian politicians. Great with these kind of politicians only America will only go down. Sack these fellows Immediately. Declare new election. Boot Them all politicians who ever responsible for these Unpleasant situation US.We want Stronger US to have better Control over Terrorists.
I think I figured it out.... Why the Tea Party wants a default that is.
If the USA is downgraded, interest rates go up on the US's debt. Most of the US debt is held by US citizens in the form of Bonds. With the record profits being earned by the Coch brothers and Oil Barons, the rich have too much cash on hand and need to invest somewhere. If the US has to pay more interest on it's debt, it stands to reason that the return on buying US bonds is going to be higher due to the "risk".
I think the Tea Party just found a way to earn the wealthies 1% a couple of more billion on the backs of everyone else. Who needs tax breaks when you can just break the bank?
I think you're on to something there. The richest people have been sitting on their cash and want better returns on (relatively) low-risk investments rather than invest in higher-risk innovation and private start-up companies who might one day make it big (but will most likely fail to turn a profit).
So, all that cash is seeking a safer investment that can beat inflation. Rising interest rates makes their safer investments give better returns and simultaneously helps to keep inflation down (which is why the Fed raises interest rates when it is worried about inflation).
America is all right financially. What Americans need to do is to raise their own wheat and cattle and eat 'em. Nothing to worry. USA just need to stop infanticide and Sodomy to be spared from calamities.
Another more reasonable theory is that this manufactured crises filled with contrived rhetoric is doing what it is intended to do – establish New World Order – Period. End of Story. That is not conspiracy theory that is fact! And quite frankly One World Order is not necessarily a bad thing.
Look at all of the countries that owe UN dues. We've been dragging that worthless organization along with our money for years. Don't talk about how the rest of the world is so much better than us when they're not paying their bills either.
Go here for some serious facts and figures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt
but nobody wants to bring the military home which costs billions,.. no.. the tea party wants to blame the sick,.. and elderly.. good job.
Would you lend money to a country that is $ 14 Trillion in debt ? Who can't even control it's own borders ? Not much of a confidence builder is it ?
Money bubble. Pop.
Nothing major will happen in December 2012 in the world. Another Christmas time, guaranteed. Maybe just another American civil war over " Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holiday."
It's good that the rating agencies are looking to downgrade our credit rating. Since we cannot have principled approaches to fiscal policy in America (a partial product of an environment where not everyone pays taxes but everyone can still vote), higher interest rates will throw some cold water on the situation that is desperately needed, much like an alcoholic's intervention or the like. If we cannot have a country where everyone has a invested stake in the country via taxes, then maybe everyone feeling the effects of high credit interest will finally foster some fiscal responsibility. Sometimes we have to learn painful lessons to course-correct extremely bad and arguably unethical behavior.
The Middle Class has taken another beatdown on their investments thanks to tea partiers, the GOP, the Democrats and the President. None of us will ever be able to retire. We had just gotten about even with the losses that occured four and five years ago. Now what we regained and more is gone. Us Boomers will not live long enough to regain the lost ground. Retirement will not come until we are too decrepit to work. Then its to the nursing home on welfare or the cemetery. I'll take the cemetery.
Tea Partier's are not trying to score political points, they are trying to do what they were elected to do. Make tough decisions on getting America's fiscal house back in order. If they were trying to score political points, they would be acting like the rest of the politicians in Washington. They are the only people in Washington who are serious about seeing America get its spending under control. Use some common sense people, and don't just listen to your politicians feeding you the same old lies, scare tactics, and class warfare talks. Do you really believe that raising taxes on the rich are going to make a dent in anything? The more money you give the government, they more money they spend. Raising taxes is not the answer, a balanced budget is. I would not mind paying more taxes if the government showed me they knew how to spend it. I think most Americans would agree with that.
WOW, just WOW!! I read the comments from the Liberal left on this blog, and I keep saying WOW!!! it is that same mentality of spending money WE DONT HAVE, the Barney Frank pushed on Fannie Mae and Freddie MAC to lend money on a smaller scale to people who DO NOT HAVE THE INCOME TO PAY IT BACK!!!!! Leftists, just get out of the way and let the spending cuts take place, stop this foolish bahvior and fiscally irresponsible! all the liberal politicians care about it VOTES, and buy VOTES with money WE DO NOT HAVE!!! damned ideolegy!!! stop blaming bush!!! your boy in office raised the dificit to record highs in les than 2 years while it took bush 8 years to spend half as much as what Obama spent in 2 years and add to that the stupid Obama care that WILL cost us even MORE money!!!
blah blah blah. shut up and come up with an original argument already. this crap started with reagan.
Get rid of DEBT BACKED CURRENCY all together!! If you issue a bond, the bank lends you 10x the bonds worth plus interest, what pays the interest!!?? Answer-You have to BORROW it! This debt backed system is unsustainable and is doomed to crash. There is nothing you can do to fix a flawed system other than address the effects of the flaws, which is exactly what this whole argument/problem/issue is.
Republicans think they can get their way this time too?
The richest people have been sitting on their cash and want better returns on (relatively) low-risk investments rather than invest in higher-risk innovation and private start-up companies who might one day make it big (but will most likely fail to turn a profit).
So, all that cash is seeking a safer investment that can beat inflation. Rising interest rates makes their safer investments give better returns and simultaneously helps to keep inflation down (which is why the Fed raises interest rates when it is worried about inflation).
Let the government default and you get higher interest rates for government debt. Who benefits from that? The rich who have too much cash and refuse to risk it in the markets and thus to be "job creators." Also retired folks and folks who will retire soon who are looking for fixed income investments that will not be eaten up by inflation will benefit.
Bruce, I'm not a pure money guy, but I seriously think at the very least the "who stands to gain" aspect really needs to be looked at by the Press. Any chance you can forward this idea to several news agencies for investigation. It's time I actually get back to work!
The only thing I can't believe is why people don't see the obvious. You don't need to be "a money guy" to see who's picking your pocket. I'm not a money guy but I can still put two and two together. You just need to believe what your head is telling you.
Want to see high inflation? Just let our money bubble pop. Gas, milk, food, all will triple within a month of our default. Guess who bought up every railroad from Texas to California. Warren Buffet that's who, he did it over a year ago. Guess who just removed all non family members from his investment company? Yeah, same guy. Apparently he's not an idiot.
Guess who has trillions of dollars in intrest free loans from The Federal Treasury? The Big Banks. Get this; a bank gets into the fed by buying into it's reserve, then can borrow more than it puts in because The Fed prints it. So a bank could buy in(Treasury Notes, "T-Bills"), get crazy intrest, then borrow out intrest free. Money Bubbles goes pop. Good luck and hold on tight, it's not going to be a fun ride. Really the only question is who will they blame this time? My money is on just about everyone but themselves. Sound familiar yet?
I have a NO$Risk investment for you worth Billions and quite frankly millions in a matter of a month. But, of course, you wouldn't believe me.
Try them all for treason, they have injured the US.
Once again Fareed hits the nail squarely on the head. But will anyone listen, or just try to shoot the messenger in order to stay mired in ideology?
You would be correct.
It's the usual bait and switch and we follow like lost sheep. When you only address the effect and ignore the cause you exacerbate the result. Extending the debt ceiling, cutting, capping, balancing, etc.,is only targeting the effect while ignoring the cause.
Here is my take on what just might work:
1. Eliminating the $106,800 income taxable limit will result in:
A. A solvent S.S. system.
B. A surplus.
C. A taxable rate DECREASE from the current 4.2 percent.
D. A minimal tax increase for those earning > $106,800.
E. A tax reduction for the vast majority who earn less than $106,800.
F. Increased distribution check amounts.
* – S.S. tax is mandatory, shouldn't the same apply to distribution?
2. Implementing a mandatory Federal Electronic Medical Record system
with voluntary participation to qualify for coverage will result in:
A. Elimination of redundant testing by multiple doctors.
B. Control proper treatment based on Diagnosis.
C. eliminate fraudulent billing.
3. Enforcing fair trade agreements with China (speaks for itself).
4. Tax American businesses overseas to compensate for the loss of American jobs.
5. Restrict foreign ownership of American real estate.
6. Use the same leverages in pricing of food exports as are being imposed by OPEC for our OIL imports.
7. Raise the minimum wage from slavery levels to reflect the cost of living.
8. Reduce ALL political term limits to 2 years and establish an ATM/internet voting system (It works for banking and commerce).
* #8 might be the most effective.
If these realistic approaches aren't taken and partisan games
continue, people will be driven by desperation into revolution resulting in
an abrupt change in our Government. The freedoms that we now
exercise wll be overtaken by military policing. Never mind denial
of S.S. payments. We will lose everything. I'd be curious to see
which foreign countries step in to help us.
Thumb up.
I have watched Zakaria before. He is a liberal. That is the worldview he is reporting from.
When he says:
"To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought.""
–This is not entirely true. The last quote should read "Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we budgeted to buy."
Big difference. One you have to actually return the product. The other you have to only promise that you will not buy the thing you budgeted for in the future. Only a liberal (and some old guard Republicans unfortunatly) would propose to do away with debt ceiling to enable more spending away from the publics eye.
A budget is a law that is legally binding to the Secretary of the Treasury. Without further guidance from Congress, he must pay all of the bills authorized by the current budget law.
In fact, if the Secretary of the Treasury refused to pay even one single bill authorized by the Congress, he can be prosecuted, and the President could be impeached if he didn't direct the Treasury to act in accordance with the law.
Please take into account that this is real world, and we have a Secretary of the Treasury that didn't even pay HIS OWN income tax! ...... and no one seemed to care....... We have a current President that apparently asked for and got illegal college grants (foreign student)..... and no one seemed to care.... etc., etc., etc., There has been a very big run on Kool-aid the last few years.......
Who does Fareed work for?
CNN.
Premature. The U.S. has not yet refused to pay its bills.
Bend over and grab your ankles because we are all about to get royally f-ed by the a–holes in government who can't get this done. I say it's time we take back our country...citizens should start a war with these government bums and overthrow their a–es. Time to scrap the entire system and start over because these a–holes can't get it done. The system is broke and they've proven time and time again that they can't fix it and don't give a damn about anything but their own interests.
As individuals most of us use a credit card with a spending limit. When we want that increased the credit card company will have to agree. We cannot assume it or take it for granted. We may get another credit card and build up our overall credit limit, but at some point in time our individual credit report will put a stop to it.
So why has this got to be different for the group of 311million individuals that make up America?
"For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame."
NO.
We have corrupt politicians and a corrupt economic system to blame.
No, we have ourselves to blame for expecting the government to endlessly dispense money to support everything from teenage unwed mothers with no income to a public radio broadcaster with anti-American views. When are people going to get it through their thick skulls that the socialist bent we have taken is going to exact an expensive toll on our future?
The Congressmen that are members of the extremist group the Tea Baggers were elected to improve the situation. The Republicans were given control of the House under the leadership of Rep. Boehner and Rep. Cantor to improve things. They haven’t even been in charge for even a year and here are their accomplishments to date – "Stocks sink on debt ceiling worries" "Something that was taken for granted – the credibility of the United States – is now surrounded by uncertainty." "Who would get paid?" I guess Speaker Boehner either forgot about the FAA or just didn't give damn '"nearly 3,500 FAA employees, 50 airport construction projects have been stalled. And $200 million per week in ticket taxes are lost". Isn't the battle cry of the GOP create jobs and save money. I guess not everyone got the memo.
How come none of this happened in 1995 when we had a partial government shutdown for over a month? Or when we actually did default on our debt briefly in 1979? Why did we get two downgrade warnings by two separate agencies in the last 6 months? Isn't it at all possible that the reason for our current problems is that, unlike in other times, our economy is barely moving and not looking like it will recover any time soon and we are still spending like a drunken sailor and showing no signs of slowing down? In fact, with Obamacare they know that we are just about to really put the petal to the metal.
Does anyone else see the huge glaring problem where the united states gets Screwed because half of us are so obsessed with what their party is doing and making sure they put all the blame on the "other guys" that they dont even bother to try and do what is right for the country? When republicans are screwing over democrats just because they are democrats, or vise versa, its pathetic and stupid.
In regards to the debt ceiling. Im fine with raising it, provided there are provisions for addressing the unbalanced budget and overspending. A balanced budget should be a requirement. To all the people saying, well we did it "X" number of times before why not do it now... well experience shows that we will not fix the problem and in a year, we will be back here doing it again, only in a worse place. Dems will be pointing fingers at bush and republicans, Republicans will be pointing the finger at obama and Dems. Really? who really thinks this is a super fantastic deal.
And for all you people talking about how the tea party is trashing the good name of the united states.. to that i just laugh. Im pretty sure the 14 T R I L L I O N D O L L A R deficit does that pretty good all by it self.
If i had the same debt ratio as the united states who would lend to me?
The system is Flawed. Obviously. If you want a good name for the united states. Balance the budget. Operate with Fiscal Responsibility. Stop Pointing fingers and do whats right.
Fareed, do you really lack such basic reasoning skills? Your suggestion the current debt ceiling is analogous to not paying a credit card bill is laughable. The debt ceiling/limit is identical in concept to your credit card limit. That's apples to apples. When you hit your credit card limit, you have 3 choices: 1) stop spending so much, 2) make more money so you can afford to keep up your spending, or 3) ask for the credit limit to be raised. It's really simple, and anybody with a high school diploma should be able to understand this basic concept. The U.S. is in exactly the same position. It hit it's credit limit so it has to 1) stop spending so much, 2) make more money (ie raise taxes), or 3) raise the credit limit. Simple, huh? It has nothing to do with not paying it's debt. The U.S. has enough revenue to pay the interest on the debt and social security.
Why are you side-stepping the facts? The U.S. debt limit is very similar to Denmark's. Denmark's debt ceiling is also just over 100% of GDP. It's not a problem for Denmark simply because Denmark is fiscally responsible and doesn't get anywhere the debt limit. For the U.S. the problem also is not that the debt limit's too low. It's that the actual debt is too high. And doing what you suggest, namely raising the debt limit to "infinity", is absurd. The U.S. has shown that like an irresponsible teenager with a new credit card it will spend up to it's debt (credit) limit. The U.S. debt is already equivalent to 4 years of the U.S.'s annual revenue. That would be like a typical family making $40k/year having credit card debt of $160k. But you're going to tell that family they're financial woes are due to not having a high enough credit limit and the solution is to get a credit card with unlimited borrowing ability. In my case, I'd tell that family they're financial woes are due to fiscal irresponsibility and they need to pay down their debt by spending less and/or making more money. I'm glad you're not a financial adviser.
Actually the debt is 7 years of revenue (revenue in 2011 is $2.1T).
And both you and Zakaria are wrongheaded in the analogy. First, the budget IS, as far as the Treasury is concerned, money already spent. The Treasury cannot–by law–choose to stop spending that is already authorized by Congress. If they tried, they would get prosecuted, and the President impeached (though of course not convicted by 2/3 of the Senate).
The fact is that the US budget is not at all comparable to household finances. This is because the US is a sovereign country, with a sovereign currency, and a sovereign debt. Your household is not sovereign.
Some one needs to get these terrorists out of our senate. The tea baggers are in their for them selves. They are not fixing anything. What they are doing is disabling our government to function. All though we need to work on the debt, when people are put back to work first. They are trying to balance something with out revenue. They have shown time and time again that they are protecting the elite in this country.
FYI
I would implore people to not listen to the class warfare arguments some of our leaders in Washington are making. It is only used to divide Americans when we should instead be coming together. Are there bad rich people who take advantage of the poor? Absolutely, but I would argue that there are more rich people who are good. People who help the poor and even provide jobs to the poor. Most rich people love America and want the best for America.
On the flip side, are their bad poor poeple who leech off the government and are too lazy to work? Absolutely, but I would argue there are more poor people that are good. Poeple who work hard for what they earn, and are willing to do what it takes to make America better. Most poor people love America and want the best for America.
We need to come together people and not let politicians cause a bigger divide between us. I am a middle income earner who gives more than my fair share to help others in need. I do not need the government to tell me to do that, or to take my money and spend it for me. The government causes more problems than it resolves.
GG
I guess you do not listen to the divide The senators are protecting the rich over the middle class. They are not paying their share. Which giving them tax breaks added to the debt. This has long been going way before Obama was elected. The senators for the rich make it very clear.
It looks as though the socialists...er...democrats are hell-bent on spending this country into oblivion. Much as I dislike the entire political process and many of the types that control it, I'm inclined this time to agree with the reactionaries...er...republicans that raising the debt ceiling without substantial cuts in federal spending is irresponsible. Uncle Sam can't continue to dispense money at the present rate without a large tax increase, and those of us who actually work for a living can't afford to continue to support all those who don't.
Another way to reduce debt- is to get another job – more income coming into the house. The combination of less spending and more income will reduce the household debt.
Nice story, but it's the comment section that is the most enjoyable. Hundreds of people who aren't economists furrowing their brows and trying desperately to understand. People who can barely understand their own credit card's rate scale shouldn't be voicing in on a multi-trillion dollar GDP.
^ We've got a genius on our hands everyone, look at the great ideas he is bringing to the table with his surmountable knowledge.
A budget is a law that is legally binding to the Secretary of the Treasury. Without further guidance from Congress, he must pay all of the bills authorized by the current budget law.
In fact, if the Secretary of the Treasury refused to pay even one single bill authorized by the Congress, he can be prosecuted, and the President could be impeached if he didn't direct the Treasury to act in accordance with the law.
On August 3rd, if there is no increase in the debt ceiling and no guidance from Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury will not be able to prioritize which checks to cut and which checks to not cut in any other way than paying them in the order they come due. To prioritize in any way that causes any payments to go out late is actually AGAINST THE LAW and the Secretary could be prosecuted (though the President could pardon him) and the President could be impeached.
If the Treasury sold bonds in excess of the debt ceiling, that too would be against the law (a different law) and the results (prosecution/impeachment) would be the same.
I wonder, if the Treasury simply cuts checks when they come due (in accordance with the LAW), when the US's "checking account" hits zero, what with the Fed do? Will they bounce those checks? What if it's a check to debt service?
You know the Right has slipped into barbarism when paying your debts is suddenly considered a "Leftist" concept.
RESEARCH MORE, TALK LESS!
If the US is such a bad risk, then stop sending your cheap goods over here, stop taking our outsourced work, stop immigrating here and stop taking the BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of handouts that our politicians so generously give the world while we go broke – and defend your own countries, so our citizens don't have to pay and die to protect you. Is that okay?
Foreign nations will look after their own interests, just like the US looks after its own (and by "its", I mean the wealthy puppetmasters that run the US). They're not going to look after yours.
I am not republican or democrate. I am an American first. Both parties are out of time and out of touch with their ideals and their support for lobbyst. If the damage is already done let's change the Washington's habit and make them fiscally responsible. Let us not raise the debt and make them live with the means. What more damage would it do? If not now, this will have to happen in the future. So why not NOW! Why not?
Reducing government spending by 40% overnight might have repercussions you don't like, fyi...
Hey Fareed,
"We face downgrades and investor panic not because of our deficits but because we are behaving like deadbeats, refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door."
What bills have not been paid ?
.... You do know this guy is a liberal, paid by liberals, don't you?........
I hear ya ... fearmongering from any "journalist" is just "opinion" and it makes it harder for real journalists to be taken seriously. Too bad.
Don't you get tired of repeating the same old bs all the time?
Stop doing what Rep and Dem are doing ( Bad Politician and point fingers ) Lets pay first and talk latter, lets live like one super power nation.
For one day be a True person w no parties and focus @ issue !
Who will surfer with all?! Only the poor and middle class (Hight interest,food,gas...) The richer will be more richer.
Interest rates are still gonna rise. More foreclosures will happen, higher unemployment, and larger cuts to benefits will be made. It needs to be made clear this is not a certain party or individual agenda. This has been the direction of our government for some time. The gap between the have and have nots is not an accident or surprise Our troops and resources resourses remain over seas as our infastructure fails. And as we predictable argue about whos fault it is nothing will be done for the majority.
And the republicans said "America First" HOGWASH...Were they thinking of America when they were destroying our country's credibility?? As this article states, this is a made up crisis...that could have been avoided...now the we, the American public, will reap the consequences by paying higher cost for EVERYTHING that effects our daily ordinary lives....and this is because of the republicans constant "NO" to everything!! And their constant thirst in making President Obama look bad.. at all costs... However, this 'strategy' is backfiring! The American people are not that dumb to think that this mess we are in has nothing to do with republicans. Get a grip on reality. Your hands are not clean!
How about we as AMERICANS put money in a "piggy bank" and fish it over to the Govt? You know like a donation. I'm cool with handing over 5$ or something. U?
LOL, and that $1.5 billion you raise will go a LONG way... yeah.
The problem is that both the debtor and the debt collector work for the same people who encourage deficit spending and then try to collect from a deadbeat country.
If your spouse max'ed out your credit cards with $200,000, would the best solution really be to get your spouse more credit cards so that they can keep on charging?
Let's get real here, Congress. The fix is to STOP SPENDING MONEY THAT YOU DON'T HAVE.
Well Josh, the point is YOUR WIFE HAS ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY. So do you refuse to pay the debt or honor your obligations and THEN take the card away. First thing is to pay your bills, Second is to get control of the debt. If the U.S. would simply quit going to war these problems would not be near as severe as they are now. It seems when it comes to the military it doesn't matter if you have the money or not, you spend it.
Welcome to the era of hyper-partisian government.
I can't believe the amount of ignorance gathered in one place. The US Treasury is the essentionaly the bank of the US. Until we get income to exceed spending, we have to add money to the treasury. In order to do that we need to sell bonds that the US will pay interest. There is a stupid law that called the debt ceiling that caps this. The bills are already there, we have to pay them. Raise the debt ceiling and then figure out how to in some non-economy-hostage-taking manner get the government to reduce it's debt and stop the out of control spending that both parties have been doing for over a decade. We don't need political chest pounders we need real solutions by responsible people. I think they should get the point by now. Everything else right now is pure BS and we should make them all pay next year with their jobs. Unfortunately, as we've seen this time with the tea partiers, the replacements are worse than previous incompetents. The message is fine, but you don’t put a gun to the head of the citizens of the US to make your point.
And what's scary is that the Tea-baggers have every intention to pull the trigger. And no, they're not bluffing to get more concessions. They want utter chaos to further their agenda.
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.- Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), March 20, 2006
Yes, and Obama was addressing the generous tax cuts to rich which brought on that debt.
This country should be the one collecting the bills worldwide, not the other way around. Perhaps the US should pull back foreign aid, spend less on foreign products, develop our domestic manufacturing, increase our focus on education, and for god's sake please set some kind of limit on the number of kids people can have!! Tax people for having children, not give them tax breaks for having more – that just encourages a bunch of undereducated children in the system who deserve a lot more. I may be super biased, but even with my wife and I both working as engineers we seem to struggle with giving our child the best education she can have. Now imagine if we had 4 of them.
How come you demunists can't accomplish anything except Obamacare even when you held the house, the senate, the presidency and the courts? Why do you keep blaming it on Fox News, the brothers Koch and the 'vast right wing conspiracy' and refuse to see its your own ideas which the public continue to say are heading us in the wrong direction? It is because you are the looney minority and you just don't want to accept that everyone in America is sick of your tax and overspending ways.
I'm glad the nasty hippies grew old and turned 65 and joined their local Tea Party. Now they are all over you like flies on number2 because you are threatening their social security and health care. Angry old hippies couldn't have happened to a more deserving enemy of America than the left. Fun times.
I don't know what you're smoking, but Tea-baggers are mainly well-to-do white folks who hate blacks.
If anything good can come out of this is that we will stop sending billions of dollars in aid every year to countries around the world when we in the United States are in need of aid ourselves.
Actually, Javier, that is unlikely to happen.
Javier, the real reason you have to spend so much money on aid is that you keep blowing the hell outta countries and then rebuilding them.
Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party....it doesn't matter. They all report just enough of the "truth" to make their opinion self justified, and then believable to any dumb enough to buy into it.
Reality Check is this: If you believe in freedom that means that EVERYONE is entilted to their own opinions...this will lead to inevitable conflicts of interest, and the most viable route is to respect that fact and show compassion and regards to your fellow human beings even when they don't agree with you.
Or alternatively you can do as Humans have done throughout history....Mock, belittle, and discredit your opponents regardless of reality to sell your 'fertilizer' to ignorant rock farmers.
Step one to a full out revolt: Get the populace upset enough about an issue they are convinced the current government is too incompetent to govern the country. Check. Step two: arm the masses. Check. Step three: have a leader who is an excellent orator rise from the social level of the masses to challenge authority. Give it time.
Raising debt ceiling is not the real problem. After debt ceiling is raised, we still have to pay back the money!
Shame on you, Fareed, for falsely linking SS and Medicare to this ginned-up "crisis".
The debt ceiling drama is being used by both the Democrats (I'm talking to YOU, Obama) and the Republicans to destroy SS and Medicare.
It's a lie, designed to help eviscerate what's left of the middle class in America.
We need to stop supporting the current crop of Democrats *and* Republicans. Unless we really want to end up broke and living with our children.
And there's no way that 95% of our kids will be earning enough to pay for our medical bills and food anyway, the way the job situation is going.
This is one of the biggest fear-mongering pieces of irresponsible dribble to hit the newswires today. But the day is still young....
If all of our represantatives got together and smoked some weed, our country would be so much better off.
Steven, send me a supply for them. I'll make sure they get it.
Perhaps the only way to get congress to control the budget is cut up their credit card. We do this by defaulting on the debt. Yes, I know this may hurt. But as Obama says, we got to eat our peas.
Typical media trying to drum up panic. This will be just like the "threat" of a government shut down with a last minute deal.
Yes, the damage is already done when we allow someone with a Poli sci degree to be treated as an expert in everything from Foreign policy to the US economy just because he is on TV. So are Dr. Drew, Oprah and a lot of others.
excuse me. Can someone cash my SS check???
I assuming he is on the phone "advising" Obama about this matter too?
Someone, please, for the love of God, shut this man up.
Why does CNN give Fareed Zakaria his own forum when he is clearly so out of touch with the average American?
Here is the compromise. Roll back tax rates to what they were during the Clinton Administration and close industry or business specific loopholes like ethanol, "green tech" and oil subsidies. If the product can't stand on its own, tough. Abolish ALL automatic budget increases and limit increases to 1-2% for the next few years. Every single increase should be justified by actual costs. A cut in the increase is still an increase. The budget would come into balance within just a few years even with the horrible growth we're seeing and then have a balanced budget amendment to keep it that way.
Back in the late 1990's Clinton and Gingrich were 1 vote away from sending a balanced budget amendment to the States for ratification. Imagine how robust the economy would be today if we had done that. No tax cuts could have happened without them being "paid for" with budget cuts. No unfunded war. No unfunded Medicare prescription debacle. The dollar would be strong, oil cheap (since it's traded in dollars) and economy still growing. But thanks to falling 1 vote short more than 10 years ago, our debt has doubled and servicing this Bush-Obama debt is increasing by the day.
Were tax rates oh so horrible in the 1990's? Were companies really struggling? Were the high income earners being punished? Corporations like Apple are sitting on tens of billions. Their tax rates aren't what is stopping them from investing. Lack of demand is stopping them from investing. Does the Pentagon really need 2X the money they had in 2001? Do they really need to spend more than every other nation combined to defend us from emerging superpowers like the Chinese? Did Obama really need to DOUBLE discretionary spending in just 18 months despite us being broke? Do we really need to regulate business into the ground so that they won't invest or worse, simply move their operations to Mexico, SE Asia or China? No on all accounts.
I don't care whether you're a Dem or Rep...your parties are both at fault for this mess. Democrats are tax and spenders and Republicans are spender and spenders.
Government isn't the solution. Government ins't the problem. Republican and Democrat ideologues and their kook extremists are the problem.
"Back in the late 1990's Clinton and Gingrich were 1 vote away from sending a balanced budget amendment to the States for ratification. Imagine how robust the economy would be today if we had done that."
A balanced budget amendment isn't as good an idea as a lot of people think it is. The following article brings up a number of good points most people haven't considered:
http://www.thefiscaltimes .com/Columns/2011/07/15/The-Real-Reason-the-GOP-Wants-a-Balanced-Budget-Amendment.aspx
Mr Boehner, where is my job?
Now it's Boehner's task to find you a job? I see Obama gets yet another pass.
I wonder if social security is not paid on Aug 2, will the masses of Republicans on government assistance continue to insist on the GOP not to give up on their fight to slash those programs?
Bonehead is out having a few drinks with his corporate buddies.
let's see....it's 12:35pm EDT and CNN doesn't have a story posted on its website about the weak GDP growth for 2nd Q (and revised numbers for 1st Q), but it has as its lead story an OPINION piece from an Obama advisor and supporter. Way to go CNN!
Global economy means the opposition is not only the rich in our country but on a slightly larger scale. If your a monkey flinging crap at u.s. government your only hitting the messenger. We are all in the same tree but we have to sling our crap in the same direction.
This is a stupid assessment. If you have a loan that you can't make the payments on do you take out another loan to pay it off–putting yourself into more debt but still with the same income?... Hell NO!
What you do is stop borrowing and change your lifestyle to save more to pay it off. You can also restructure the debt to pay it off over a longer period and reduce your monthly payments while you work on making more money or adjusting your budget.
Dumb, Dumb article!
If you owe the bank a hundred thousand dollars, the bank owns you.
If you owe the bank $14.3 trillion, you own the bank.
Stop comparing the government debt to your own finances. They are not remotely similar.
Depends how big the bank is.... globally speaking we do NOT "own the bank".... no bank or country would ever so heavily concentrate its assets to reach that senario anyway.... we borrow from many countries
....And if we did "own" it what's your point???? We're still obligated to pay it off.... China is going to demand its money or there will be major consequences
The principals of borrowing money are universial my friend and if you can't understand that then you shouldn't be allowed to vote
You're wrong, Buford. China is already too heavily invested in US government debt. And they know it. They've based their entire economy on a heavy investment in US government debt.
China cannot afford to call in their markers at this point. Seriously–they can't.
Also, the majority of US debt is owned by US citizens, not to mention the Social Security trust fund.
Bruce – yes, they are EXACTLY similar. The only difference is, we, the people, ARE the bank, and we also OWN the Gov.
The Gov works FOR us. We do NOT work to support the Gov (though, over the last few decades, one would not think so).
This is how bad it is – you could tax all 500 of the Fortune 500 companies at 100%, impound ALL their assests, savings, profit, etc, and it still would NOT be enough to pay down what our Gov is spending. They are spending MORE money than they could POSSIBLY take in from the taxpayers.
We, the people, need to stand up & FORCE OUR Gov to STOP spending money it doesn't have. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
fareed is one of the biggest antagonists to live. I wish that reporter would get carpel tunnel syndrome in both his wrists and his mouth!
Your ad hominem response suggests he's making a valid people you don't want to accept and can't refute.
The responsibility for the budget/defict/debt crisis lies solely on the shoulders of Obama. From Jan 2009 to Jan 2011 he and his party had as close to supreme power as possibly in the United State of America, and he did NOTHING about this most serious problem. No budget in nearly 900 days? Stop all the spin and find the one guy in the room who could have solved this problem two years ago. Failed leadership and priorities by the Obama administration.
Tell it to Obama. He just doesn't understand, that you cannot spend your way out of a depression.
watch out, they want us to come down there so they can declare martial law – don't fall into the trap. just ignore them and trade for things with things.. don't panic. whatever you do – do not panic
The idea that we must first pay our bills then later figure out how to reduce spending has not worked for decades (to reduce spending), so why do you think this will change in the future, unless pressure is brought to bear before we are totally sunk? That is the message from the fiscal conservative people.
I don't always agree with Fareed, but his article is right on target, you raise a ceiling on spending 79 times in 30 years, but today IT STOPS ! it sounds like an addict, ...today is the last time i use !
We've pretty much told people that we are broke. If we don't get more debt, we can't pay our bills. That means we're broke.
We should be downgraded.
Amen... How long can we wallow in denial? The Party's OVER !!!!!
I'm only going to pay my credit card if my mom lowers my rent.
That's what I've learned from all of this.
You need some more learning, then, student. What you should learn is that you don't pay one credit card bill by opening another credit card and getting a cash advance on the new credit card. However, if your mother DID lower your rent you would be able to pay your credit card. But, more aptly, if you cut back on lattes and cell phone minutes you could do it all yourself, without help from mommy.
Mr. Zakaria, would you please consider running for national political office? You are a voice of reason in this dysfunctional debate.
Betty, Time for you to find some situational awareness............
why the hell are elected officials paid? you wanted to be in that office, you wanted that prestige....NO lobbiest would be usefull ANYMORE if officials didnt get paid! i.e. the presdent gets free room and board for 4 yrs. round the clock security, free travel, utilities,food food staff: chef, waiter, maid, butler ect.....usually these idiots are "well off" financiall why do they get paid AT ALL??? ALL THAT MONEY...Oh yeah we were talking about the debt ceiling......wasteful government spending...im against it.
We have republican house members to blame this. Something done 78 times in past easily being used to hijack president of our own country is a shameless act by repubs. I was rwpubs till now but am shamed to even see speaker Bohenier face reading loudly 'we care about election much much more than country'
Yes, all the Repubs fault! Do a little research and see if you can find an independent thought in that mush you call a brain!
So, because it was done before by others, that makes it OK? That's the logic of a 14 year old: "mommy, all the other kids are doing it, why can't I do it?"
Yes, by all means let's do away with the debt ceiling completely! Let's see where that leads!! The Congress has been such a good steward of our money thus far!!
This dude has it all WRONG! He says we are "deadbeats" for not borrowing more money. Say what? I thought the responsible thing to do when you were in over your head was to cut expenses, not borrow more money. Not raising the debt limit is not the same thing as defaulting. No one who knows about finances seriously thinks we will default on our obligations. The idiots who post here and drink the media Kool Aid think so but they do not understand. The ratings downgrade will not come because we did not raise the debt limit. Instead it come because we put ourselves in this horrnedous, ridiculoue situation - because Congress could not cut up the credit card. Both parties are to blame. Bush and Obama. Pelosi and Boehner. Ron Paul is the only intelligent, non-corrupt politician who could steer us out of this mess. Sadly, the media tries to marginalize and demonize him. The truth hurts. Drink Kool Aid instead.
You're wrong, Mr. Zakaria. We can't afford what we bought and we'll have to take it back. Everyone, including you. insists that a little hair of the dog is good but balk at going cold turkey. Intervention starts now, not when it's convenient for everyone.
the damage isnt already done. you can wait to pay your bills until very close to the due date. as long as you dont go over that due date...thats the issue.
Zakaria – does your credit score go down because you paid before the due date? even if it does cut it close without going beyond that due date? exactly...so the damage is not done...yet
How is it bush and the MAJORITY RULING REPUBLICANS for 8 years saw none of this coming and did NOTHING to avert not one domestic issue. It must be the fault of one man who obviously has had everyones support and full respect of the PEOPLES decision. keep throwing MONKEYS.
"everyones support". . .Have you seen any recent polls?? The majority of the voting citizens did not support Obamacare and definitely think he is not leading the country in the right direction!
Indeed, you should read the polls: 70% blame the GOP for manufacturing this crisis.
Fear mongering is what this is. Oh we wont have money for SS or Welfare but hey we can send Greece 700million, we can bomb Libya. Neither party cares about us and they will continue to do what they want when they want to regardless of political class or name
Very well explained by Zakaria. He hit the issues squarely on the head, as usual.
This is how nations fall. We may be witnessing one with our own eyes. We are letting a small minority to drag this country down. Honestly, the reputation and the trust investors had on US probably is eroded forever. We kept that trust that no matter what happened US would not default on its obligations. This nation stood by its obligation was a big guarantee. But for the first time, we break that trust. Once broken, it is hard to earn it again. This will become a permanent black mark that could be damaging for us for decades. And Tea Party hobbits can be proud that they finally accomplish something; initiating economic destruction for their own country. That will be their legacy.
Ah, yes. Our nation will fall because we did not take on more debt. Keep on drinking the sugar water, mon.
The token muslim from liberal news media has spoken. All hail the new order.
Not to mention that he's also on Retainer with the Obama administration... He so often forgets to mention that little detail.
I think we should look at the Media's contribution to deadlock. Instead of educating it has searched for ratings, leaving the people wondering what is true... From the Halls of Fox News to the trenches of MSNBC a lack of historical perspective tempered with the fact that things really are very different now is lackiing...
Give the Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth, less you remind that Opinions are worthless in the banter of never ending debate.
I have had trouble deciding how much I want to pay on my taxes. Congress has set a wonderful example, so I have decided I will default on my future tax payments.
The only thing wrong with this story is Congress hasn't passed a budget since Obame has been in office. Maybe we start there instead of the spending extensions Congress keeps passing which do nothing to help the country. And by the way no one in Congress wants to fix anything, all they care about is getting re-elected by any means necessary...idealogies have nothing to do with it. Why do you thing Congress keeps insolvant programs like Social Security and Medicare? For the votes of the people that are on those programs.
@Proud to be an American
You are really psychotic and racist. You think Obama is doing all this because he hates Americans? You never spoke like that about other presidents, oh yeah only about the one that is black. Did you even serve in the US Military? Give me a break! You folks hide behind that I am proud to be American implying no one else loves this country but you but you are really a racist pig. Look at yourself in the mirror and question your motives. I have never seen this country so polarized and it is because of race. The only real Americans are Native American Indians and we killed all of them or reduced them to small reservations.
Wondered how long before some "race pimp" would play the race card. When the black population was against GWB's policies, did you refer to them as "racist" for not agreeing with a "white" President?? Just wondering. . .
Key word....against his policies. Some of these people couldn't tell you what Obama's policies are. They simply latch on the first thing they can to ride the hate on in. Thats how you end up with people dressing up Obama pictures like Hitler while calling him a socialist. If you called Obama a Hemogoblin they'd have it on a sign the next day and protest with pride.
Now thats no where near all of the people against him. Many make real arguments whether you may agree or disagree. But to deny that many of these people don't just hate the idea of Obama in the white house is crazy.
For years, I have known that you Americans have lived high on the hog using raw materials from the rest of the world as if there was no tomorrow! So, it is with intense curiosity and puzzlement the rest of the world watches events unfold as one faction blames the other. If Americans didn't get caught up in the patriotism card hellbent on sending their troops, troops meant to defend the US borders from within (not a world away), to go to far-flung. distant countries where they are hated and not wanted, you would not be in this position. Think about it. If the U.S. does not poke its nose in every corner of the earth, spending it's taxpayers' hard-earned money, it will have more than enough to pay off the debt (not merely pay it down) and be once again beloved throughout the earth, as it once was. Get to the root of the problem. If the US minds its own affairs, the terrorists won't come looking for it. Let the foreigners fight their own wars with their own tax-based dollars. A few years ago, I got sick to my stomache when I heard the government saying there was "no money for its thousands of dilapidated bridges" while billions was poured into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and further billions of Americans' sweat and blood were simply given away to Pakistan so that corrupt officials could live as millionaires. Is there accountability and justice? I think not! Stop your flag-waving and stop all US-sponsored wars around the earth. That in itself will resolve your debt situation singlehandedly! Amen!
If it's wrong to not want to put money on every outstretched hand in return for a vote, then I'm wrong.
I think a lot of you here would think that Bernie Madoff should have just kept going. No one gets hurt by a Ponzi scheme if you continually find a new bagholder. Guess what? At some point point, the US government will run out of debt buyers to continue the world's grandest Ponzi. Would you rather stop the Ponzi now and face the tough belt tightening or kick the can and unexpected show up at full financial meltdown?
You're right.
The damage is already done.
The right wing extremists in the US Congress have a lot in common with the Norwegian who killed 69 people last week.
They have a twisted vision that somehow destroying what exists is courageous and valiant, but at the same time they are generous in 'saving' the country.
They'd be great friends together in the Happy Home.
Wow, comparing people who disagree with you to a insane murderer really goes a long way to solving things doesn't it? How about enlightening us with your fiscal plan for the deficit and explain how our debt load can somehow be sustainable intending of just heaping on more vitrol?
Didn't they both take hostages?
The plan to solve this is actually pretty simple. Get out of these pointless wars and have everyone pay near the same tax rate. Problem solved. There's no rocket science to it. But unfortunately too many have been brainwashed into thinking these wars actually serve a purpose and that some should be given the option to pay almost zero tax through the use of loopholes.
... "Sky King" ... ? So, is Penny in peril again today? Seriously, man... Regarding your comparisons... Anyone can turn any kind of monster into a comparison with any grouip for any reason. I could find ways to compare you and your family ... even if they're destined for sainthood... to Ivan the Terrible, Atilla the Hun, or Hitler. So please, try to find some kind of arguments with helpful substance rather than sling wordy dung at those with whom you disagree.
Just a reminder folks. Wars aren't free. All of that "fight them over there" you got sucked into has a price and now you see it. When the wealthy don't pay at the same tax rate as everyone else but use the same resources as everyone else that has a cost as well and now you see it. When Wall Street is allowed to run wild with no supervision because we the think market forces work like the laws of physics it has a cost and now you see it.
And finally but most important when you support a group like the Tea Party that rises out of people paying attention to how government works for the first time simply because they don't like the president and elect them to Congress it has a cost and now you see it. Most of them have no clue what cutting spending actually means. They're finding that out first hand here in Texas when they realized it meant the public schools system would be gutted.The same people that were at the polls Tea Partying are now at PTA meetings asking why this is happening. Now we're all about to go to hell in a hand basket because we have these same people on a national level trying to make moves first and understand later mainly because it sounds good. On top of that they seek to give even more freedom to anything with an Inc. behind its name which is how we ended up needing these bailouts in the first place.
At this point I say let it all crash and burn. Its the only way people will learn that running around labeling everything a sociafacistoligarchy or any other term the just learned will land you in a mess over your head. When we dig our way back from a corporate controlled state that looks like North Korea maybe we'll take heed to Jefferson's warnings about Democracy and education.
I'm really very tired of Republican bashing and Democrat bashing. Both parties are inhabited by idiots. Power mad, influence peddling, jerks. They all need to go. But, the mess we're in is because WE the people voted these nitwits into office repeatedly, asked for and believed their lies, and now don't want to face the hard unpleasant truths. Fareed is right about us behaving irresponsibly as a nation, but it's not limited to our government and it's not limited to today.
The fact that this guy states that we have had no trouble borrowing money is proof that he talks out of his behind. The Fed is printing money to buy US debt, NOT THE WORLD! The world is losing interest in dollars because it is becoming Monopoly money. We absolutely have a problem and it is not a manufactured crisis. Gheesh!
Why even this very article and about 99% of the media is politically polarized. It would be much nicer if the "rhetoric" that we are constantly bombarded with would stop coming out of the south pole (liberal democratic end) so we could have some balance. I guess if you get enough people dependent on the government to live eventually all elections and all offices will be dominated by democrats . . . or should I say DIM-OCRATS. Let's just have a listen to Rudolph Hess, I mean Chris Matthews.
Sure...everybody says that until they realize they are the recipient of government services. Then its "well wait a minute we don't need to cut that". I'm waiting for somebody to first tell me they don't use public roads before they start down the path of talking about being dependent on the government.
Fareed- you comments make sense, but CNN is writing copy to get people to click into this on the idea that America has sopped paying its bills. I am not aware of any TBills or Treasury notes that the US has not paid as contracted. CNN has taken a decent piece and attempted to sensationalize it. Almost 1000 comments... guess it was a success.
Since the U.S. is averaging raising the debt ceiling more than once per year since 1960, what does that say about the Government's ability to manage money? How the hell can (seemingly) intelligent people continue to borrow money within an unbalanced budget, and not snap to the fact that it has to end one day. Washington officials care about one thing....making the next election to keep their paycheck coming.
Who Cares! The stupid republicians pink slipped almost every middle class worker out there. Now you want to cry we don't have any money. Greedy companies are also to blame, Guess what mr. fat cat ceo, If my money is worthless so is yours you greedy pigs. Reform social security? Right, you would have 60 million starving seniors and disabled people kicking in the white house door. How about quit stealing our social security money mr goverment, everyone on it payed in just like you stupid republicians.
why does this guy even have a voice on here? his rhetorical bantering is as bad as the party leaders right now. the USA will NOT default on it's debt.. period... there is plenty of money to pay the "bills" that would avoid default. not even the clowns in washington would vote to NOT pay our debt requirements and intentionally default our loans. pay our debt, pay the military, pay S.S./Med... whatever's left over, that's when the hard choices come in. hard choices have to be made, and once those choices become a reality maybe that will help drive the point home for our government to truly get spending under control... it may hurt a bit initially, but we will ultimately emerge as a better stronger nation.
Sorry, but you could not be further from the truth. Why does everyone else have to balance their budget but the government does not. We would never raise the debt ceiling if we pass a balanced budget. period. i don't care which party you are in, it's basic common since. No excuse is sufficient! Also, the government will never stop paying it's debt because we have more coming in than going out on paying debt interest. i guess everyone on capital hill will not get their pay check.
Looking at the comments on this article, I can see why our politicians won't compromise. We as a whole elected them. Looking at the vile blame game going on here when everyone in their heart knows damn well that both parties put us in this pickle is sad. The question must be asked; Is it fair to expect the people we sent to Washington to do anything better? They are nothing more than the product of our divisiveness. Don't you think these people use all of this petty bickering as license for their own childish behavior?
We need to be sending a message that we are done fighting each other and that their jobs are on the line for not getting the work of the people taken care of.
Tony's provided the smartest post here.
The Damage is Not Already Done. As soon as America pays the bills, everyone will forget about this and move on. The only damage we do is not uniting instead of wishing failure upon the current admistration due to the color of his skin.
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TEA BAGS FOR BALLS!!!
ARE THERE NO MEN IN CONGRESS???
The Tea Party is really the ..... TEA POTTY ..... & I am not talking about the BOSTON ACCENT.
The TEA POTTY is where all good ideas get washed down the toilet, leaving only a few skid marks to be turned into TEA POTTY rhetoric.
The TEA POTTY sect wishes to relive a certain incident which occurred in Boston Harbor on Dec.16,1773.
They somehow equate the American Colony's protest against a 'tax on tea' with the current political situation.
In other words, they wish to overthrow the current Government & set up a White Supremacist Nation where Liberals, Gays, Blacks, Jews, darker skinned Latinos, Muslims, Buddhists & all NON-Christians will have some semblance of democracy until they are slowly & inevitably exterminated.
Except of course for those UN-EQUALS who are unusually well trained & educated & can become useful in the new America.
Professional Athletes for example!
The TEA POTTY movement (think bowel) needs to be flushed down the proverbial sewer where it sprang up from.
Like a new infectious disease which gathers strength quickly & mutates, the TEA POTTIERS will eventually be destroyed by a combination of disinfectants such as the MAJORITY of the American People will supply.
THEIR VOTE!
And THEIR the racists right. Sounds like to me your describing them like nazis, and that shows just how impartial you are for any debate on any matter. It is still legitimate to want traditional things in life.
What exactly is traditional? Whites? Christians? What if the Native Americans want to return to their traditional ways. Are we all prepared to leave?
American going bankrupt or reduction is like donald trump going bankrupt..rich man mismanagement or squander the money. or total fraud. bankruptcy fraud by management embezzlement.
China is about to make the USA a staging area for all their container filled with crap.
The only reason no other country has a debt limit is because of the unique nature of the USAs legislative branches. Congress just deals with spending, so it is only natural they would implement a rule against too much spending. Fareed Zakaria and CNN are going to tow the democratic party line no matter what, so what good is this article.
The biggest corporations are still in america and paid in US dollars. how a rich country like US can go bankrupt? Trillion in taxes received every year and still gon bankrupt and default on debt.???
Great article. Nothing like reason and logic vs. the craziness out there. The solutions are straightforward: Let the Bush tax cuts expire; cut defense about in half over a decade; put social security on sound footing by removing the cap on the payroll tax and reducing the annual cost of living adjustment; attack the drivers of healthcare costs such as obesity via fat taxes and a shortage of doctors and nurses via education reimbursement; and cut the budges of the agencies and cabinet departments by about 15%.
Sounds good!
How are things over there in Never, Never Land?? Yes, we are so flush in jobs in this economy. So, by all means raise the taxes on the "stinking rich" that supply the jobs. Did you by any chance invest with Bernie Madoff??
So you don't appreciate this country's defense budget? What made the US military second to none? How did we end the cold war?
Private sector contractors for the DoD create the best technical jobs and scientific progress out there. Do something for yourself and read some books on the evolution of flight and aviation. Btw, what's the D stand for? I figure it must be democrat since I doubt it means Defense.
The US annual GDP is 15 TRILLION!!!!
CNN is duplicitous in the biased liberal media phenomena that pretends to be objective and intellectually honest.
Want proof?
Zakaria: "The tragedy here is that the damage may already have been done" Keyword is MAY.
CNN headline of Zakaria op piece: "Zareed's Take: The damage is already done!" Keyword is IS.
Sounds like misinformation, untruths, and lies get a free pass at the CNN headline/blurb department. Real nice CNN. Keep up the stellar bull kaka.
One of the folks....looks like you've made a mountain out of a molehill.
the devil's in the details. Why do you think Obama only gives speeches and never puts any plan in writing.
Ha, Ha! I come to CNN from time to time to gauge the sugar level in the Kool Aid. Seems pretty high right now. Drink on, morons!
Welcome to the wonderful world of Repukeblican Governance and Leadership by Destruction.
Zakaria is mistaken and hasn't looked at the books. Social security is solvent for now and there's more than enough revenue to pay the interest on the nation's (not the people's) debt. What should go without funds are the Federal government's useless departments and agencies like Education, Housing, ExIm, BATF, DEA, ad nauseam. Government has caused every recession in American history and is the reason we're still in a depression today. Reduce government and free prosperity.
If you read between the lines of the story you will know whats going on all at wwwTheDimensionMachineDOTcom
I'm realizing now, how much of a one trick pony these baggers are. What will they do after they've tanked the nation, resign? Their strategies don't make for great 5 yr career plans.
The country will be rebuild on a balanced budget. Too bad the Democrats insisted on wasteful spending beyond our means... glad the music stopped now ehile I am young enough to adapt rather than when I am old and dependent. I do feel sorry for today's old people who have fought against deficit budgets... I do not feel sorry for those who've advocated that we borrow from futire generations to pay for today's expenses/
"The damage is already done" - Well we can thank Obama for that. He's failed to lead. He's failed to propose written plan. He has chosen to distort and demagogue.
Obama's budget was a failure having been universally rejected – including by Democrats, he has stoked the flames of confrontation by demagoging the issue... he lied about people not getting their Social Security checks, he lied about Medicare ending, he lied about defaulting on the debt.
Obama's maniacal obsession with raising taxes and continuing to spend more than we have has led the country to the edge of the abyss.
What a disgusting failure Obama has turned out to be.
Obama is not the only one lying; everybody inside the White House is lying; republicans and democrats; they are pulling the issue so they can win the next elections; plain and simple.
Which White House Republicans are lying? I was unaware that Obama had a lot of Republicans in his White House.
Perhaps you meant Republicans in the House of Representatives?
What lies have they told?
– That we borrow 40 cents of every dollar of Federal spending?
– That our debt has risen as much in 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration as it did in 8 years of the Bush administration ($4.2 trillion).
– That unless spending is reigned in now we will be in for a even more painful reality in just a few years?
– That it is harmful to the economy to raise taxes in a recession?
– That Obama's trillions of dollars of spending achieved nothing other than to add to the debt?
– That Obama didn't save the auto industry, he saved the UAW (cars would have continued to be built and sold just not built by overpriced UAW members).
– That ObamaCare is such a disaster that not only will it add trillions of dollars to the debt it will also degrade the US health care system to Canadian or British standards (visit any clinic or hospital near the Canadian border and count the Canadian license plates.
– That there still will be enough tax revenue to pay Social Security, Medicare, military salaries, and critical services if the debt ceiling increase isn't passed.
Come on cite just one lie the House Republicans have told.
We need to begin paying off our debt and not everyone else's.
I agree US Citizen...but we should do it by working together, not by creating a crisis (debt default). The debt default is doing us damage...worse damage than the debt itself right now.
Terenon
And all have just now woken upto protect our lily white reputation??????????// After having squandered trillions in the last four decades??????????
fedupofthebs,
You might consider offering an intelligent comment at some point, if you think you're up to it. But to answer your question, no, not everyone. I was trying to warn people about the national debt years ago, back when it was a good time to cut federal spending and shrink government because unemployment was low, but no one would listen to me. Now it's a national pastime.
Fareed misleadingly omits to mention that while the GOP ulimately voted for a budget they did not support, they explicitly said they would fight the issue of spending on the debt limit. The deal made on the budget was: pass this now, argue the issues again in a few weeks, not, as Fareed falsely asserts, pass this and then agree to raise the debt limit without conditions. The budget AND the debt limit were "two opportunites" to limit spending.
Good, well-reasoned post Pete. Thanks.
zakaria is a little weasel that tries to sneak in remarks that he thinks no one will notice, are outright lies.
That is his hallmark.
The bigger offender is cnn for allowing him to continue this crap day in day out.
Your explanation doesn't refute Fareed's characterization.
Our deficit is part structural deficit and part cyclical deficit. In 2006, for example, unemployment never rose above 4.7%, which is about as low as you can expect to sustain for any length of time. This means the economy was optimal for producing tax revenues and minimizing spending on programs to benefit the unemployed, and yet the national debt grew more than $500 billion in 2006. That's a structural deficit, a deficit that exists in combination with the economy operating at its full potential. It means you have a spending problem or your tax system isn't generating enough revenue.
Cyclical deficits are deficits that result from downturns in the economy. When recessions put people out of work they stop paying taxes and drive up spending for government benefits that help the unemployed. Those things produce a deficit called a cyclic deficit, and cyclic deficits go away once the economy fully recovers and unemployment drops to reasonable levels.
Too many people look at our deficit that think we need to cut spending by that amount to get things under control, but this is a misconception. We really only need some combination of spending cuts and additional revenues to address the structural part of the deficit. The cyclical part will go away on its own as the economy recovers, and the bulk of our current deficit is cyclical, a consequence of a deep recession and the loss of 7.5 million jobs. Put those people to work and close to 2/3 of our deficit disappears, leaving the remaining structural deficit to be addressed by some spending cuts and additional revenues.
The cyclical part is new; the structural part is old. The national debt grew more than $500 billion in each of 2006 and 2007 despite low unemployment. It grew by $1.44 trillion in the last 12 months Bush was in office. The jump was not the result of anything Democrats did, it was the result of the recession that started in December 2007.
The is relevant to your comment because the structural part has been around a long time and Republicans have been voting for it for a long time. The spending Fareed says Congress voted for and now Republicans claim they don't want to pay for is spending they've been passing for years.
We spend 1/3 of all current revenues on the military even though we haven't faced a credible military threat in decades. ONE THIRD of all current revenues on military spending and all I hear from Republicans is rhetoric blaming Obama, liberals, the poor and the elderly for our budget problem when military spending consumes more of the federal budget than any other area by far except Social Security, and it's close there. Republicans have never had a problem writing virtual blank checks for the military. John Boehner tried to preserve a program to produce an alternate jet engine for the F-35 despite the fact that the Pentagon didn't even want it. I'm not saying Boehner supported said program because it meant jobs for people in Boehner's home state of Ohio, but it is an interesting coincidence, don't you think?
This is just a tactic the Republicans are using to try to get their way because they know the don't have the power to get their way legitimately. They don't control the Senate or the White House, but they're unwilling to respect the fact that this means they can't expect to get their way. As John McCain said, elections have consequences, and Republicans aren't willing to accept the consequences of elections like adults.
Obumbles' media sock puppet running off at the mouth again. The fact is the US takes in enough revenue in a month to pay all of our debt obligations, plus SS, plus Medicare, plus Medicaid, plus the military with a lot left over. The US hasn't missed a debt payment and won't miss a debt payment. CNN is nothing more than laughable liberal propaganda that, thankfully, main street has almost completely tuned out. See CNN's abysmal ratings for proof of that. Nobody trusts your propaganda Freek.
I recommend dropping the conspiracy theories and name calling. Conspiracy theories are invented by those who 1) don't understand what's going on, and/or 2) feel extremely disempowered....both are positions of weakness. Name calling ("Freek") is just not valid.
Fareed, I would dispute the major premise of the article that something intangible (i.e. good will within the financial community) by virtue of the debate taking matters so close to the wire. At least one ratings agency in China has suggested that the US has already defaulted on its debts by deflating the value of its currency. Since some are saying we're already in default, continuing the debate to the last minutes doesn't seem to be what's harming things. It's that it's pointless debate without meaningful proposals by either side that's troubling.
The President's own deficit commission DOES think going further into debt IS A PROBLEM. Raising the debt ceiling increases the nat'l debt. It's that simple. Most people agree that increasing our debt is foolish. I think Zakaria's view is far from mainstream.
Canada just had its AAA credit rating renewed due to our sound fiscal policies. Maybe, just maybe, the US should take a look at what we have done.
The bill collectors have caused this problem, the ones you wish to tax higher don't care about paying more taxes. They make more off of loaning money to our government. It's not hard to figure out that this system is nothing more than a big circle jerk.
This is a pretty pathetic attempt at a meme. They're going to downgrade us because, you know, 14 Trillion and no plan. But then Obama would be on the hook. So start spinning! "The damage is already done! They're going to downgrade us not for our debt, but for our attempts to fix it!"
It takes one of Obama's most frothing-at-the-mouth flacks like Zakaria to claim that the problem is not the deficits. Where do these zombies come from and why do they throw their wet underwear at the clueless community organizer's feet and paint his toe nails for him?
The zombies like zakaria wouldn't get a desk job back at his hometown newspaper. In fact he worked at one and failed.
So now he is here,married an anglosaxon and is spouting his "know it all" b.s. at this gullible citizenry to further his agenda.
But he will be caught with his pants down soon.
1. The US hasn't defaulted on anything yet. If it does default, it will be Obama's fault, because he kept vowing to veto the proposals offered by Republicans to raise the debt ceiling. Is he really that against a balanced budget amendment that he is willing to let old women go without their checks?
2. The reason why other countries don't have a debt ceiling is because other countries don't waste the money like the US does. We are going $4 billion into debt every day- more than twice what it was under Bush, and 7x what it was under Clinton.
3. Other countries aren't $14 trillion in debt like the US is.
4.The Dem media is trying to do everything they can to spin this for Obama. They don't like the rules so they are trying to attack the validity of the rules.
"The US hasn't defaulted on anything yet. If it does default, it will be Obama's fault, because he kept vowing to veto the proposals offered by Republicans to raise the debt ceiling."
This is simply not an honest or supportable position. Raising the debt ceiling has never been such a contentious issue before. It is the Republicans and the Republicans alone who have created this situation with their determination to use the debt ceiling to force Obama and the Democrats to accept their demands. No honest, rational assessment of this situation makes this Obama's fault.
"The reason why other countries don't have a debt ceiling is because other countries don't waste the money like the US does."
There is no factual evidence to support this. You just made it up or are repeating something you heard somewhere.
"We are going $4 billion into debt every day- more than twice what it was under Bush"
Sorry, but this is not true. The national debt grew by $1.44 trillion in the last 12 months of Bush's administration, and it's grown by $1.1 trillion the past 12 months.
Republican....Democrat....you people will NEVER, EVER agree on anything as long as there are only two parties in your system. You have the WRONG type of political system....all of this is just posturing for the upcoming election....then...it will start all over again...I feel sorry for you all.
Thank you, biased puppet media of the Rich Elite and the Globalist Bankers for making sure the damage is done even if your puppets chicken out of doing it for you in time...
It's shocking that most people sit back and want to lay the entire blame for not passing a debt ceiling increase on teh lap of a handful of Freshmen republican Congressmen. Why is no one laying any blame on the Congressional Democrats ? Boehners Debt Ceiling bill would easily pass the House if a handful of Democrats would vote for it. Yet all house Democrats are voting against it. Bottom line, if Democrats really cared about the debt ceiling, they could easily vote for Boehners bill and it would move over to the Senate regardless of how the Freshmen Republicans vote. Personally, I believe the time has come to stop the spending. Imagine, we borrow money that we can't afford to pay the principal back, and we GIVE IT to other countries. Would you get a loan from the bank just to give the money to your neighbor ?
Boehner had a choice when he couldn't get 217 votes–(1) do I sweeten this deal to get a couple dozen more votes from the GOP caucus, which requires me to make a bill that's DOA in the Senate, or (2) do I sweeten this deal in a compromise fashion to get more Democrats than I lose in Republicans and end up with a bill that could pass in the Senate?
Well, you see the choice he made. It was the wrong choice.
Raising the debt ceiling has never been such a contentious issue before. It is the Republicans and the Republicans alone who have created this situation with their determination to use the debt ceiling to force Obama and the Democrats to accept their demands.
People talk about government shutdown like it is a bad thing. The truth is, we have been bankrupt for over 30 years due to out of control spending and the printing of money. Bankruptcy would be a good thing. That way, we could start over, and re-evaluate our priorities. It does not cost this much to run a country, or a government. Taxes should not be frozen or raised, but go down.
You mean that taxes should disappear completely, because in your scenario the government basically dissolves and there is no authority to levy tax at all.
Then you can "negotiate" your "taxes" with the neighborhood bully with the most guns. Have fun with that.
Bruce,
There are towns in America that have actually given back property tax after the year was over. That's after the schools, police, fire, etc, etc. were paid. But wait, how is that possible? Fiscal restraint and only governing where it is necessary. How much is enough? Every year, there seems to be some new tax, fine, fee, stipend, that has to be paid at either a local, state, or Federal level. Raising the debt ceiling does not solve the problem, and neither does raising taxes.
Not raising the debt ceiling doesn't solve the problem you're talking about, either. In addition, it creates a whole host of new problems that I really don't think this nation will survive.
That said, I don't think the President will let us default. He'll invoke the 14th Amendment or print trillion dollar coins before that happens...
Respect,
Towns and counties are not nations, just as states are not nations. Towns and counties generally have very predictable budgets and fairly predictable revenues. Revenue losses at that level are almost insignificant when people lose their jobs and they don't provide unemployment benefits. Recessions have a much bigger impact on the federal budget and deficit.
Just as poor people have to pay high interest rates and get slaughtered with excessive fines and fees that kept them in poverty, the US will pay more for less return as a result of being "downsized".
It's incredibly childish, naive and arrogant to think one is not dependent on the system all around us, and any quality of life one has is completely the result of ones personal merit and effort.
This is the kind of stupid stuff people say when they have no clue what the real ramifications of what they advocate would be. Absolutely clueless.
THE DAMAGE WAS DONE BY CNN WHEN THEY BROUGHT ZAKARIA ON BOARD.
Fareed Zakaria proves time and again on this issue and others that he is by far, one of the most intelligent people on the planet.
Kathy that's a display of how stupid YOU are !!
Kathy, that proves how thoughtful and intelligent you are.
It all falls on the shoulders of Barrack Husein Obama not matter what these leftist idiots believe. They will lie to their own children to help this evil president destroy this country.
Oh please, get a grip!
I survive the Kahoutek comet and Y2K. I suspect I will survive this.
All the scenarios I have seen which describe how to reduce my individual debt indicate that the first action to take is to STOP BORROWING MONEY WHICH YOU CANNOT PAY BACK FOR THINGS YOU DON"T NEED.
Which is the bigger problem?:
Congress's decision to allow spending levels which will require the future raising of the debt ceiling
or
Not raising the debt ceiling?
Really, people??? Seriously???? This is how we address a problem of national importance, by pointing fingers at the other party and repeatedly crying, "it's THEIR fault and their stupid ideology"???? THIS is going to solve the problem???
Unbelievable. The selfishness and stupidity that runs rampant on both sides of the aisle on these forums is sickening. I truly do hope we get downgraded. Of course, you'll all blame each other for it, our spoiled society NEVER accepts blame. But the truth is, each party – and each steadfast, card-carrying member of said party – needs to look in the mirror to see who's at fault.
The financial problems being faced by this nation are NOT because the Federal Government does not have enough funding. The Federal Government currently takes in 25 cents of every dollar earned by the fewer and fewer tax payers in this nation. The problem is that the President and his tax and spend this nation into the third world want more than 25 cents of every dollar this nation produces. They are credit junkies and want more credit.
Here’s an idea other than to take more of what those that actually create and innovate have. How about if the more than 200 million Americans (out of 311 million) that do not pay a single dollar in Federal taxes and receive government subsidies actually paid something into the pot?
The top 1% of percent of earners and creators and visionaries pay about 37% of all Federal Income Taxes. That figure gets even more unfair when you look at the top 5% f earners, who pay almost 60% of all Federal Income taxes. This redistribution of wealth may seem to you like a great idea, but the countless past societies that have tried it have been devastated with corruption and abuse of governmental power (See former Soviet States and current European Union).
And what do the ones that create and pull this great wagon we call the "United" States of America get for all of their hard work and creativity? They get insults and even more demands made on them by people that created nothing and will never do anything with their little lives other than complain and create class envy and divisions.
If you want to ignore payroll taxes and gasoline taxes and sales taxes when you write drivel like "200 million Americans (out of 311 million) that do not pay a single dollar in Federal taxes," you should realize that only about 140 million people are actually employed in America.
Since you are not counting payroll taxes and are only counting federal income taxes in your screed, we can take Social Security and Medicare off the table, because at the moment they do not spend more money than they bring in through the payroll taxes you ignore. In fact, Social Security has produced a surplus every year since it started, and that surplus is used by the rest of the government. Thus, Social Security and Medicare are "off the table" because they are not a part of the current deficit, and not a part of the current debt. (They may become a part of the deficit in the future, but they are not there yet.)
Whatever, don't let facts get in the way of a good rant...
Actually, Social Security ran a deficit last year thanks to the loss of contributions of the unemployed and a reduction in the Social Security tax rate intended to give people more money to spend. It also ran a deficit in 1983, and maybe a couple of other years around that time.
Thanks, skytag. That's good to know the facts.
Can the Germans bail us out?
Thank you Fareed for some clear sense and factual background. Unfortunately, CNN by and large is at least partly responsible for this fake crisis because of extremely poor on air talent reporting by most of the presenters. Wolf saying that Senator Ried's plan had "fuzzy math" in it, thereby taking the Tea Party line, a false and not so covertly racist one by the way, is one example. He needed to point out the fact that the CBO scored the plan and counted the winding down of Bush's Wars as a spending decrease. And most of all he needed to point out that this same method was used in the Ryan plan. Why did Wolf act as if it is only "fuzzy" when Senator Reid's plan is considered but not by Ryan's plan?
But CNN viewers won't know that because Wolf did not properly inform them as a good journalist should have. Another example is that the President can NEVER have a "blank check" as he does not control the purse strings, no President does. It is Congress that controls the spending. The President can certainly request it; but in the end Congress is in charge of the check book.
This fact, an extremely important one indeed, is constantly ignored by CNN's on air-talent. I am so saddened that CNN, except for a couple of bright stars, like you and Anderson, have largely just bought into infotainment and not actually informing viewers of salient facts and true reality.
Keep up the great work, remind everyone of Arron Brown's admonition to "report what you know and not what you think", and please don't ever have the embarrassment of having Ann Coulter on your show ever again.
Michael Hess, Charlotte, NC
Changing debt ceilings over and over again have only become an excuse to do NOTHING about bad spending habits.... So we are to continue making excuses for spending run amok??? that makes no sense... At some point, we have to say NO MORE. If not raising the debt ceiling is the impetus for our government to take a SERIOUS look at it's spending, then so be it.... If that's what it took for the "wake up call", then that's how it is.... Our debt made us look like fools.... Not refusing the raise the limit... Our unwillingness to compromise and act like adults, is what's damaging our image... Not the debt ceiling.... Our irresponsibility to our own people is what makes us look bad.... How can others respect us as a nation if we act without self respect????
Does anyone look at the possibility that the Republicans WANT to see the US default. If the government defaults, the Republicans can boast that the Democrats were responsible for the default. IF the economy defaults, regardless of the perils Americans have to suffer through, it levels the political playing field. It would then be a "he said, he said" campaign and the chances of Republicans gaining ground would be better than if there is a compromise now and a default is avoided. Don't assume at this point that logic plays into this political game. The Republicans are desperate, and because they are backed by big business and special interests, they would fare better in a collapse. That's my opinion.
Politically the GOP will suffer either way, and they will suffer more if we actually default. The GOP will lose a ton of seats in 2012, and they will not defeat Obama.
In spite of that, the GOP may still want a default. Why? Because a rise in interest rates across the board makes safe investments (in AA bonds if not AAA bonds) give a higher yield and it also keeps inflation low. If you are rich and don't want to risk your wealth on high-risk securities in companies that might give you a huge return but will most likely go belly-up (you know, the innovators and job creators), you are better off if you simply invest in fixed-income securities and bonds that are low risk and won't get eaten up by inflation.
That is, they may be abandoning politics, jumping ship, and building their economic bunkers out of a national economic calamity.
"To come at it now after the budget has been passed is like getting your Visa bill and calling up the company to say, 'Actually we don't want to buy all that stuff we bought.'"
What budget? We haven't had a budget for over 800 days! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!!
ZAKARIA IS A JOURNALIST CNN IS TRYING TO TURN INTO A BRANDED STAR. HE'S A POS NOBODY FROM NOWHERE.
HERE's TRUTH: USE YOUR VOT TO TURN OUT PEOPLE YOU DO NOT WANT IN OFFICE ! MAKE THEM COUNT. READ & ABSORB THE ISSUES. I AGREE WITH ONE ASPECT OF SUGGESTION = CALL OR WRITE YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS AND MAKE YOUR WISHES KNOWN.
I read the posts here and see a LOT of vitriol. But very little in the way of solutions. There is PLENTY of blame to go around. The blog here reads like a pair of spouses fighting over who screwed the credit card balance up more.
We have >$14T in debt and a $1.4T deficit. The TEA party people are *partly* right (IMO) – we HAVE to get this under control. I part company with them when it is "EA" (enough already) – it's not enough already. We (people of the US) have got ourselves into this mess (yes you, those that voted their representatives into office), and we have to get ourselves out of it. It means MUCH less spending and MUCH more paying. Even if we balance the budget, we still have a $14T debt. We need to go way beyond balancing – we need a surplus to start paying down the debt.
I thought the gang-of-six plan sounded pretty good as a start. It would be nice if *everyone* started focusing on solutions a bit more and less on who screwed up more.
All have valid points, but Tea Party, a question, say you get your way. what would you pay this month and what debt that we already owe and have sent checks to would you bounce? and next month would the little old ladies and men do without health care or social security? and vets?
What is sad, this stupid toddler like behavior will NEVER affect those that are involved with the decision. Their #1 priority is to their respective parties, NOT the american people. We need to FIRE the entire government and elect fresh minds. US citizens should be completely embarrassed by their elected officials lack of representation to the people of the US.
It really is.
Hello Americans,
You have to read between the lines what Mr. Fareed tried to point out. This is one of the most brilliant analysis I've ever heard of. He meant that the entire debate whether to increase or not to increase the debt ceiling is wrong. It is due to the fact that the budget to spend more have been approved previously (by the same politicians who are questioning now why the increase is necessary), there is actually no need for any approval to borrow more because it is already covered and expected at the time of budget approval. But since there is a law to follow even there is flaw, budget ceiling should be approved in accordance with law immediately and then change the law afterwards to correct its deficiency.
Sounds to me like more rhetoric, couldn't even get through the entire article. Not worth reading. Zakaria is not very informative, just rehashes everything that's already been said but adds a twist, a twist of adding to the noise. He was simply a CNN move to fill their international look here in the states. I travel often and actually enjoy CNN on television abroad, but not here in the states, just more stupid partisan rhetoric. It's better to peruse CNN's articles online than to listen to the talking heads they hire for TV.
Most Tea Party members have problems with focus and comprehension, especially with material that's outside their narrow belief system. I'm not surprised.
Not Tea Party, just an independently minded conservatively liberal citizen of this great nation.
Let me be the first to say that Veterans that are injured in battle or due to their specific military job should get VA benefits for life to help them with their disibilities. With out a doubt this is my stance, Pay them! Help them!
My problem is with the 60,000+ new disibility claims in just 2010 for "Sleep Apnea". It's a huge joke in every military branch that you just claim this a few weeks before you get out and you get approx $2,000 per month for ever even if you get a high paying six figure job when you get out! If you married or have children you get even more. Heaven knows if you miss out on an hour of sleep, the VA should give money for your kids and wife too! What!! Just this group of 2010 vets will get $1.5 billion a year till death. This dollar amount will keep increasing every year as more and more healthy vets hear about this loophole. Stop the waste! Yes, I'm blowing a whistle, I hope someone hears it.
What everyone is missing is, all the credit agency's of the world could give the US the worst credit rating possible. Those agency are for politics only. It's about leverage. That's business. No matter what, where you gonna go. The US is and will always be, the best game in town. That's how billionaires do business. They go bankrupt all the time, but use their leverage for better deals..that's all the US is doing. Don't worry, the sky will not fall. The US will become stronger for flexing its muscles. Most people don't recognize this, well, because their not billionaires. You just watching a Trillionaire nation, do it. Key word, leverage.
Fareed, You're an idiot and have no place in the dialogue of our politics.
Oddly enough, that's exactly how I feel about you.
It's interesting how many people attack Zakaria personally instead of attempting to articulate any kind of counter argument.
His skin shade, original nationality and religion automatically disqualify his opinion for the Tea Party.
Politically, it seems, the GOP will suffer either way, and they will suffer more if we actually default. The GOP will lose a ton of seats in 2012, and they will not defeat Obama.
In spite of that, the GOP may still want a default. Why? Because a rise in interest rates across the board makes safe investments (in AA bonds if not AAA bonds) give a higher yield and it also keeps inflation low. If you are rich and don't want to risk your wealth on high-risk securities in companies that might give you a huge return but will most likely go belly-up (you know, the innovators and job creators), you are better off if you simply invest in fixed-income securities and bonds that are low risk and won't get eaten up by inflation.
That is, they may be abandoning politics, jumping ship, and building their economic bunkers out of a national economic calamity.
You are correct in stating that this crisis was created out of whole cloth. But you left out the part where you identify WHERE it was manufactured. Republicans made the unfortunate decision to fight the decision to 'raise debt ceiling.'
Ignoring that fact allows Republicans to act irresponsibly and recklessly. They create a controversy out of whole cloth and then "both sides" get blamed for the irresponsible and reckless behavior.
To say, "we have ourselves to blame" conflates the irresponsible behavior of one party with the other party.
My point is two-fold. I agree that we need to address a US debt issue and fixing Medicare is a big part of that. The second part of this is, this is no way to run a government. Republicans can choose responsible ways to address important issues or they can choose not to.
Republicans should be held accountable. I see very few media outlets holding the GOP accountable for their irresponsible choice in using the raising of the debt ceiling as a way to garner leverage to address an important, but separate issue.
From here forward, the GOP has been given license to manufacture all sorts of crisis with irresponsible and reckless behavior, at the detriment of our ability to govern, because no one will hold them accountable.
Their behavior is not acceptable. It's not responsible and until we acknowledge this, they will continue to act this way.
What is the point of questioning the rules the game after the game has started? To lead is to navigate thru the environment and attain the objective. Whining doesn't achieve anything.
Sky...it happens to Paul Ryan and Scott Walker all of the time. ( ;
Dear lmlight77, the fact is, the Republicans have brought the country this mess with thirty years of tax breaks for the rich all the while the rich corporations sent American jobs overseas for cheap labor and turned America into a nation of consumers and not manufacturers and builders of things in this country.
Now the middle class is too broke to be able to create demand for product; hence all that frenzy to have a world market for American corporations to sell to because people like me and the rest of the middle class are simply too broke to buy any rich toys over even necessities.
Bush jr told us to not worry about paying for his wars of choice, just go out to the mall, spend money, and Bush put those wars on the credit card. Now the bill is due and the Republicans don't want to pay for it.
Then they have the gall to blame President Obama for the bills they ran up!
Republicans have created a monster that they now no longer can control. I believe we will see a default, it will be laid squarely at the feet of the Republicans where the blame belongs, for ginning up this fake crisis because of their dangerous hatred for President Obama. The Muslim Shtick didn't work, the birth certificate nonsense didn't work...
So now they will take the nation over a financial cliff to try and ensure President Obama is a "one-term" President and jobs for regular American be damned.
Fareed is right, the damage has already been done. Show me one job created by the Republicans since the mid-terms. Zero, zilch, nada. Their sole focus has been destroying unions, women's rights, programs for the poor and the elderly, the FAA, the EPA, the Interior Department and most of all President Obama for being a good man with principle and vision for a better future for ALL Americans and not just a rich few with their corporate buddies.
"Gall" is the word. However, a significant number of voters buy the BS, because the candidates gain voter trust by appealing to their lower emotional flaws (fear, hatred, greed, etc.).
Well said. This is GOP blackmail plain and simple.
The GOP has gone nuts since Clinton was in office. A non stop barage of attacks, fighting, and blackmail ever since. The Republican party is a bunch of babies who will stop at nothing to get their way, even if it means bringing down the country. They never try to look at the full picture or understand the other side's viewpoint only their own. The Bush administration got us here with their lies, unjust wars, and fearmongering. Now the GOP is going to keep us here until they get their way. GOP – take your ball and go home already. Let the people who really care about this country and our future take care of this. This should have been a simple vote, same as it was the last nearly 80 times.
No budget has been passed! Fareed in wrong on this point. No budget has been completed since Mr. Obama became president. Thank God we have a debt ceiling, it make someone take notice of the budget.
If there is no budget, then the Secretary of the Treasury is guilty of breaking the law because he payed, and is paying, bills that are not authorized by the US Congress. Perhaps we should prosecute Geitner, and impeach the President for cutting social security checks to grandma!
Unfortunately you are incorrect on one key point.
"For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame." That is false. 100% of the blame lies with the Republicans and Tea Party members of the House of Representatives. I understand you are trying to be non-partisan, but it is glaringly misguided here. Americans need to know where to place the blame. Do not vote for them in 2012. They are ruining this country.
Can't you Feal the Love! What was that old saying about A house divided shall not stand . WE IS DIVIDED! What Next? Charles Bowen Solomon Stone
I believe Mr. Zakaria has the solution backward for resolving both personal credit card debt limit problems as well as the country's - First, you commit to *STOP SPENDING MORE THAN YOU EARN*. Then you go back and re-evaluate whether you should allow yourself to get so far in debt. In the case of the country, where you are so far in debt that most people can't see a way to pay down the debt in a reasonable time (e.g. their lifetime) given current practices, you place limits on yourself, just like a recovering alcoholic might set a limit that they will never go within 100 feet of a liquor store if they are serious about staying clean and sober. This country needs to get clean and sober fast, and the solution is not to blithely raise the debt limit, which is the equivalent of letting the alcoholic have "just another drink and then I'll go sober."
Very good point cgoodrich. You fundamentally addressed the issue.
Why can't you numbskulls get the point that no one is opposed to cutting spending. The issue is do you honor your debts or not?
Fareed says honor your debt. Is borrowing money and refusing to pay it back a conservative ethic? Is "conservative" a new euphemism for "thief"?
CNN= Obamamedia
The funniest thing is that both sides have presented bills to reduce spending while increasing the debt ceiling to get us by. But each side has to include crap the other doesn't care for and thus it gets shot down. Frankly, I'm not that worried, we're not the only country facing bankruptcy. Most of the EU is in the same situation and China's wealth is only a mountain of paper IOUs that are truly worth nothing. The global monetary system is a joke, and I think this is just one more step to solidifying a single world currency in the goal of "globalization" and world government.
Cancel all debts, go back to a monetary unit that is backed by commodity instead of "faith", and restore the Republic. Those need to be our goals. And frankly they are not going to happen without revolution. And even with Revolution the still are not likely to happen be we do not have morally decent people to guide a nation anymore. Each generation has been more despot and decadent than the last. Every empire falls after a few hundred years, The "United States" is no different.
The word "Jubilee" comes from an ancient holiday where extra days were added to the calendar to put what was out-of-whack back in order. On of the things that got reset to 0 was debt.
I agree with Fareed on this one. This is not the proper venue to be debating what we spend money on. The proper venue for that is the budget. These bills were previously authorized and must be paid, as we have promised to do so. All of this grandstanding and trying to tie other factors to whether we pay bills we already authorized only serves to hurt our interests. We definitely need to spend less and take in more revenue, but that is a debate for the budget, not the debt ceiling.
It took Clinton and Bush sixeen years to run through $3 1/2 trillion dollars of deficits. Typical increase in the debt limit was $1/2 trillion. Or enough to last a few years. Obama managed to run through $3 1/2 trillion in only 30 months. So Congress should give him another $1/2 trillion and see how long he lasts before he has to crawl back for more.
You act as if all the money spent in the country is spent by the President, and if that President is a Democrat, of course he wasted it all on himself. That's a ridiculous scenario that not even a child should be expected to believe. Of course all that money was spent propping up Big Business, so the puppetmasters of the Tea Party should be happy, even if the membership isn't.
Let's sell Hawaii to China. Issue solved.
Better still, sell Alaska to Canada. Canada has a lot of oil (2nd largest reserve in the world) we can then secure.
Or we could sell Guam to China. Nobody vacations in Guam.
What's funny to me is that every time Boehner says that he is "compromising" on these issues, the only people who actually believe him are the Tea Party types, and they will end up crucifying him in the end over the "fact" that he was even willing to "compromise" over their so-called principles.
Why does he continue to bend over backwards for these folks? There have to be enough moderate Republicans in the House that can put together a package with 50 or more moderate Democrats that isn't DOA in the Senate. Boehner is not going to win anything worth winning from the two or three dozen hard-line conservatives he's trying to woo in the House GOP caucus.
Maybe he'll come out later today or tomorrow and say, "Enough, already! I tried to give these guys what they want, and they won't take anything but symbolic nonsense. I gave them their symbolic nonsense and that's still not enough. I'm giving up on them. I am now calling on the majority of the GOP caucus to join me in reaching across the aisle to find a few moderate Democrats to craft an actual solution to this mess."
He's got to know by now that Cantor doesn't have his back. Cantor has long had a long knife in his back and he's been twisting it left and right...
Correction: not twisting it left and right. He's been twisting it right, right, right, and far-right...
The democrats political philosophy is simple – vote for me and I will take money from that guy across town you hate and give it to you. Now go back to your video games.
The Republican says the same, except he keeps the video game to himself.
Most countries do not have a debt ceiling, at all. In a related post, Ali Velshi described the debt ceiling as a credit limit on a credit card, but let's take the metaphor further: In the case of our "national credit card", the cardholder has imposed its own credit limit-not the bankers. The bankers, the international money markets, think we are a great risk and give us the lowest rates. They would, up until this controversy, have happily continued lending to us and at the BEST rates. If the "bankers" thought that we were looking like a riskier investment, they would have either imposed a limit (stopped buying our bonds) or they would have demanded tougher terms (insisted on higher interest). By threatening to not raise our debt limit, we are saying, we many not pay all our obligations. In doing so, we are risking higher rates FOREVER!!! We are also limiting our available credit, so that even in an emergency, we would NOT be able to borrow. Note to Congress, particularly the Tea Party caucus: Shut up. Then vote to raise the debt ceiling!!!
"when a legislature votes to authorize spending at a certain level but authorizes tax revenues at a lower level..."
A legislature should -never- do this except during wartime. And I mean -real- wartime when the nation is directly threatened and war is declared. Spending more than revenues puts people on the hook the moment they are born, and that is flatly wrong.
There is so much BS flying around. This survey says we're right, and this survey shows that we're right. the only thing I can see is that everyone is so scared or like me doesn't believe much of anything being said. It seems that between the politicans and the news people, its like a soap opera. Everyone wants to be the emmy winner, and they'll say what ever they have to to win. We can't raise taxes because the rich won't invest in jobs. Well if this is true how come job growth is 1.2 %, so here's what I'd like to know, who's lying to us now , the US gov't or the news media. I could go on for hours like this but it would still be the same at that end. If the American heard the truth about what is going on many
would head to Washington to kick every politican out of office.
"Did you people all fail math? Raising the limit when it's $5T is different than raising it when it's $14T." Taken from Craig.Such an ignorant statement.Guess what a 5 trillion deficit is much easier to tackle than 14 plus trillion.The DC should of been handled over 8 years ago.Neither the Dem or Rep batted an eye back than.
What is compromise? One could argue that two valid positions are to a) spend more than you bring in (deficit), or b) spend less than you bring in (surplus). The compromise in this case would be to spend exactly what you bring in.
What we are facing right now involves positions that are all far off balance in one direction. Over the next ten years, should we spend $15 trillion more than we bring in? Or should we cut that by $1.3 trillion and spend $13.8 trillion more than we bring in? Unfortunately, the media keeps calling the second position a "cut" (because it is a little bit less than what was projected)... when, in fact, an actual reduction in debt would require more than a $15 trillion cut over ten years. That is how out of control spending is right now. How is a compromise meaningful when all of the proposals are so far to the extreme?
Do you really think a "compromise" position, a "not-radical" position, is for the US federal government to reduce spending by 40% basically overnight, starting on August 3rd?
When the GDP falls 10% in a single day, how "not-radical" and "compromising" will that sound?
He is right about how we got here, but let's not forget WHO put us here! In his latest book, former president Bush wrote "WALL STREET got drunk and the American people had the hangover." Yes you should pay your credit card bills, but raising the interest rate to 30% if you miss one payment is just plain wrong! Oh and let's not forget about this useless war that cost's us a billion a month! That's all I know is that when Clinton handed the stick, to George W. Bush we had a surplus of 5 trillion! I'm all for free enterprise, but there is a difference between making a profit and pure GREED.
Now both R' and D's want to make the seniors pay for it all by cutting their SS and medical care! WRONG! How about taxing Exxon mobile that reported a 47% profit increase this quarter!
One last point: Since everyone seems to know all about HISTORY, if you want to go back to the old days put a tariff on imported foreign goods and let CHINA have a tea party of their own!, after all they produce have the most tea in the world!
3rd party anyone?
"From now on, every time the debt ceiling needs to be raised, the world will wonder: Will the U.S. stand by its promises or will it break them?"
You're a moron and an Obama clone. Get spending under control (i.e. eliminate it) and you won't have to raise the debt ceiling ever again. Sort of like those of us repsonsible enough to pay our credit card bill fully eacch month.
He is right about how we got here, but let's not forget WHO put us here! In his latest book, former president Bush wrote "WALL STREET got drunk and the American people had the hangover." Yes you should pay your credit card bills, but raising the interest rate to 30% if you miss one payment is just plain wrong! Oh and let's not forget about this useless war that cost's us a billion a month!
Now both R' and D's want to make the seniors pay for it all by cutting their SS and medical care! WRONG! How about taxing Exxon mobile that reported a 47% profit increase this quarter!
One last point: Since everyone seems to know all about HISTORY, if you want to go back to the old days put a tariff on imported foreign goods and let CHINA have a tea party of their own!, after all they produce have the most tea in the world!
3rd party anyone?
Yeah, Yeah, Seems all left or right red or blue .All are right looks like.Who to blame for this blame blame game. I feel it's all politics and politicization of the issue.Instead of pointing fingers and what ever why don't they start to balancing the budget from Capitol hill to While house and then the other profit making big oil company and then trickle down. I guess even the congress/ capitol hill is over the top on it.Why don't they start to cut their benefits, salary and expense and then set an example and move on.
Also who is to be blamed for this mess. I guess the someone missed the deadline and their responsibility.
PBL I guess noone care abt the Math here. Its all POLITICS of the issue.
I think the TP feels, as do most Americans, that the astronomic debt is a major problem affecting many things, especially the economy. Further, the TP feels that if something is not done now, if there is not a will to make a way now, that nothing will ever be done to halt and reverse our crushing debt. TPs don't want default. No. But, yes they are using this issue as a sword of Damocles hanging over Congress to FINALLY DO SOMETHING instead of making the problem worse. The bloated Federal government must decrease to reverse our impending train wreck of debt.
We could do something ... let's sell Galveston to Mexico. Prone to hurricane damage, but otherwise a fine place to vacation. Nice hotels. I think the even have a Rainforest Cafe there already. See? Lots of ways to raise money!
Will balancing the budget involve stopping subsidies to the oil companies, big businesses like Monsanto, closing the agencies that protect consumers and the rights of the common man, and taking back the money we paid to the big banks for the bailout and the huge fraudulent charges of government contractors that cheat and overcharge? And has the Republican Congress passed any bills that would increase jobs, balance the budget, increase the well being of this nation or its citizens? Have they taken any action at all on the needs of this country? Mostly, they have, as far as I can tell, spent the taxpayers money wasting time on bills that they knew would not make it out of the Senate. They have wasted time while they collected private funding into their own pockets, as politicians can do. They have made the rich richer and the poor poorer. What will happen when there will be no one to buy from the rich? All these companies need customers. Customers need money to buy. When the middle class becomes so poor that they cannot support the big companies and their products, like now when most shop WalMart for foreign-made goods...Oh, yeah, those goods are manufactured by big American corps who now outsource and no longer pay taxes since they moved operations overseas. This whole issue is so complicated and will take so much to fix. But the rich will fight a fix and the rest of us will go down the tubes. Our golden age as the richest nation with the highest standard of living is over. Every action of the Tea Party and the Republicans and large corporations seems to be another nail in the coffin. I worry about the survival of my grandkids. I regret they will never share the pride I once had in being an American. Their future will not be as rosy as my past. Neither will my short future since I am old and without good medical assistance will not live much more than an average lifespan. The dignity of life for the elderly is sacrificed to cuts in medicare and health insurance by the very people that insist that I live long enough to suffer through it. Nuff ranting. It is a shame to have a good president and a lousy political environment that curtails the chance of getting anything worthwhile done. I would not be so angry with what the Republican are doing to this country if they actually thought it was for the best for the country and not for their own pocketbooks and not for their own re-election. And I am tired of these self-professed moral people who have lied, cheated, stolen elections, committed adultery and all kinds of sin (as defined by their own highly proclaimed morality) who insist that They are the Majority when they never got beyond 49% of a 2-way tie. Ok really nuff ranting.
Great. Let's raise taxes!
No ... corporations won't hire if you do that. (they are currently hiring tons of tired, poor, and huddled masses, although they don't actually live in the US ...) Big oil needs their extra money. I think we could probably get a decent amount for Yellowstone ...
Corporations won't hire if you don't do that. We didn't do that 7 months ago, and unemployment is worse today than it was then.
Corporations WERE hiring when the non-temporary taxes were there.
NO MORE WARS! UNTIL ALL WARS ARE STOPPED AND DEFUNDED, THERE IS NO REASON TO TALK ABOUT ANY CUTS.
yes Congress (etc...) sucks but I wonder how all of YOUR credit is people...why dont you try to get your own debt/mney in order before casting stones
Id bet most of you have large debt yourselves. Its a culture thing, and its your fault too. Wanna see where some of the probs come from? Look in the mirror.
I dont have debt, Im not one of the perpetrators.
"First you pay the bills and then you figure out how to change your spending habits."
If you have a system where you can pay your bills first....why would you need to change your spending habits? Ah, could it be that the system of borrowing more to pay for existing debt in the past has already lead to a situation where YOU can't pay the bills first. Could that PERHAPS be the issue.
Your logic and insight is overwhelming Mr. Z
Are you suggesting we shouldn't pay our bills? Your insight is NOT overwhelming.
Thank you G reed O ver P eople. How's that "contract" Johnny Boehner had that lobbyist write up working out for ya?
"For this erosion, we have only ourselves to blame." – No for this erosion, we have ONLY REPUBLICANS to blame.
Not only did Republicans make a crisis where their was none before, not only are the Republicans administrations responsible for almost the entire debt, but Republicans are the only ones who are blocking jobs bills, stimulus bills, and infrastructure bills that will allow America to recover from this second depression and turn the deficit around. They simultaneously created the problem, aggravated the problem hoping to exploit it, and are preventing any solution to the problem. The Republicans ARE THE PROBLEM.
The media is of course afraid to say that publicly.
Cut congressional pay and benefits. Let them feel the pain too. I guarantee if they have to pay for their own health care (out of THEIR pockets) we'll see reforms in record time!
Gary, I'm with you. Somebody in a public forum, preferably in the Media, needs to acknowledge your statement:
"Not only did Republicans make a crisis where their was none before, not only are the Republicans administrations responsible for almost the entire debt, but Republicans are the only ones who are blocking jobs bills, stimulus bills, and infrastructure bills that will allow America to recover from this second depression and turn the deficit around. They simultaneously created the problem, aggravated the problem hoping to exploit it, and are preventing any solution to the problem. The Republicans ARE THE PROBLEM. The media is of course afraid to say that publicly."
“That's not how it works. First you pay the bill, then you can change your spending habits.” Seriously? That’s a catch-22! That’s like trying to extinguish a fire while you continue to pour fuel into it. I escaped from credit card debt by doing exactly the opposite: first I cut the cards up, then I paid the bills. If you want to get out of the hole you’re in, the first thing you have to do is stop digging! It worked for me. You should know better, Fareed!
So you are saying that the federal government should simply reduce spending by 40%, basically overnight, starting on August 3rd.
And you are saying this because the federal budget is somehow comparable to the struggles you had with credit cards.
Hold on! We're in for a wild ride!
Yes.
WOW! Seriously? OK, are you going to explain to our troops why you stopped feeding them after Aug 3rd? How about your grandmother's nursing home, when they call you to tell you that they didn't get her Medicare payment, and will be dropping her you off at your door in an hour for round-the-clock Alzheimer's care? When your daughter isn't allowed to register for college next month because there is no Pell Grant or Perkins Loan because she "wasn't in the budget"???
Let's just raise the retirement age to 95.
Oh, you want to compromise? Sure thing! Let's make it 90. Deal?
Regarding the downgrade by the credit agencies you said that, “there was no indication, by any measure, that the United States was having any difficulty borrowing money one month ago.”
I think you fail to address QE2. The fed had to buy their own treasuries because of lack of demand by the rest of the world.
Wrong. The Fed bought those bonds to inject currency into the economy.
Seriously, people...
You have to look no further, than the Tea Party and the far right Republicans and you have found the major problem on why the debt ceiling problems are NOT being fixed. The Tea Party and its movement, including their members in Congress are ruining America and its future. On Wednesday, August 3rd.., when there are NO Social Security checks for baby-boomers, senior citizens, retirees (that have paided into Social Security their whole life), the disabled, our veterans, AARP members, the Middle-Class, poor and homeless in America.., those people will be looking at with disgust toward the Tea Party and its members, as the major cause on why the debt ceiling problem did NOT get fixed. When they can't pay their mortgage or rent, utilities, medical expenses, bills and debts, and credit card payments, gas, oil and insurance for the car, and just trying to put food on the table for themselve, their family or children.., they will be looking at the Tea Party and its movement as the trouble makers. The Tea Party and far right Republicans' have caused more harm to America, than we will ever know. We made a mistake, we voted them in and we can sure as hell vote them out of office. You want to vent or point your finger, than look a little closer at the Tea Party and far right Republicans for your problems. You will amazed, what you are going to find.. Mike in Montana
One of the big reasons the problem has not been resolved yet is that the politicians are just like too many of the people commenting here. Too many people want to waste time pointing the finger at the other guys and bickering like small children, rather than acknowledging the problem and coming up with workable compromise.
It is time for both the public and the politicians to stop playing "who hit John", acknowledge the reality of government (deficit) spending and work TOGETHER to find both short- and long-term solutions. As mama used to say "I don't care who started it, it ends now!"
It's also time to stop linking increases to the debt ceiling to the discussion.
We need to have a law that states that any federal budget that contains deficit spending is not legally binding to the Treasury if it will exceed the existing debt ceiling.
just a test comment to see if this thing works...test..test..
The hate of the elderly. The hate of the poor. The hate of the educated in their ivory towers. The hate of Obama – because let's get it out there for SO MANY OF YOU – it's his color, isn't it? There! Got it all in the open. NOW FIX IT!
All this debate of whether to raise the debt limit or not, is simply a smoke screen, like focusing on the milk alone, rather than the mad cow, to divert the american peoples attention from the real problem. The real problem is that the our banking system is fundamentally wrong, corrupt and downright fraudulent, though very few people really understand this fact.
I think you're correct. While everyone is up-in-arms over this $14.3 trillion federal debt (the public debt), I've heard almost nothing about the PRIVATE debt (like your own personal mortgage), which is about THREE TIMES higher than that.
That is, we as a country have been sold a bill of goods regarding GDP growth, and we're leveraging ourselves to the hilt in order to perpetuate it. It goes something like this: buy a house with a mortgage worth 80% and a 20% downpayment. The economy improves and the house value increases by 50% after a few years, so you sell a second mortgage for 27% of the new value of the house (so that you end with 20% equity again) and spend that money, which increases GDP, which increases the house price again and you get another mortgage... This continues, but there are diminishing returns in that a given amount of money borrowed and spent produces less and less GDP.
We're hitting the wall on this unsustainable enterprise. What's happening in government actually pales in comparison to what's happening (what's happened, actually) in places like the housing market.
But it's our banking system that was set up to encourage this Ponzi-like scheme. The house of cards is starting to crumble.
This is the limit of Keynesian economics, and where a sound argument against Zakaria lies. I wish there were some level heads actually trying to make this argument.
Couple of interesting qoutes:
"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, 1815
“I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create money. And they who control the credit of the nation, direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people.”
- Reginald McKenna, as Chairman of the Midland Bank, addressing stockholders in 1924.
How does that sacred cow "Defense" enter into this? Maybe we should change the name to The Department Of The Military Industrial Complex. Vast sums of our money are going into that rat hole. By the way, did they ever find those WMD in Iraq?
WMD – Weapons of Mass Deception (of the American people)
There is nothing "federal" about the "Federal Reserve" and nor do they have a "reserve" of money. It's high time each citizen understands the history behind the baking system and how a few private individuals behind the so called "Federal Reserve" are holding this country to ransom and basically using our tax money to fatten their already fat pockets. Try to research the history of the "fed". Believe me, you will NEVER see things in the same light again and you will immediately realize that all this talk about debt limit is just another plot to lead us in the wrong direction.
typo – "banking", not "baking", though the corrupt have been really baking our asses, so there isnt much difference really...
Austrian or Chicago school? Whichever, you're off the deep end.
Absolutely right. It's high time each american goes off the deep end and demand that the corrupt banking system and the private rich club, known deceptively as the fed, be demolished. They cant fool the american people forever..
You lose credibility when you blame one side over the other.
This issue is more than decades old, and is only existant because of the actions by Dems and Reps alike.
I think you're wrong to blame politics. What's happening in politics and the federal government's budget today is lagging what already happened to everyone's household finances in the last few years.
All this stuff about household budgets and how we should run our government like we run our households ignores that we basically have run our government like we run our households... Private debt is three times the $14.3 trillion public debt we're talking about here.
Absolutely ! The sad part is, our education system and the media, do not encourage the common people to ask basic questions such as "How did we get here in the first place ?" and "How come we have this huge debt, if we are supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world ?". How many people can clearly answer that ?
Fareed Zakaria is just a tool for the Democratic party. Yes he's well spoken, but he's a total left winger along with Barack Odumma.
At some point, a grown-up has to intercede. "Now, Congress, we've told you 78 times since 1960 that you have to get your spending under control. I know you think this is an empty threat, but some day we really WILL take away your credit card."
There is no reason to think that if the Congress fails to vote for a debt ceiling increase that the U.S. Government would not pay its bond holders interest. What would happen if the Congress did not authorize an increase in the debt ceiling is the Federal government would be forced to balance its budget immediately. If bond holders are paid off the top with incoming revenue, then there would be no default. Other budgetary obligations would also be paid until the money ran out. About 40% of current expenditures could not be paid. The result would be a partial government shutdown, but not a default as long as the bond holders are paid.
The real problem that would affect our credit rating and the American economy is the total amount of debt. The U.S. has unfunded liabilities of, at least, $63 trillion ( see studies by Jagadeesh Gokhale and Kent Smetters for this figure; other studies estimate that it could be much higher) . Simply raising the debt limit without addressing this underlying danger would be irresponsible. A more intelligent discussion these issues was presented by David Brooks in his June 6th NYT column, "Where Wisdom Lives."
If that would happen, the GDP would be reduced by more than 15%. That would decrease demand, and business would have no choice but to make massive lay-offs, further decreasing the GDP. The economy would spiral down, with 30% unemployment as in the 1930's. It would be a tragedy that this would have to happen just to show how dangerous the Tea-party ideas are.
First, zaybu, what you mention is a distinct set of problems from what is currently being discussed by Mr. Zakaria and his cohorts in the News Media. Second, I disagree with your Aggregate Demand-based understanding of macro economics. While I would prefer more gradual reforms to allow people time to adjust to changes in fiscal policy, over time, it is necessary to reduce governmental debt, increase savings, and increase capital to spur sustainable, real economic growth. Simply stimulating demand is not sustainable as we have seen with the short-lived effects of the stimulus plan. Governmental "pyramid schemes" are doomed to collapse at some point, but before they do, they suck up resources in current consumption that would have gone into longer-term capital and production.
As an ex-Indian citizen I am ashamed for Fareed. He is the one born affluent and now wants to spend every one elses money for his and Mr. O's pipedreams. And yes, I did not like many of Bushes' policies either and I spoke against them as much as I could. STOP spending money that does not belong to you and STOP promisiing what you can not deliver. Both political parties are responsible for the hole we are in but the Liberal policies more so. Look at the state of affairs in the states that have consistantly voted Liberal, CA, NY, NJ, MA, VT, MI. Industries and people are leaving these states in large numbers. There is reason. Just think. For Liberals who idols are great folks like Carl Marx thinking may be the problem.
All I can say is that the US shall fall terribly, we were foretold of the US dollar losing a lot of value, a nuclear war breaking out affecting the western world, Israel & the middle east.
Most of Europe shall also go bankrupt. 2012-2022 shall be the time of pain for the world.
Maybe people will think twice before that for for the Tea Bag idiots again, unless they feel that destroying the American economy is worth proving a point. What point I haven't the faintest idea.
We should also be spending money on infrastructure and not be cutting money out of the economy. There are only 3 sources of money for the economy...Consumers, who have none to spend; Business, who will spend if consumers buy and the government. Hence, like in every other recession we have had, the government needs to spend to create jobs, which employes people who then spend and purchase products from business.
It seems to me that the Tea and GOP WANT to destroy the economy just so they can beat Obama in the election...which is tantamount to TREASON.
All you Obamanots must think the truth lies in reading fortune cookies. "Confucius say: There are only 3 sources of money for the economy...Consumers, who have none to spend; Business, who will spend if consumers buy and the government. " LOL.
Look up the word 'producer' and maybe you'll learn a thing or two about the US economy and why it works instead of your Marxist garbage. You're the idiot .. but wait that would insult idiots. Ypu're the one they say knows just enough to be dangerous.
Have you even walked near a school? It's Keynesian economics.
Also to sum all of you Tea heads up, John Kenneth Galbraith said " The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
Rod, the US Government is NOT a source of money. It is a manufacturer of currency and coinage in order to make the exchange of goods and services more efficient, but it is not a source of wealth as you are implying. The amount of "money" manufactured by the governemnt is based on the GDP of the country. The US is a republic and a capitalistic country. The reason it is faltering right now is because all the socialistic programs that have been put in place over the past 80 years or so trying to protect everyone from themselves. Government's purpose is to make sure everyone has the same rights to potentially succeed; it is not to make sure everyone succeeds. In other words ... life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness.
Oops. Zakaria get's it wrong this time. What the rest of the world is hopefully seeing it a working democracy fixing a budget problem that no one's had the courage to tackle for decades. Real solutions have been presented that include raising taxes (shocking), cutting government programs like Social Security and Medicare (even more shocking!) and a plethora of other sacred cows. Have we seen an attempt to fix our budget like this in our generation? I can't remember one. If they get this right (and that's a big 'if' at this point) we won't remember the few days or weeks we went not being able to pay our bills – we'll remember the courageous folks on either side of the aisle (and in the White House) who looked beyond their self interest and fixed this problem. I'm hoping that's what the world sees too.
Maybe you should get out of your cubby hole. The rest of the world thinks we are crazy, playing with fire, needlessly putting in peril an already fragile economy.
Go Fareed, your comment on 360 on July 29 is right on! Those tea party members of Republican Congress do not represent all of the people in America. They are elected by a minority of people. They are holding the entire country hostage! They are anti-democratic as you said, finally someone (you) has the courage to name what is true!
I'm confused. You said that the republican congress was elected by the minority of Americans? If they represent a majority in the House of Representatives, it must mean that a majority of the voters in each of their congressional districts voted for them. It stands to reason that they represent the majority of the voters.
I have lost respect for you and I will not watch your on televsion or follow you on social media anymore, but I want to say you represent ideas that are inciteful, inflammatory, and a not particularly well founded, esp. when you suggest that the president should invoke the 14th amendment. This country has a framework where the president and both houses are required to work within. Your idea takes the president one step closer to being a dictator. You might think this is a crisis, but wait for a true one and let it be a republican president. You might not be comfortable with that. I'm incredibly dissappoingted with your position on this and your interviews on CNN. I think this has exposed a political thinking that is disturbing.
yes, Fareed, like you said on CNN, its immoral for countries not to pay their debt -so what of the millions of Americans who've gone bankrupt. Are they immoral? Could it be immoral to go into debt you can't handle?But, wait !!! You have a solution !!! President Obama could invoke the 14th admendment for those poor souls, except – oh,wait that was kind of what Barney Franks and Dodd did for them. only with mortgages , got people deeper indebt so they won't be immoral!! I think you've exposed yourself as kind of a left wing hack disguised in intellectual morality.
I dare Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment. The House will have response called Articles of Impeachment.
Clever left wing polemic to declare that a limit on deficit and debt to be a right wing conspiracy that will ruin the country
Whether there is a debt ceiling or not, spending more than what you earn is never going to last long whether it be a person or a country. The US is already at the brink where it can no longer afford to have any kind of debt. Raising it will only get a temporary relief. What the US has to do is to be more productive and patronize everything made in America. Bring all these small goods manufacturing back to the US and patronize it. It will be slow but hey, we had out time of enjoying things cheaply in the past. We have to bear the brunt now whether we like it or not.
"The desire of the GOP (Greed over People) can be summed up with this statement-- "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
Government (local, state and federal) already takes 40 percent of my $150,000 salary. Fifty percent do not pay taxes in America. Is that fair? Call me a greedy Republican, I don't care. I refuse to pay one red cent more to your OSSR (Obama Soviet Socialist Republic).
People (not Republicans and not Democrats) need to recognize the United States' position in global trade and finance. Like Zakaria and so many others noted, politicians in Washington are playing with fire, risking everything for absolutely nothing. I happen to disagree with Zakaria on the note that damage may already have been done, because financial markets are more rational than our politicians. As the electorate, we do not authorize politicians to risk our national interests and livelihood for their personal political gain. Do not be mistaken, this is about November, 2012. We, as Americans, are caught in the cross fire of an ideologically charged debate. How about the ideology of the silent majority? How about simply being an American and doing what is right for America, not for Republicans and not for Democrats. It seems as if the people we trusted to do what is best for us not only let us down, but worse, put us directly in harms way for their own sake. Cowards!
Two big lies from Fareed. He makes a big deal that Republicans voted for this "budget" with deficit spending. When exactly was that? There has been no budget passed by Congress for two years now.
Second, he says we face a downgrade, not because of deficits, but because we haven't raised our debt limit. I suggest you check the S&P warning published 18 April 2011. It specifically warns of a downgrade unless we address our debt situation. It mentions nothing about our debt ceiling.
Well said. The senate has not passed a budget in over two years. Maybe the author should do some fact checking before he starts spewing is political agenda.
Also, as individuals and families we can't spend our way to prosperity. As a nation we are no different. The only way we can be prosperous as a nation is to save, control our spending, and invest (and spending is not the same as investing).
I suspect some of you read that silly book "365 WAYS TO DRIVE A LIBERAL INSANE." Some Teabagger group is sending me emails now and they are pushing this book. I almost spammed the email, but think I'll go ahead and let them send me their insane materials. How much time do liberals patiently explain the law, economics, being an adult, and so on to childish people online... and all the time the Teabagger Terrorists are readng books like this. Just sayin.
I don't know how many times I've seen on here that these deficits are really Bush's fault. I'm not a big Bush fan, but the facts speak for themselves. During the 8 years that Bush was in office, the national debt went up by approximately $4.5 trillion. However, in only the 2 1/2 hears that Obama has been in office the national debt has gone up by an additional $4.5 trillion.
It's time we get our spending under control as a nation. We can't keep financing our current lifestyles on the backs of our children and grandchildren. How selfish can we be as a nation?
The damage is done and the GOP is confined to become a footnote in history with the Tea Party just listed as fungus on the footnote's toenails.
Chinese economists must be scratching their heads trying to figure out why the U.S. government acquiesced, championed by both Republicans and Democrats, to Corporate America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to give up its manufacturing superiority for corporate short term profits. Any smart economists should know that a strong manufacturing base economy is the optimal condition a nation should strive for. On top of that U.S. Corporations set-up manufacturing plants in China then provided the equipment, technology, research and manufacturing know-how, and training of Chinese engineers and technicians.
This decision is the major reason the U.S. Federal, State, County and City governments has huge budget deficits due to the loss of personal, business and import tax revenue. To boot it is also affecting the Social Security and Medicare funding.
To hear U.S. economists espouse a service base economy is appalling. They would rather forgo manufacturing together with its supply chain jobs which are perpetual in nature and strive for service type jobs like healthcare and education. Service type jobs have no multiplier effect on the economy. That is why there is nothing the government can do to grow jobs with the type of mentality prevalent in Washington, DC.
People without jobs and the employed making non-living wages cannot afford healthcare in the U.S. and States are in such economic mess like the Federal government that they don’t have the money to hire teachers to educate the masses. Our leaders in Washington, DC are either out of touch with reality or ignoring the real problem.
Unless there is a drastic change in the U.S. Trade Policies the continued decline in the country’s economic stature will continue. Economic superiority is a pre-requisite to military superiority and guess what that foretells.
No need for the Chinese to scratch their heads. Vladimir Lenin said "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." He was right then and still right now. Capitalism has no sense of right and wrong, even when all the people in a capitalist society do. Employees of corporations enter a kind of groupthink in which they put aside their morals and integrity to benefit the corporations that will destroy them, their children, and their society.
Obama can and must ignore Congress and issue the new debt required to keep the country running. Congress gets only one bite at the apple; they authorize the expenditures and the taxes; the diffence is debt.
Start making big cuts into your lavish defence budget. Stop getting involved in foolish wars.
To President Obama, Sen. Reid, Sen. McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Geithner, Larry Sumners, Fed Chair Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Thomas J. Donohue; IT IS THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND WTO STUPID!
Our leaders in Washington, DC allowed U.S. corporations to give away the country’s economic, research, technological and manufacturing advantage for the sake of corporate profit/greed for campaign contribution, BRIBES in layman’s term, mostly to China and India via Free Trade Agreements and the WTO. They are the main reasons why the country is in such an economic mess with billions in negative trade balance and trillions in budget deficit.
The “wealth effect” of the pre-1994 U.S. Trade policies has been replaced by the “poverty effect” of the founding of the WTO (1995), ratification of NAFTA (1994) and other subsequent Free Trade Agreements finally hit the domestic economy. The U.S. cannot maintain a stable economy without consumer and high-tech high-value for export products manufacturing. The "giant sucking sound" was United States Presidential candidate Ross Perot's colorful phrase for what he believed would be the negative effects of Free Trade Agreements.
Economic superiority is a pre-requisite to military superiority. The pending demise of the country’s economic stature will lead to its military demise as well. If you are a serviceman, you should ask your military superiors to address this issue with Congress and The White House.
Dr. Zakaria, as usual, you are correct. The damage has already been done. The US government has no credibility in the world. A divided, dysfunctional can't respond intelligently to any national emergency. We are extremely vulnerable now. A lumbering giant stumbling around, punching itself in the face.
The Republicans in the House are using their "balanced budget amendment" as a badge of honor now. It sounds good. Who would ever say that balancing the budget is a bad thing? I mean, how could you possibly argue against that? Especially against some lunatic like Joe Walsh, a deadbeat dad who has suddenly become a genius at macroeconomics and national fiscal policy.
The problem with their so-called balanced budget amendment is two-fold:
First, it would take the a 2/3's majority in BOTH houses of Congress, plus the President's signature, and THEN 38 STATES would have to ratify it. This is with a divided federal government and divided state governments all around us. It would take more than ten years for it to become the 28th Amendment. The members in Congress, especially Speaker Boehner, should be aware of this high school civics reality.
Second, a balanced budget amendment would eliminate the ability of Congress to raise taxes to balance the budget. Sounds reasonable enough at first, but this has important ramifications. It would mean that when there were unexpected events (such as a war, natural disaster, or cyclical recession) that would necessitate spending above the fixed federal budget, the government would be forced to start eliminating vital programs and services. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the VA and all of the agencies that protect consumers and workers would have to go. Overnight! Teachers, firefighters, police and workers at government agencies would be laid off. It would make a government shutdown look like a.... tea party.
A balanced budget amendment would be the most idiotic thing this country has ever tried to do, and we've done some pretty stupid things over the last +230 years. Despite that, John Boehner and his friends in the Tea Party are insisting that it would solve all of our problems. And they won't agree to raise the debt until it's passed.
We're looking at default and we deserve it.
Our politicians are petty self-serving idiots. We need to vote out the ultra-conservative tea party morons that are hell-bent on destroying our nation and the ultra-liberals who are trying to do the same. Let the moderates rule!
Why does anybody listen to Fareed? He's nothing more than a paid Obama/Soros tool! Geeze!!!
Zakaria and all the rest of the left wing blowhards in the MSM can't cope with the reality that business as usual in Washington is dead. The Democratically controlled Senate hasn't passed a budget in 820 days and Barack Obama's budget would have added $10 trillion more to our national debt over the next 10 years. God forbid if those mean ol Republicans try to rein in spend.
Btw, the big bad Boehner bill would have cut a measly $7 BILLION DOLLARS in 2012, but the Dems and the MSM have their panties in a wad about it. $7billion is a rounding error considering the government is running trillion dollar deficits.
And what's the Democrat's plan? Spend, spend, spend and spend some more.
The Odd Couple:
Democrats = Tax and Spend
Republicans = Tax Cut and Spend
The Gullible:
U.S. Taxpayers
The underlying issue with the conervative is they can't tolerate a black president.
Agreed! You can't help but wonder if a white President would have delt with these unprecedented obstruction from GOP. It's shameful... I'm white and an independent and had supported Mitt Romney in his campaign but seeing the non-sense and destructive behavior of these GOP conservatives have made me realize we cannot elect GOP in the next term and reward them for their incredibly irresponsible and idiot ideals! Independents needs to rally and get rid of these GOP idiots, especially Bachman and her moronic Tea Party!!!
Wrong. The underlying issue is that Obama is a Socialist.
@Julie Obama is a socialist the way Theodore Roosevelt was a socialist. The abuses and excesses of capitalism have become so embarrassing to intelligent people that they both had to regulate the worst abuses before unbridled capitalism destroys us all. Communism was and is an abomination that is even worse, but remember that it was capitalism that made communism look necessary, for awhile. Karl Marx was a very accurate critic of capitalism, but not a very good creator of a replacement.
The original poster said conservatives have an issue with Obama because is black. It was a ludicrous statement that has no place in a serious discussion about the looming economic crisis facing our nation. Regarding your response, I don't think conservatives would argue against meaningful, reasonable regulation to rein in unbridled, corrupt capitalists. But Obama the Socialist doesn't understand the meaning of term reasonable. He and his Saul Alinsky brethren in the White House/Congress want to tax, spend and regulate us to death. Conservatives are saying enough already.
@Julie Regarding the original point may and may not have some truth to it, but regarding Obama being a socialist, I think you haven't had much experience with socialists.
You say "But Obama the Socialist doesn't understand the meaning of term reasonable."
On the contrary, Obama is pretty close the the middle of the road politically, and has been extremely "reasonable" to the point of losing his liberal support. Under Eisenhower the tax rate was 90% for the wealthy and the nation did not get taxed to death. On the contrary it thrived and became the model of prosperity in which the wealthy and workers alike were able to have comfortable lives. I agree that spending without taxing to pay for it is a big problem, but that is a tax problem, not a spending problem. The problem is that conservatives don't want to be taxed, and unlike the poor they can pay for the political muscle to make it so. Under Clinton we had a balanced budget, and then Bush/Cheney borrowed to pay for their wars instead of raising taxes. Liberals are fine with raising their own taxes in order to have a better society, but the ultra rich have sucked all the money out of the economy. There is no money left for adequate police, education, clean water, and healing the sick, let alone intervening to break the cycle of poverty so that the children of the chronically poor are not trapped in their parents' cycle. The rich have already redistributed the wealth, to themselves, and are experts at using the government to help them do it. That is why everyone else has no money left to have a comfortable life. If we don't want to go back to the robber baron days of the 1890's, we will need to move some of that money back into the economy. There are fair ways to do it, such as if the wealthy simply started spending and creating jobs that way. But if they won't spend to create jobs, then the only alternative is to tax and regulate. The problem is that the most brilliant minds in the world have been hired to help the wealthy suck even more money out of the economy. And it isn't like their lives become any better by having $100 billion instead of $1 billion. (Magnatar took in $50 billion at once by helping to push the economy off the cliff. Who knows what Goldman Sachs took in.) The only result is that they can say that they have it.
You said: "I don't think conservatives would argue against meaningful, reasonable regulation to rein in unbridled, corrupt capitalists." On the contrary, I read in the paper just yesterday that conservatives are using the debt ceiling "crisis" to undermine the EPA and other environmental laws. Conservatives don't want to cut back on mercury in our food from coal fired power plants. They don't want hedge funds to be regulated, even though they were the chief instrument for pushing the real estate market into a bubble and then popping it, legally stealing billions of dollars worth of mortgage money and leaving banks on the verge of bankruptcy and millions of home-owners in foreclosure.
You say: "Conservatives are saying enough already." Maybe YOU are saying, enough already, but the people who refuse to let the wealthy be taxed at reasonable levels are saying, "I've got mine, so screw you." And that includes you, Julie.
whos tell our landlord i cant pay my bill because the goverment is holding me hostage and the ccredit card company , we have to get our credit runed ,because thise bozo ,can get there act to right ,whos call my phone company and tell them oh my lavalle cant paid his bills ,as we are under a casto like rigem ,i hate to say i am a ma a usa citzen ,it a shame to blame our president ,place the blame on the right persons the bush years .
Thank you, Sir for that eloquent example of why Barry got elected.
You are a shining star in a sea of Democratic mediocrity.
@william
And you are a shining example of someone who cannot get past the language to hear the pain underneath. Perhaps you are a sociopath, unable to comprehend other people's suffering. After all, the all-time favorite insult directed by conservatives at liberals is to call them "bleeding heart liberals", thereby dismissing one of the most basic human emotions, compassion. That lack of humanity alone makes me prefer to identify as a liberal rather than as a conservative, even though I also have a lot of sympathy for many traditional conservative values. However, conservative values are all meaningless without a basic morality and compassion to guide them.
i just hope we all dont start a war .we the people vs the goverment
It's shocking how uneducated so many Americans are... sad really... a great nation destroyed by this ridiculous Tea Party, and worse yet, the people who elected them!
SHUT IT DOWN!!!
Take away the Obamanation's (blank) checkbook!
Zakaria is right. The Tea Party is creating this crisis out of nothing. There is a debt PROBLEM, but not a debt CRISIS. The debt problem is due to Bush and Cheney saying that the debt doesn't matter, and lowering taxes on their friends while adding two wars the debt.
The Tea Party is giving us a DEBT CEILING CRISIS by using it to blackmail the rest of us into giving it what it wants. It doesn't have the support to get it any other way, and it will almost certainly be voted out of office in 2012 so it is trying to get it now any way it can. Along the way it is discrediting itself and the Republican Party, so the time is right for the launching of a new, moderate, responsible conservative party. I predict that as soon as that happens, all intelligent Republicans will exit en masse and join it, leaving only the radical idiots behind. Already many people I know, Democrats and independents as well as embarrassed Republicans, people who are very open-minded and view true conservative principles favorably, are swearing not to vote for actual Republican candidates because no matter how reasonable and principled a single Republican is, he or she becomes the target of enormous pressure to follow orders.
The Republican Party is much more like an army than a party. It holds the government hostage to get what is good for the people who give the orders, but not for their own foot soldiers, all the poor people in the Red States. In turn, the Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Grover Norquist hold the Republican Party hostage. And Big Money, like Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers, pulls the strings of the Tea Party and Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
The Congress created the problem by passing a budget and then refusing to give the government the borrowing authorization to meet obligations created by that budget. How does that make sense? If they wanted to pass the limit hike they could just do it. The drama isn't necessary at all. It just happens that they decided this was the issue to take a stand on and make a big deal out of it.
Pakistan's ISI entrapment and machinations has led to America's near bankruptcy Disintegrate Pakistan, save USA!
Agreed....our politicians are bickering, per political lines; however, if the confidence of the world erodes with regard to the United States, then what is their alternative.....Russia, countries in the EU or China.....where would you put your money, regardless of political bickering. This same bickering is what makes this country preferable to Russia, the EU and China.
This is what happens when ignorant people in the tea party get into power, intelligent people have to waste time arguing their ludicrous assertions, media caters to them and specific parts of the media champions them.
Deficit and debt reduction are laudable goals. They should be done. But artificially linking it to the raising the debt ceiling which can bring down the economy is playing with fire. They think it is raising their profiles. It is. As immature and ignorant.
Rep. Gohmert and others say after August 2nd prioritize spending. Yeah ? Ok, so pay the bondholders, troops, social security, Medicare. Now, close down Dept. of Agricultutre ? That means no food inspection. The meat and poultry industry shuts down. Midwest will like that. How about the FAA ? Shut it down ? Ground flights ? How about the Transportation Department ? I can go on and on... Do these members think before they open their mouths ?
Fox News' Jamie Colby asks her repub. guest today why the Balance Budget Amendment is such a dirty word for Democrats. Really ? Why are you linking a time sensitive debt ceiling raise with a time consuming Balance Budget Amendment that would take years ?
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! Will everybody just shut up and use some common sense, beresponsible for what you are obligated to, and begin correcting what has already been done with te goal of not repeating past mistakes.
The President has driven our economy into the ground with policies that do not offer permits to drill in the Gulf while encouraging Brazil to frill and us buy oil from them, He deamonizes business and keeps them guessing about higher tax rates and adds additional costs for Healthcare provisions and then expect them to use their cash to hire more poeople without knowing the impacts of government policies, he transfers jobs from the private sector to the government sector and gives preferences to Unionized companies over non-union US companies, he rewards inefficient companies while playing hardball with efficient ones. He has focused on Healthcare programs with false economies rather than on jobs, jobs, jobs and then once the economic environment is better and then going for the Healthcare program. The Dems are the party of "do it my way or the highway" – Reid didn't even let Cut, Cap and Balance reach the floor for discussion and then he complains about filibustering by Republicans. What hypocisy? Our economy will be lucky to survive Obama and the Dems. The AAA rating is based on a sound economy and not the debt ceiling and our economy is in dire straits due to excessive spending.
You're right, President Bush.
The Damage has not been done. Everyone knows the US will not default. This is a struggle for power and there will be no winner, only losers, the American People.
Fareed Zakaria is working with Obama to ruin this country. Do not believe a word he says.
to vote for a debt limit is an easy slogan. instead, tell me what you will cut to get that? the courage for that is what NO politician ever has.
I do not understand why the Media is so upset about this debate. The show-down creates a drama which increases viewers and thereby ratings. The Tea Party has forced a substantive discussion of the role of government that cannot be ignored. This is a discussion that must take place but won;'t unless career politicians are compelled to engage one another over the hard trade-offs that must be made at some point. The time is over for politicians to say one thing in their district and even on the floor of the House or Senate and then behind-the-scenes agree to sell out the country and future generations.
Are members of the News Media so ill-informed or irresponsible that they rebel against considering various plans to address the Federal government being insolvent due to the pyramid schemes past Presidents & Congresses have set up and are in danger of collapse with Medicare being in danger of imminent collapse? The left-liberal News Media as much as most of Congress must be forced to address these budgetary problems that will simply not go away if we continue to ignore them.
Who cares what other countries do. This is the US not other countries! We lead they follow. If we continue to borrow, we are dependent and weak. Our government must sell off it's luxuries, reduce pay, whatever it takes to get it done. Don't put this "raises taxes" BS on us, Washington needs to trim back on spending first, sell off some land, whatever it takes to keep the dollar strong, right? "Shared Sacrifice" as Obama said, right? So, let me see Washington's payroll, and Washington's "sacrifice" financially.
Even if we add up all the excessive salaries and perks in Washington, it will amount to a small part of what the nation needs. It's on the same lever as "foreign aid" that so many want to cut–equal to/less than 1 percent of the nation's spending. But, your suggestion would raise fairness issues.
You are damn right. We do not need deadbeat Tea Party.
Fareed–I agree with you on every point you made. I think we somehow need a better system for electing our Congress, because these elected (esp. GOPTEAPARTY and especially Eric Cantor) are driving the nation beyond the brink. Is is amazing that we are the only nation (with one small non-glaring exception) with such a thing? States can get bailed out by the fed. govt. when they don't balance their budgets, but the fed. govt. has no place to go–so the debt ceiling is costing us a big delay in solving the nation's problems. And why shouldn't the U.S. pay for the things it's already bought? The GOPTEAPARTY is a huge part of the problem and don't want to be part of the solution.
Mr Zakaria's opinion on the subject is the best description of the financial crisis I have heard yet.
Today's show brought for the first time the opinion of the rest of the world about it. Who was best to say it than the new head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde?
In spite of all that premium level quality of information, I am amazed to see the number of today's blog commentators who obviously did not get it!
This is democracy!
"And in the United States, Congress – including Republicans – voted for a budget in which expenditures exceeded tax revenues."
Including the Republicans, Ha Ha. Forever Liberal you Zak.
The money has ALREADY BEEN SPENT! What the Tea Party is doing is trying to make the government skip out on the bill. That will almost certainly push the economy back into recession, resulting in more job losses and higher prices for everyone. That's a monster hidden tax if there ever was one.
The problem is that you can't win a Republican primary these days unless you're a serious wing-nut. That's why the Republican party has become so extreme. You have to be willing to eat cyanide before you agree to a 3% tax increase on Charles Koch and Bill Gates. You have to believe (or pretend to believe) in absurd nonsense about "death panels". You have to refer to the president as a "Big Spending Socialist Conspirator". You have to believe that the President wasn't born in America (no matter what his birth certificate says). You have to apologize to BP after THEY destroy the Gulf. You must believe in the tea baggers GOD and to hell with everyone else in America. You must never question Grover Norquist, Charles Koch, or Rush Limbaugh. The problem is, folks from a culture like this aren't fit to govern. They can't compromise. Maybe they'd do okay in Iran, but not in the United States of America. Disaster and dysfunction is all that you get when voters reward extremism and punish civility and compromise.
You know what kills me about all the debt limit talk spewing from the right and far right? They say this is Obama's dbet limit raise. This is not his baby. This baby was born under Bush and no one wants to stare the baby in the eye and say, "hi little Bush," even though it is wearing a bib with the initials GWB III on it. Come on people, understand that these people are selling out their oath to the US to destroy "our" president. You know why this is so imprtant to them? If one Black man can be president, then this validates that there may be more out there. That thought is unthinkable to some people.
It's not about placing blame, it's about resolving our issues in a bipartisan way. The gov needs to grow up. All of them.
Finally, some common sense. Calm the fears, assure the world we will pay our debts. Then put spending under a nationwide microscope. If the things that the people feel warrant using their money are more than our revenue, raise taxes. If the money being spent is authorized by referenda, great. If not, eliminate the spending. Take the power brokers who trade their legislative positions for personal wealth cannot cater to the special interests, collective reasonable thinking may prevail. Let the legislators convince the voting public, not their cronies in back room negotiations.
Fareed Z. says "we" got us into the current debt ceilingmess. C'mon, Fareed! The Teaparty got us into it. Everything else is a secondary cause or an influence.
zackaria, its funny how you keep on going to people that keep on telling you how free market solutions are the way of the future...but keep on tryoing to find that socialist tone...finnally, you went to GE president and he gave you that sweet socialist love you so wanted (equal profit sharing amongst union and management).
you are such a little soft, communist suckling.
Unions are going to die due to economic realities..and the federal government is going to diminish in size...
whether you like it...
or not.
No debt would be better, but I guess things are just more complex than that.
Zakaria often compares us to the rest of the world. This frustrates me. Cherry picking policies from other countries would be a good place to start, but I don't think you can really pull a single variable from an extremely complex system and expect it to engender similar results.
Mr Zackaria your assessment of "damage is already done" is your figment of imagination and not reality; in fact at the end of the day we will become even a stronger nation demonstrating to the entire world, how democracy works. This was democracy 501 and let other nations learn how common grounds are/will be found with the existence of far left, far right and moderates in the country instead of relying on violence to make a point. I am one proud American with our current system. God Bless America!
I don't know of anything worse than having the IMF, a fund that exists on our extension of credit, trying to chastise us for debating. What is occuring is democracy in action as directed by the voters!
For the first time, the Lady from the IMF gave us an opinion coming from outside the USA, it came from the rest of the world.
If there is one credible opinion I would hear from outside the USA, it's hers.
Remember, she said: "Uncertainty brings instability and instability slows investments..." This is how a recession starts!
BBH 55,
The rest of the world? Is that what you would want us to trust? Good luck with that greek thing.... Oh, and that Lybian thing too. You know, the one where we, the USA, is not fully involved in that NATO (European) "action" that should have lasted all but 2 or three days...
No all the damage is done quite yet. Once the dust settles and we get some sort of compromise from the three branches of government and the debt ceiling is raised, Ameicans should glance at the National Debt Clock, if it is still churning away with fast turning numbers going up, and the national debt continues to rise -- as it surely will, the real damage is still to come. And this damage will hurt our childern, grandchildren, and those planning to retire in the next 10-20 years.
Our government will have solved nothing – accomplished nohting – and fixed nothing-and until we see the national Debt Clock slow down -– and then stop - and finally start to go downwards. Until this happens, the Financial apocalypse still awaits us all. Our political leaders know this full well. But they will sweep this under the rug in order to hold onto their power -and their jobs.
When CNN starts reporting on this story - the real problem facing us all - only then will you know that CNN has stopped being a liberal cheerleader and returned to being a news organization serving the public, and not their political masters.
Mr. Fareed Zakaria is wrong, for once it isn't politics as usual....just raising the debt ceiling. We've seen from history that Congress has a spending problem and to continue to raise the debt ceiling without conditions is like consolidating your debts but not cutting up your credit cards. Although I don't agree that taxes are not in the mix to fix this mess, we have to stop doing things in Washington as they always were done before. We do have a spending problem but we also have a taxing problem in that Congress rewards those that contribute to their causes. This has to stop as well.
Hey Fareed...
Call Obama and "advise" him of this like you normally do.
The President is not just stubborn, uncooperative, acting based on his personal re-election needs according to "my way, or highway". The most serious problem with him is his profound ignorance in any subject he touches. For 3 years, he has achieved nothing, he has no any economical plan and his speeches are only based on "we can/will do", or on future promises "we will get it by 2020-30-40". Complete failure.
Whether you believe in central control and collectivism or you believe in personal liberty – the National Debt and Deficit Spending will destroy our countries ability to actually execute either philosophy in which you believe.
Do any of you realize that the Legislative Branch (both D and R) has spent all of the money that we (our parents, our grand parents, and ourselves) have put into social security, medicare, and federal pensions? It's all been spent to pay for legislation and policies that were not planned for.
When there is a crisis you have to seize the moment – just as was done last year – to fix serious problems with the country.
Most of you are stuck in the D vs R false paradigm – wake up! If we don't fix this fundamental issue, we can't be either type of country either party wants!
Brett, you are so right. Both parties have screwed the pooch. Only one presidential candidate can be trusted to act with principled leadership, and that's Ron Paul.
The rest are just making their own deals with the devil.
Where's Donald Trump or Robert Kraft when you need them?
"Please understand that none of these things are happening because the United States is running deficits." You sir are wrong! The credit agencies are looking at downgrading our debt if we can't find a way to cut $4T as an act of good faith. We did not cut $4T. Therefore we are facing a downgrade because the U.S.A is running deficits.
We don't need no water let the mother F-er burn
DO THE REPUBLICANS REALIZE IF THE WHOLE THINK GOES INTO THE BAY THEIR PARTY MAY WELL GO WITHT IT? THE PUBLIC OTHER THAN THE FAITHFUL VOTE FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE SEEN AS BETTER MANAGERS OF MONEY. THEY BLOW THIS AND AWAY-WE-GO....
You people just blow me away. I suppose your answer to the problem of drunk driving is to increase the legal blood alcohol limit.
The problem is not the limit, the problem is the egregious overspending that has run up our debt levels. Does anyone think we'd even REMOTELY have discussed cutting spending if not for the debt limit? Thank God we have this statutory requirement, else the libs would continue spending like drunken sailors to try to create Utopia, and the conservatives would continue spending like drunken sailors to try to maintain US hegemony over the world.
Time to cut our spending IN REAL TERMS. Not just cut back the rate of growth from 8% to 4% and call it a cut in spending. These politicians are a joke. I'm buying as much gold as possible.
I'm just about right behind you. They're all hypocrites, too.
Zakaria is a shame in human form. His opinions are irrelevant, nothing he says – from immigration to economy, has any, I stress ANY, basis, except his desire to believe that he knows what he is talking about. Somebody, please, remove this clown from USA.
"Have only ourselves to blame?" I didn't vote for any of these deadbeats.
In the POLITICS section on this site, click on Who Owns the US? Hint: It's Not China. We owe OURSELVES $9+ trillion!!!
This is the real beginning of the end of the great power America. Its for the rest of the world to wake up and dump the US dollar. I just hope that the Americans understand this sooner than later.
I however must commend your programme and the way you handle issues. Indeed its one a
What silly arguments! The result of no debt ceiling is, every wonderful western economy is an out of control, spending spree mess and this rubbish idea of a government can spend whatever it wants, borrow whatever it does not have the support to raise in taxes produces Greece, heaving knows how many States who are essentially bankrupt and every so-called economy in debt up to its ears. Not satisfied with engineering an international melt-down in 2008, oh-so-wonderful (aren't we the best?) USA now wants to melt down the reserve currency by borrowing it to worthlessness – and you think a debt ceiling is a stupid idea? Without it, there would not even be the derisory level of cuts that the legislatures are thinking of passing.
Fareed Zakaria. This is not a fight about the debt ceiling this is a fight about the rich not wanting to pay taxes. The rich have been so unwilling to do anything for the poor or to prevent poverty, bettering schooling for example, that Obama has had to play at pushing things to a limit which will make everyone sit up and take notice and maybe start to counteract the actions of the rich as I am trying to do now, it is hard for Obama to get the rich and make them pay their fair share when there is no support for his efforts, no support means things like the rise of the teaparty for example that makes it so hard for him to get a agreement with the republicans, there aren’t enough people around to explain to them why they are wrong you need a lot of people argueign the right cases if the wrong ones are not to win a democracy is about the people ruling.
The rich under pressure from Obama have not stepped back from their mean brink, push as he would and worthy as his cause was, they have stuck to their selfish desire not to have to pay a price for the crisis that they brought about by paying more taxes, a desire not to pay that they have somehow backed up with worthy sounding arguments like, we must pay back our debt without killing the chicken that lays the golden egg, they are the chicken that lays the golden egg that in fact they don’t lay, on the contrary they would take health care and schooling and such from the poor but the argument sounds plausible. Their most recent and very deadly move has been choosing this moment to get Moody’s to threaten to downgrade America and the liberal press has such a lack of talons that they have taken Moody’s moves seriously, as if Moody’s were such a respectable organ that they have to take this body seriously don’t seem to supect them as they should of just playing games to favor themselves and their rich beneficiaries.
Moody's is not trustworthy it upgraded some very bad debt to please Goldman Sacks just before the fall of the banks, it would be quite capable of talking of downgrading America to put more pressure on Obama, just to stop the rich having to pay more taxes or just to do for the for some humiliating fact of having a black man as head of the country. When it upgraded to good debt, the worth of some bad debt, said that bad debt was good, a bit before the crisis, it sounds as if they did not even study the debt they were grading, so lazy and careless were they that did not even look to discover into the extent of the damage they might be causing by doing what Goldman Sacks asked, they just did what Goldman Sacks asked, so they are unprincipled, and downright murderous, it is with them anything to earn more money or not to pay more taxes.
As far as i can see even left wing journalists have got so worried about their own savings that they just want the debt ceiling raised even if with a deal that does for everything they stand for.
About how Moody’s cheated according to Michael Lewis in the book the big short. I should think if you read other books of that moment they would corroborate and extend how wicked the financiers are and how bold they have become in their bad behavior.
A few financiers before the crash realized that a lot of the mortgages they were selling where rotten and decided to insure them so they could earn money from the crash, covering the insurance money when the debtors went broke. This insuring bonds or debt, is called “credit default swaps” which name for insurance makes it hard for people to understand what was going on.
Mortgages used to be a benefit to banks, people paid them interest on money they had borrowed so it is profitable to lend people money which is why the banks do it and it is useful to the public too, it helps people to start big projects useful while the banks are reasonable cautious about the credit worthiness of clients making it less likely that people go broke. As banks lend to an awful lot of people the occasional bankruptcy was not going to break the bank while for individuals, the public, earning money by lending it seemed a bit risky, till it occurred, very recently, to someone to bundle a lot of debt mortgages and loans up into big bundles of, safe debt and medium safe debt and pretty risky debt, all together, so that the risk of the whole bundle was very low, and sell shares in this safe bundle to the general public. A share in debt is not called a share but a bond and these were called mortgage bonds.
The public liked buying debt so much that soon there was a big demand for this debt, this had an unexpected result as things often do, it meant that some financiers were running round trying to persuade people to take out mortgages whether they could pay for them or not so as to have debt for the other financiers to sell to the public so as to be able to fulfill the demand, all the financiers getting a cut on all debt they sold. They were convincing the general public to acquire a debt as high as the financiers could gully them into buying when normally financiers are cautious about loaning money. They were selling debt to people who probably could not afford to pay them back. How could a public used to having a hard time getting a loan, learn to distrust the financiers evaluation of what they could afford. Such was the demand for debt the financiers were eager to acquire as much as possible whether this debt broke their clients or not.
This debt, bought on another level of the financial world to sell to the public, was brought by financiers who did not understand how bad it was because they could not be bothered to read each paper and realize how little liquidity the debtors had.
In the end there were some financiers who did read the individual mortgage papers and realized that the people who had taken out many of the loans they were buying and selling were going to default be unable to pay the interest would go broke trying to pay it, the minute the teaser price on their loans stopped being present. The teaser price was the especially low interest the borrowers had to pay for the first two years, put there to help convince them to take out debts they could not afford.
The rich have been so against paying anything that this sort of brinkmanship that we have seen in this debt ceiling crisis has been necessary to stop the rich or try to stop them getting away with blue murder.
The main religious groups seem to be with the rich because a old fashioned situation with lots of teeming poor suits them. The religious are at rock bottom very classist cover it as they may? Also a situation in which they are the clever educated ones among a lot of cap doffing clowns is so ego satisfying and also they have a lot of money and care what the markets do more than they care for the poor. Even if that money is to help the poor their short time goals with the poor blind them to the long term effects on the poor of what they do to them is the most generous opinion I an have about their conduct my real opinion is they favor poverty unconsciously or consciously as poverty favors them. They are with the rich persuading their followers, rich and poor, that the right is right, so the poor will vote for the right. How could they pretend to be so nice to the poor and back up the rich this is one of the most sickening bits of the whole business?
The best way to counteract all this is to move on the ground we chose and that should be giving lots of publicity to how cut throats the financiers are and having them licking their wounds and giving explanations and a bit scared about how disagreeable all the hate that they are accruing is going to be, instead of them continuing to turn the world upside down. We did not go for their throats when they broke the world for the first time and so it is our fault if now they are causing havoc again. Is it not probably special interests that are capable of whipping up all this ho ha of the tea-partiers and such.
Have you talked to a racist recently, I talked to one two days ago, lots of people seem to feel so sorry for those in the humiliating position of having a black man as a leader that they quite understand any sort of vile deed to get rid of him, though it ruin a country many countries, what we are seeing here is a plunge into the most envious jealous and hierarchal depths of mans soul. Things like the power of what people feel is their birth right and how hard they will fight to preserve it or how they feel that if they have worked hard enough to get to bishop or rich man say they have a right require a situation that gives them all the respect the old fashioned way of doing things would have afforded them, at any rate they should not have the law laid down to them by a black man or have to do anything to reduce the agreeable possibility of having groveling masses waiting for a bit of largesse to be thrown from a carriage. rose macaskie.
Fareed,
For someone who is so smart I can't believe you missed the point in your article "The damage is already done!" Yes it is true that Denmark is the only other country in the world who even has a debt ceiling, which is purposefully set high so it doesn't have to be raised, but the point of voting on a debt ceiling increases is not solely based on the numbers; it's also based on the psychology of it too! When we vote to raise the debt ceiling the question should not be "if we raise the debt ceiling" but rather "when we raise the debt ceiling let's review what we've spent and see if we should spend more/less in the future." To use your analogy of a credit card, when we get the credit card bill you're right we shouldn't question the amount we should pay (because we've already borrowed and spent the money) but we should take a second look at what we've spent, our income coming in and question if we should spend more in the future. If we have an automatic increase to the debt ceiling, or worse no ceiling at all, than the congressional leaders, and the public as well, will not be forced to look at our spending on a broad scale and make the hard choices we were forced to make this time.
The debt ceiling argument went from "let's have a clean increase, no questions asked" to "Ok let's have some cuts in spending but also have tax reform (aka revenue increases)" to it's final version "let's increase the debt ceiling, with spending cuts and no tax increases". (which by the way, decreases the governments share of the GDP not increases it as tax increases would) The reason why we have the cuts in spending we have is because of the debt ceiling vote and the choices we were forced to make to raise it.
No one here is saying that the vote to raise the debt ceiling is easy, or from a purely economics, numbers standpoint useful (because we'll vote to increase in anyway). But what I am saying is it is a necessary step to force congress and the public on a broad scale to look at our spending and have a conversation on this basic question: "Should we change our spending habits?" And without a debt ceiling vote it is inevitable that this hard question would never be asked, more less answered.
-Kevin
(for an actual conversation e-mail me at: sanbogsilent@gmail.com)
As G. Bush started & was "successful" in the "War on Terror"; why B. O. does not think of starting the "War on American Poverty"?
Those of us who are really concerned about the deficit have beeen played by the best for over 50 years. We know a scam when we see it. The Tea party is trying to do the same thing. If they were serious about the deficit they would agree to some revenue increases with large spending cuts, which would cut the deficit the most. But their unwillingness to agree to any revenue increases means they have a different agenda cloaked in lowering the deficit.. Cut the size of government and cut taxes no matter what it does to the deficit. Within a couple of years they will be exposed and yet again another opportunity to deal with the deficit will be lost. Us independants are sick of this.
Perhaps only two countries in the world have a debt ceiling. Which are the top debtor nations? What is the debt to GDP ratio? What is the debt to population ratio?
The USA often prides itself on doing more and bigger than any other country. My fear is that they have exceeded all, or most, other countries in the area of debt.
It seems the whole nation decided to ignore the truth. The U.S. had no economic or job problems until the wise republicans under Bush squandered resources and revenue by the disastrous tax cut. After that they turned around to squander American lives in Iraq, and borrowed money to finance it. No wonder the nation has reached the edge to financial precipice.
That was not enough! There came a president who wanted to avert financial ruin. He saved banks and big financial corporations from bankruptcy. He saved the republican investors' money. Then comes the republican dog biting the stimulus hand that fed it. Low and middle income democrates had nothing to gain from it; they have no shares in City Bank, AIG, etc.
It is also forgotten that during the first Bush administration the rich used the money to ship jobs abroad from tax savings That was not job creation!
Boehner said there is a spending problem. Yes, it is true. May be revenue creation could mitigate it. Suspending the salary of republican officials could be a good start. As far as other people are concerned, check their voting records. If they voted for officials who want to diminish funds for health care, education, infrastructure at the expense of the middle class, pay them a visit. They are uniformed.
It seems the, only thing we've ever learned from history, is we've never learned from history. I appreciate Mr. Zacharia's water; I've been in the desert for years dieing from poor budget decisions. Will the Tea Party be pleased to see our borrowing status destabilized to get their 15 minutes of fame. The tea in the water changed nothing; change the laws. We could not easily accomplish that from British America to England in the 1700's, but can here, today. Save the tea rebel responsibly.
Thank you Tea Party and those who elected them. We could have had a deal with twice the amount of debt reduction that Boehner would have backed if not for the liberatarian party's gun to his back. Instead, we have this 2 part mini reduction that will do next to nothing in the long run.
You elected the tea party to reduce spending but not to ruin the country to accomplish it. If you hire someone to get your cat off the roof would you mind if he burned your house down to get the job done?
Lots of lessons learned from the debt debate. http://suzettessoapbox.wordpress.com/
Fareed, you said: "For this erosion we have only ourselves to blame."
Wrong. We have only the Teabaggers in Congress to blame. They were the only people refusing to raise the debt ceiling, and they were the only people in the process absolutely refusing to compromise in any way. The fact that they held the full faith and credit of the United States hostage for political gain is beyond disgusting. It is treasonous.
What a liberal idiot you are, and how dare you call one party
of the debt ceiling debate unAmerican when that party passed
legislation that could have been voted on, amended, reconciled,
etc. if the liberal Senate had even deemed to CONSIDER it!
You stupid liberal asses, like those in the Congress, WILL blow
up America, as you are not only unAmerican, but traitors!
Fortunately, most people recognize you, and CNN for entertaining
you, for what you are. Why don't you take this narcissistic socialist/Marxist
president and take him back where you came from, since you're so
infatuated with him and willing to see America self-destruct and "terrorize"
the public with your liberal rants!?
Tea Party supporters may be misguided, but isn't it that the right of every american?. Their actions to oppose raising the debt ceiling were reflected their principles and were exercised lawfully within the rules of US government. What about those Republicans who know what they should be supporting, but didn't in order to preserve their political careers and party unity. And, please, let's stop with the "anybody who disagrees with me is a traitor" talk. The US system of checks and balances promotes conflict and division of opinion. That means it's up to individuals to tone down the rhetoric if you want to keep some civility in your political culture.
Please understand that none of these things are happening because the United States is running deficits. There was no indication – by any metric – that the United States was having difficulty borrowing money one month ago. In fact, the world has been lending money to the United States more cheaply than ever before.
We face downgrades and investor panic not because of our deficits but because we are behaving like deadbeats, refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door.
Absolute total nonsense.
The high and mighty Zakaria conveniently forgot the downgrade warning Standard & Poor's published on April 18 of this year:
* We have affirmed our 'AAA/A-1+' sovereign credit ratings on the United States of America.
* The economy of the U.S. is flexible and highly diversified, the country's effective monetary policies have supported output growth while containing inflationary pressures, and a consistent global preference for the U.S. dollar over all other currencies gives the country unique external liquidity.
* Because the U.S. has, relative to its 'AAA' peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable.
* We believe there is a material risk that U.S. policymakers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013; if an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation is not begun by then, this would in our view render the U.S. fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer 'AAA' sovereigns.
Now that the US debt rating is offcially downgraded, a 2 week political gong show by US politicians (law-makers!?) and an utterly spineless, clueless President – witnessed by the world – the time has arrived for American voters and taxpayers to say Enough is Enough – and DEMAND the complete de-toxification of the US political system. Shut down the Senate & Congress, all Senators & members of Congress get fired by the will of the People for shameful incompetence and their salaries re-routed to those folks who truly EARN their wages – police, law-enforcement, EMS, FAA staff, the Armed Forces and essential Government services. And then appoint a bi-partisan and unbiased czar of Spending Cuts & Deficit Reduction, to start the recovery. Run the country like a business!
47% of the adults in this country pay no income tax, Fareed, and the overwhelming majority of them receive some type of welfare, paid for by the hard-working middle class and the wealthy. About 95% of the 47% who pay no income tax are Democrats. Democrats are, for the most part, parasites. And they are ungrateful parasites. They live off the good will of others, and when they think those others aren't giving them enough, they use their attack dogs, the Democratic Party, to attack them and steal their money. It's really disgusting when you think about it. A whole freeloading class of people called Democrats demanding to be cared for.
Great article. Now that we HAVE seen our credit rating drop and our stocks plummet as Farewell predicted, let's all thank every republican we know, and call the congressional ones we don't know and thank them, too.
HI Fareed, As you said, US military budget is massively in excess of what is needed now.
But why shouldn't cuts be far greater than you propose ? In 2000, military budget was only $294 billion compared to projected $770 billion in 2012.
Sun Tzu in "The Art of War" says : a strong economy makes a strong national defense, not vice versa. All successful wars won by country with stronger economy. So running down our economy – as we're doing now – will weaken US national defense not strengthen it.
For all the hype and aggressive partisanship, it's telling that the US Federal Budget follows a similar pattern in terms of spending priorities over the past 20 years. So, if Republicans and Democrats end up doing virtually the same thing, wouldn't they be better off – and the country too – if they worked together ?
Since 2000, national defense, veterans affairs, health, medicare and interest on the debt have combined accounted for 65-70% of the total Federal budget outlays. Meanwhile, science, transportation and education have been a mere 10% of that – or 6-7%!! If these numbers were reversed, in two decades we would be a far stronger country. So let's get started now!
Please keep up the good fight. It's clear our politicians do not focus on such matters. If we citizens do not keep forcefully reminding them, things will never change.
We have a short-term problem, which is the Bush tax cuts and the doubling of defense spending since 9/11. The long-term problem is primarily healthcare and growth/employment.
President Obama, if re-elected, can ensure the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012 by merely vetoing any attempt to extend them. We can reduce defense roughly in half spending over a decade as we end the wars and reduce the baseline defense budget back to 3% GDP, where it was under Clinton in 2001, when we last balanced the budget.
Ex-bubbles and stimulus, our economy has only grown 1% for a decade. The bubble hid reality, which is that free trade with low wage countries is resulting in virtually no growth in jobs. From 2000-2010, we created 2 million net jobs, versus 15-20 million in each of the three decades prior.
Tax and spend decisions are important, but the big one is how we stop the exodus of jobs. With Apple employing 25,000 U.S. workers and 250,000 overseas, U.S. innovation isn't going to help us.
We have to charging countries with much lower wage levels a tariff to balance the playing field, as we should with currency manipulation.
Mr. Zakaria, Why did you specifically mention Medicare but not the Pentagon (and their corporate suppliers) and the wealthy Wall Street banks. These are the true financial black holes in our budget. Look at the numbers in total and on a per capita basis within the industry and civilian populations in each group. The American people are becoming more aware that these inequities are by design.
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