Unlimited Obama Appreciation Thread.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/us/politics/13budget.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

Deep cuts for domestic spending, no cuts for national security.



Bend over, America.

[Cain]

Fucking called it.

I can't remember exactly where I did on the board, but I said "the GOP are pushing for 2.5 trillion in cuts...because of Obama's pathological Goldilocks Syndrome, he will go for 1.25 trillion instead".  So I was pretty damn close.

Also, when you consider this will be treated as the "hippie option" by the Senate's various flaming douchebags, they'll start bitching and demanding further, bigger cuts with nice large numbers they can parade to the press so they can be big, tough "deficit hawks".  And I reckon once that is through with, it'll easily be 1.25 trillion cut from the budget.

And don't expect any tax cuts either.  If anything, expect them to go up.

[Cain]

Also, this is relevant:  http://isnblog.ethz.ch/government/trying-to-play-chicken-with-everybody%E2%80%99s-money

The bumbling US Tea Party has issued its latest ultimatum: cut public expenditures or risk defaulting on the national debt. And how? By stopping lawmakers from raising the country's legal debt ceiling, currently set at $14.3 trillion. The US Treasury reckons it will hit and inevitably exceed the limit sometime between late March and May.

The Obama White House has deemed the issue non-negotiable. Is it an idle threat?

Strictly speaking, the Tea Party doesn't have the votes in Congress. Mainstream Republicans would all have to vote no. Mainstream Republicans, however, primarily serve the interests of the corporate and financial elite; overt attempts to undermine US economic power typically receive a cold reception with this crowd.

As discussed in my ISN Blog post last week, the instance of disagreement nevertheless puts the spotlight on the growing rift in the American Right. It also exposes the ignorance of the frustrated Tea Partiers. Nuking your economy is no solution to your economic woes.

Ask Americans what specific spending cuts they prefer and almost unanimously they respond that Social Security and Medicare (the national pension scheme and healthcare for the elderly) are off-limits. Non-defense discretionary spending, about $650 billion, is a perennial favorite for the axing but too small to rectify America's fiscal quandary. Defense spending is ultimately the one thrown under the bus, but few politicians would ever get caught dead saying so.

In the end, broad and balanced reforms on both the revenue and spending sides will be necessary. To date, mainstream Republicans have promised $100 billion in cuts and come up with a paltry $32 billion. The Tea Party, again, proposes nuking the economy to force spending cuts.

Washington defaulting on its debt would indeed be catastrophic. Leading US policymakers' takes here, here and here. To start, as Reinhart and Rogoff meticulously detail in their must-read book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, the US, unlike most other sovereigns, can be considered a 'default virgin;' it has almost effectively never defaulted on its debt in its 235-year history. US Treasury debt and those of it agencies (primarily Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) are the largest, most liquid financial asset class in the world.

The US, moreover, is the steward of the world's monetary system: the US Dollar system. It serves alongside the military and foreign assistance as the bedrock of US hegemony. Two thirds of all central bank reserves the world-over are held in Dollars or Dollar-denominated securities. The lion's share of today's cross-border trade and transactions are denominated and settled in Dollars.

As University of California, Berkeley Professor Barry Eichengreen argues, this 'exorbitant privilege' – which allows the US to live beyond its means because the world's demand for Dollars permits it to pay interest rates on its foreign liabilities typically two to three percentage points lower than the rate of return on its foreign investments per year, licensing it to run persistent current account deficits of this size with foreign countries without becoming more indebted – has held since WWII. Within the next 10 to 30 years, however, the advantage will most likely dissipate, resulting in a multipolar global monetary system. The Euro, which increasingly looks as though it will survive its recent travails, is available and growing in its attraction as an alternative to the Dollar. The transition need not be abrupt or dramatic.

Significant economic mismanagement in Washington, however, Eichengreen cautions, could bring about a Dollar crash. Precipitating a debt default certainly qualifies as such. Failing to adopt a credible medium- to long-term strategy to bring US debt under control qualifies equally if not more so.

The Tea Party should expend its energies affecting change in the latter category, where its middle-class economic interests lie, rather than in the farcical former.

So basically, the Teabaggers just put a gun to the head of US financial hegemony and threatened to pull the trigger unless Obama did the cuts.

[Suu]

My taxes went up. $12 a paycheck, GONE.

I get paid every two weeks, and I get paid $8.25 an hour. But hey, all those rich people will give their extra to me, right? Trickle down...Trickle down...

[Phox]

 

Remember, Big Brother loves you.

[Captain Utopia]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

[Suu]

Either way, unless I get that raise I was hinted at getting 6 months ago, I'm going to be sewing my fucking ass off to get myself through the summer months.

[Cain]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

Because Laffer Curves, efficient market hypothesis, creeping socialism and stfu Commie.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

Because the almighty hand of the free market will make sure only the people who deserve the money get it.
If you dont notice the wealth trickling down then I guess its just because you arent working hard enough.

[Adios]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

It was based on the theory that if the the people at the top get to keep their pocket change that would in turn create jobs for everyone else. What it does in reality is allow those people to invest in developing economies across the world, export American jobs, and get richer.
Trickle down economics is also based on defeceit spending, and there is now no room for this.

[AFK]

And it really highlights how stupid Americans are.  What did we keep hearing from Tea Party and GOP types when it came to extending the Bush Tax cuts?  That the rich need that money to create jobs. 

Well, they've been fucking getting that money since the Bush Tax Cuts were started.  They've been getting that money for the past 3 fucking years!  Hello!  How many jobs has that shit created? 

Stupid fucking idiots. 

[Captain Utopia]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

Because Laffer Curves, efficient market hypothesis, creeping socialism and stfu Commie.

Huh, I never considered that as a possible justification.  Interesting.  Of course - purging the middle class and creating a flat and inescapable poor class, ruled by tzars, looks nothing like socialism.

I guess the premise in my question is flawed.

[Cain]

What jobs are any morons going to create in America anyway?  It's not like there is a skilled workforce worth a crap there anymore - at least, not any you couldn't get for at least a quarter of the price in China, and with less taxes to boot.  Sure, their stuff occasionally ends up poisoning people or accidentally blowing up all over the place, but what it mostly does is create obscene profits for investors.

Unless, of course, Americans are willing to work for Chinese wages and in Chinese-style conditions.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Trickle down...Trickle down...

Why is trickle down deemed more efficient than directly paying people a fair wage?

Because Laffer Curves, efficient market hypothesis, creeping socialism and stfu Commie.

Huh, I never considered that as a possible justification.  Interesting.  Of course - purging the middle class and creating a flat and inescapable poor class, ruled by tzars, looks nothing like socialism.

I guess the premise in my question is flawed.

You really need to hit some political boards, CU.

But I'd suggest pre-writing your stuff, and then only answering people who sound interested.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What jobs are any morons going to create in America anyway?  It's not like there is a skilled workforce worth a crap there anymore -

The last Toyota plant went to Brantford, Ontario...Because the higher taxes are cheaper than paying for health insurance, and because the last time they built a plant here, they had to train the workforce with pictograms.