O/T: Quote Of THe Day

National debt 1954: 278 billion social spending 20% of budget national defense almost 60% gov't spent 2% less than it brought in

National debt today: 16,000 billion social spending 61% of budget national defense 22% gov't spends almost twice what it brings in

Things have changed a lot since Eisenhower.

-MIKE- wrote in news:k26muh$gr5$1 @speranza.aioe.org:

He was the last Republican President who had a surplus in the budget? Since then Republican Presidents have outdone Democrats in the amount of overspending. I am taking the bailouts and TARP as Bush programs, since they were instituted before Obama took the oath of office.

I didn't start this ...

He was the last president who had a surplus - period! Check the national debt and you'll discover it has increased every year since Ike.

On Wed, 05 Sep 2012 06:20:13 -0700, Doug Winterburn

All these stats are simply interesting footnotes as to what came before and in no way have any bearing on what goes on now.

The changes that have happened since then and the increasing complexities of current life are completely different now compared to then.

Doug Winterburn wrote in news:5047518d$0$1054$c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:

Doug, there is a difference, obscure to many, including me, between debt and budget deficit:

I wish I really understood.

Has the CBO or an outside agency ever actually -verified- any of these Democrat claims of surplus?

-- The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will. -- J. Arthur Thomson

Larry Jaques wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

As I said, Larry, there is a difference between debt and budget surplus/deficit:

(if this is still the copy and paste I mean). I truly, truly wish I understood fully.

Also, the listing Doug referred to was not clear whether it is in constant dollars. The price of gold was $30/oz by definition when I had my teeth done by the Utrecht Dental School around 1966. Now it is >

$1500/oz. I tried to sell one of the "inlays" that had come out recently (whole!), but the gold store didn't want it ...

It's really very simple:

When calculating annual budget deficits/surpluses, the gov counts all excess "trust fund" contributions as revenue, but doesn't count the treasury note placed into the trust funds in place of those funds as an expense. When calculating debt, they do count the notes as expenses, hence the difference. This amounts to several hundred billions annually.

One of the "problems" Obama has is his "payroll tax vacation" in which the employee contributions aren't being made for SS and medicare. This means that the employer portion isn't enough to cover current expenses, hence there is no excess revenue from these funds to count. It also means that those funds are being depleted at a much faster rate than anticipated and the gov needing to borrow more, adding to the "real" deficits and debt.

You say that like it should excuse the current deplorable state of federal financial affairs. It most assuredly does not.

It's simple. Debt is money that you already owe. A deficit is money you spend that's more than you earn. A deficit increases debt - when you spend money you don't have, that money has to come from somewhere. The usual way is to borrow it. .

Quick definition: A budget deficit is the amount the gov't spends each year which exceeds the funds they have taken in. Debt is the total owed at the end of the year. Annual v. overall. D.C. doesn't seem to understand that, either. Spending less = NO DEFICIT, and it can lead to actually paying off the debt.

Doug's post enlightened me even more to the stupid tricks they play with money reports in D.C.

I was really pissed off the other day when I saw that the federal gov't had given the city of Grants Pass a $600k grant for bus stop shelters and then, more recently, had given some other city in Oregon about that much to repair an old covered bridge. IMHO, neither is the duty of the federal gov't and neither is a necessary expenditure. Both are -glam-, fer chrissake. We, the people, have to rein this in, damnit.

Keep them and sell them to the guys who DO buy dental gold. It doesn't fetch $1500/oz, but it's worth a pretty penny.

-- The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will. -- J. Arthur Thomson

Yes you did. The only president anyone mentioned was Ike.

That made sense 58 years ago.

Only because Republicans have been on office more years since and including Eisenhower. They all spend money. And let's not forget that it was Jimmy Carter that broke the trillion dollar debt barrier.

I am sure the dental gold comes nowhere near close to almost pure gold as far as carat goes and that would mean a heck of a price difference.

The national debt has more than doubled since the social democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and increased by 6 trillion dollars from the

The obama increase make past Republican and Democrat presidents look insignificant.

I do not believe in 6 years the social democrats have passed an annual budget as dictated by the Constitution. Not even in the years when the social democrats had control of both the Senate and the House.

--------------------------------------------------------- The above is so screwed up, it's ridiculous.

Lew

Guess I'll take your word for it.

Unless you can print it.

Complexities? No, nothing complex, we just let the government grow and grow. Used to be about 1 in 10 people was government employed, now closer to 1 in 4.