Is This the End of the World as We Know It?

This post is about government deficits, debt, revenues and spending. I know, these are topics that cause eyes to glaze over and attention to wander, but it's that lack of attention that has landed us in this mess. Well, the "US", not so much "us".

Ever since the circus in Washington about the debt ceiling, spending cuts, "NO NEW TAXES" and the downgrade by bond rating agency S&P, there has been an abundance of articles, blogs and other commentaries about what this means, whether S&P got it wrong, whose fault it is, blah, blah, blah. One very good post on the eventual outcome of all this excitement can be seen here.

Rather than pontificate about current account balances, trade thingies, interest costs as a percentage of GDP and all those similar economic-money-type-things, I'd like to make some simple points, ones that all of us simple types can understand. So here goes:

Some earlier administration under the "leadership" of an ex-presidential-type-dork got the USA into an extended war. The Washington Post tried to estimate the total cost. Let's just say it's in the multi-trillion $$$ range. Can you say : "Very Expensive and Unnecessary"?

The very rich now pay much less in taxes than they did only a few short years ago. This proves once again how important it is to have friends in high places, something the very rich generally seem to have. To add a further point to this travesty, because of caps on social security taxes, the rich actually pay LESS as a percentage of their income than the poor. Nice situation if you can arrange it for yourself.

The Republicans and the Tea-Partiers aren't interested in anything even close to a universal health-care program. They don't even like the desperately inadequate system they now have. What the hell, THEY'RE OK, what's wrong with everyone else? So, guess what, it's social programs where this crowd firmly believes cuts in government spending should happen. It's a matter of where you come down on the swords vs ploughshares debate.

I could go on, but as an adult of several decades, my fiscal knowledge works like this: Ya shouldn't be spending what ya don't have. If ya don't have enough bucks to pay the bills, ya got 2 choices (and maybe should pursue both of them): increase your revenues and cut your spending on the things you can do without. Since I can't see why the poor should pay a greater percentage of their income to support their country, that leaves the rich. And if you want an expenditure to cut, how about some of those overseas wars. Just for a start.

But what the hell - I don't live (or vote or pledge allegiance) in the USA so it's easy for me to offer suggestions. It's just if the USA could get it's fiscal house in order, the end of shockwaves coming from south of the 49th would make things a whole lot easier for the rest of the world. The recent standoff in Washington would have been comical if it wasn't so very serious. The solution??? Raise the debt ceiling. Just make it legal for the government to borrow more.

Sigh.