Originally Posted By DyGDisney <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081009/ap_on_re_us/odd_national_debt_clock" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...bt_clock</a> By the way, YOUR family's share is $86,017. Thank you George W. Bush.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Yet, as some would have us believe, we shouldn't vote for Obama because of what he might to do the national debt. Uh huh.
Originally Posted By chickendumpling Last month the Tax Policy Center put out an analysis of what McCain's and Obama's plans would do to the national debt. Neither are impressive - unless your goal is to raise the debt. "Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center." *** "without substantial cuts in government spending, both plans would sharply increase the national debt. Including interest costs, Obama’s tax plan would boost the debt by $3.5 trillion by 2018. McCain’s plan would increase the debt by $5 trillion on top of the $2.3 trillion increase that the Congressional Budget Office forecasts for the next decade " <a href="http://tinyurl.com/5m89ke" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/5m89ke</a>
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< McCain’s plan would increase the debt by $5 trillion on top of the $2.3 trillion increase that the Congressional Budget Office forecasts for the next decade " >>> That's strange. I saw McCain on stage just a day or two ago talking about how he was going to balance the budget before the end of his first term. Although, come to think of it, he offered no details on exactly how it was going to accomplish this.
Originally Posted By ChurroMonster The budget is only ever balanced when the economy is booming. That's gonna take a little time I'm afraid.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "That's strange. I saw McCain on stage just a day or two ago talking about how he was going to balance the budget before the end of his first term. Although, come to think of it, he offered no details on exactly how it was going to accomplish this." And he won't raise taxes either, my friends. Pretty neat trick.
Originally Posted By mele So, if it runs out of digits does that mean we start all over again? Do-overs? (If only.)
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Do-overs?>> I think that is called "monetizing the debt". I had the joy of witnessing this first hand in Mexico. Inflation got so bad that the minimum wage was getting bumped up every couple of months. An interesting benefit provided to white collar workers was a "despensa familiar". Once a week a guy with a hand truck would drop off a box of groceries at your desk. Usually staples like pasta, rice, beans, cooking oil, powdwered chicken broth, etc. And of course interest rates were so high that it was virtually impossible to finance anything. If you wanted to buy a car, you needed to pay cash up front, or resort to credit circles, which meant that you could end up waiting up to 40 months to receive your car. If anything major broke, you would get it repaired instead of replacing it. To quote Yogi Berra, I wonder if it will be "deja vu all over again"
