This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

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  • pefjr
    Humorist
    • Dec 2008
    • 14330

    This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

    http://www.usdebtclock.org/



  • ljb5
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2004
    • 18136

    #2
    Re: This is what hapens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

    A balanced budget amendment isn't a magic wand.

    If you can't do the basic math to get the budget balanced, making an amendment would have as much effectiveness as outlawing gravity.

    Since the Bush tax cuts, no politician of any party has been able to offer a serious and practical plan to balance the budget.
    ”If you look at it from a contextual standpoint, I think it's accurate. If you contextualize in concrete numbers fashion, it's not accurate."

    Comment

    • Ian McColgin
      Senior Member
      • Apr 1999
      • 51656

      #3
      Re: This is what hapens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

      Even Alexander Hamilton got it that the simple-minded "balanced budget" would destroy the Republic. But the oligarchs, their talking heads, and their followers keep putting it forward as if it could do anything except profit a very small minority in just the way third world dictators get rich.

      Comment

      • David G
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2003
        • 89865

        #4
        Re: This is what hapens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

        Did someone say something about a tenuous grasp on reality?
        David G
        Harbor Woodworks
        https://www.facebook.com/HarborWoodworks/

        "It was a Sunday morning and Goddard gave thanks that there were still places where one could worship in temples not made by human hands." -- L. F. Herreshoff (The Compleat Cruiser)

        Comment

        • Tom Montgomery
          Lurking since 1997
          • Sep 1999
          • 35633

          #5
          Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

          Just mindless ideology.
          "They have a lot of stupid people that vote in their primaries. They really do. I'm not really supposed to say that but it's an obvious fact. But when stupid people vote, you know who they nominate? Other stupid people." -- James Carville on the plethora of low-quality GQP candidates in the mid-term election.

          Comment

          • Gerarddm
            #RESIST
            • Feb 2010
            • 32495

            #6
            Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

            It has gotten to the point that if peffy espouses a certain position, if I head off at 180 degrees to it, I know I'll be on the side of the angels.
            Gerard>
            Albuquerque, NM

            Next election, vote against EVERY Republican, for EVERY office, at EVERY level. Be patriotic, save the country.

            Comment

            • hanleyclifford
              low information voter
              • Jun 2010
              • 9272

              #7
              Re: This is what hapens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

              Originally posted by David G
              Did someone say something about a tenuous grasp on reality?
              Yeah, peffy; what's wrong with you? Don't you know that we are going to spend our way to prosperity?
              Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name calling is left to the foreign ministers. (Averell Harriman)

              Comment

              • pefjr
                Humorist
                • Dec 2008
                • 14330

                #8
                Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                Wow, the debt limit breach went up a Billion since I posted this thread.
                What a laugh. Norm
                Nothing to worry about here, move along.



                Comment

                • johnw
                  Senior Member
                  • Nov 2001
                  • 28529

                  #9
                  Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                  Originally posted by pefjr
                  Wow, the debt limit breach went up a Billion since I posted this thread.
                  Nothing to worry about here, move along.
                  The problem is not that the deficit is unimportant. The problem is the lawmakers who act most concerned about it don't actually care about balancing the budget. Pushing the amendment is a way to avoid making the hard choices while appearing to favor having them made.

                  It's a lot harder to pass a constitutional amendment than to pass a budget that shows a surplus, but you can pound the table and demand the amendment while voting for lower taxes and higher spending, and be Santa instead of Scrooge.
                  On the trailing edge of technology.

                  https://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-John-L.../dp/B07LC6Y934

                  http://www.scribd.com/johnmwatkins/documents

                  http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/

                  Comment

                  • hanleyclifford
                    low information voter
                    • Jun 2010
                    • 9272

                    #10
                    Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                    Originally posted by johnw
                    The problem is not that the deficit is unimportant. The problem is the lawmakers who act most concerned about it don't actually care about balancing the budget. Pushing the amendment is a way to avoid making the hard choices while appearing to favor having them made.

                    It's a lot harder to pass a constitutional amendment than to pass a budget that shows a surplus, but you can pound the table and demand the amendment while voting for lower taxes and higher spending, and be Santa instead of Scrooge.
                    Or you can be a real Santa and promise lots of free stuff and blame those feelthy Republicans for not contributing.
                    Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name calling is left to the foreign ministers. (Averell Harriman)

                    Comment

                    • Cuyahoga Chuck
                      # 7727
                      • Dec 2003
                      • 12984

                      #11
                      Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                      Originally posted by pefjr
                      If you knew anything about the US Constituion you would know the constitution makes it rather difficult to amend itself.
                      Then there is the problem of "what ifs". What if circumstances demand a huge government expenditure to save the country, save the economy, aid an ally, etc., etc.?

                      Comment

                      • johnw
                        Senior Member
                        • Nov 2001
                        • 28529

                        #12
                        Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                        Originally posted by hanleyclifford
                        Or you can be a real Santa and promise lots of free stuff and blame those feelthy Republicans for not contributing.
                        Not much of a post. You feeling okay?

                        You are apparently unaware of the 'two Santas' strategy.
                        On the trailing edge of technology.

                        https://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-John-L.../dp/B07LC6Y934

                        http://www.scribd.com/johnmwatkins/documents

                        http://booksellersvsbestsellers.blogspot.com/

                        Comment

                        • hanleyclifford
                          low information voter
                          • Jun 2010
                          • 9272

                          #13
                          Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                          Originally posted by johnw
                          Not much of a post. You feeling okay?

                          You are apparently unaware of the 'two Santas' strategy.
                          It would seem that time and reality have overtaken the "two Santas" theory.
                          Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name calling is left to the foreign ministers. (Averell Harriman)

                          Comment

                          • Roger Cumming
                            Senior Member
                            • Feb 2000
                            • 1008

                            #14
                            Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                            Instead of listening to Republican propaganda about the need to balance the Federal budget, and the false analogy between the Federal budget and every family's household budget, try to educate yourself about economics. Look up Paul Krugman or Joseph Steiglitz, university professors with books you can read as well as Nobel prizes to their credit. They will explain the difference between the borrowing and spending the government does and that which you do as an individual. If nothing more it may lift the terrible burden that worrying about the deficit has caused you and many others. The time to do something about the deficit is when the economy has recovered and is strong, when most people have jobs, when tax revenues are increasing. To curtail government spending in order to reduce the deficit will put the country back into recession and worse, it will not reduce the deficit. It's called austerity and has been recently expunged from the Republican lexicon. The UK economy is still trying austerity to its great disadvantage. Trying to enforce a historically discredited idea by amending the constitution borders on lunacy.

                            As Harry Truman once said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know."

                            Comment

                            • hanleyclifford
                              low information voter
                              • Jun 2010
                              • 9272

                              #15
                              Re: This is what happens when you don't have a Balanced Budget Amendment

                              Originally posted by Roger Cumming
                              Instead of listening to Republican propaganda about the need to balance the Federal budget, and the false analogy between the Federal budget and every family's household budget, try to educate yourself about economics. Look up Paul Krugman or Joseph Steiglitz, university professors with books you can read as well as Nobel prizes to their credit. They will explain the difference between the borrowing and spending the government does and that which you do as an individual. If nothing more it may lift the terrible burden that worrying about the deficit has caused you and many others. The time to do something about the deficit is when the economy has recovered and is strong, when most people have jobs, when tax revenues are increasing. To curtail government spending in order to reduce the deficit will put the country back into recession and worse, it will not reduce the deficit. It's called austerity and has been recently expunged from the Republican lexicon. The UK economy is still trying austerity to its great disadvantage. Trying to enforce a historically discredited idea by amending the constitution borders on lunacy.

                              As Harry Truman once said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know."
                              I for one do not worry about the deficit or a balanced budget amendment. The failure of the theories of Keynes, Krugman et al are now painfully apparent. We are now awaiting the collapse. Eat, spend and be merry!
                              Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name calling is left to the foreign ministers. (Averell Harriman)

                              Comment

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