National debt clock

[My2Cents]

The national debt blew past $15 trillion dollars this week, on Wednesday, to be specific.  Take a look at the national debt clock today, about 48 hours after the mark of $15 trillion was passed:  http://www.usdebtclock.org/

As of this posting, almost $7.5 billion have been added to the debt since Wednesday's $15 trillion mark.  The Stupor Committee is struggling to come up with a total of $4 trillion to shave from the national debt OVER TEN YEARS.  What about the other $11 trillion of debt as of today?  And if the US can generate $7.5 billion in debt in about 48 hours, what good will $4 trillion over tens years be in terms of projected debt?

[Rapunzel]

Amazing.......   and in the meantime congress is playing gamesmanship politics.

[My2Cents]

Amazing.......   and in the meantime congress is playing gamesmanship politics.

It's staggering.  Both sides are playing it.  I just checked the projected debt for 2015, four years from now:  It's estimated to be nearly $24 trillion!  The debt is expected to increase $9 trillion in four years, and these morons are pissing on each other for a measely $4 trillion over the next decade.

[My2Cents]

...and the fact that a guy like John Kerry is on this "Super Committee" shows how unserious the Democrats are at solving the debt crisis.

I despair that it won't matter who gets elected next year.  I feel like the US is a bus that has flown over the edge of a cliff but hasn't yet the bottom of the canyon, and we're arguing about who gets the window seats.  It's insanity.

[Rapunzel]

It's staggering.  Both sides are playing it.  I just checked the projected debt for 2015, four years from now:  It's estimated to be nearly $24 trillion!  The debt is expected to increase $9 trillion in four years, and these morons are pissing on each other for a measely $4 trillion over the next decade.

I know.  The other day Rand Paul was on Cavuto and said what no one is saying is if we just froze current spending levels we would cut trillions out of the debt, that a big part of this is we have all these increases built in that just keep it exploding upward and onward.

[My2Cents]

I have a question on that, Rap:  The fact that the Democrat Senate hasn't passed a budget in something like two years, isn't the national budget pretty much frozen at current levels?  I guess not, when Obozo continues to propose $450 billion "jobs" bills -- stuff not actually in the federal budget.

[Rapunzel]

I have a question that, Rap:  The fact that the Democrat Senate hasn't passed a budget in something like two years, isn't the national budget pretty much frozen at current levels?  I guess not, when Obozo continues to propose $450 billion "jobs" bills -- stuff not actually in the federal budget.

According to Paul it has a built in increase each year.  This is one reason I think Perry has the right idea, he wants to use zero-based budgeting, which would mean everyone would start with zero and have to justify their budget for the year, right now they hurry to spend every dime by the end of the FY or possibly have a cut the next year.  Zero-based is the way to go IMHO... this is what Perry was saying about Israel, too... not that we won't send them money, but each year it would be analyzed.

[Oceander]

I have a question on that, Rap:  The fact that the Democrat Senate hasn't passed a budget in something like two years, isn't the national budget pretty much frozen at current levels?  I guess not, when Obozo continues to propose $450 billion "jobs" bills -- stuff not actually in the federal budget.

Nope.  The social entitlement programs all have built-in escalators - the amounts appropriated each year automatically increase even if Congress does nothing whatsoever.  That is another budgetary boondoggle that absolutely has to stop.  Congress should be forced to vote on federal appropriations every year.