You can't remember? They do it every year. A balanced budget amendment was introduced just last year in the Senate.cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 7:37 amMost Americans that are fiscally responsible are well aware of their personal financial situation and do their very best to live within their means. They also understand that their government could care less how they mismanage the taxpayers money. I can't recall the last politician that publicly declared we should have a balanced budget. The cost to maintain this debt is closing ever more rapidly towards a trillion dollars a year. There is a cabal of economic gurus who think our national debt is no big deal. There are also a lot of Americans who think that cavalier attitude is or will soon be disaterous. Time will tell if it is possible to spend your way out of the deep hole that has been dug.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 5:50 pmAhh, yes, the last 2 100 days.cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 3:13 pmI meant to post the link I read. I googled it and it came up on several different sites. I have no doubt that data is correct. Try and Google 1 trillion every 100 days.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 12:39 pmyou have a cite for that?cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:36 amNo the debt is increasing at almost 1 trillion every 100 days. Not that it matters to you debt deniers.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:19 amincorrect, go back to google.cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 11:38 pm Unless what I read recently is incorrect is our debt now increases at 1 trillion dollars every 100 days. So that 600 billion for maintenance is growing by leaps and bounds. I guess DC is so preoccupied with the southern border that no one is paying attention to the nations credit card.
We've had bursts of increases in debt, but the general pace is not nearly that fast.
Biggest issue is the huge reduction in tax rates. Hard for me to say that, but it's the reality.
Huge infrastructure investments are counting toward that. But assets are growing apace, I'd argue.
I love how everyone wants to compare the national debt with their personal household finances, but they leave off their home value from the analysis or the value of college education to earning levels, or grad eduction, or technical education...they all want to look only at short term cash flow.
The old rule of thumb for a home mortgage was 30% of income as the debt level you should aim for, though today most new homebuyers have to exceed 40% to get into a home the size that their parents had afforded at 30%. And home ownership has been a quite reliable way to accumulate value, given enough time and good upkeep.
We regularly commit capital (and taking on debt) to pay for education, as lifetime earrings are predictably higher with such education (assuming it's not squandered by laziness).
It's posturing, because these R's don't want anyone to know how disastrous that would be for their states and districts...they know it's not going anywhere, so they posture. They think their voters are stupid and they're largely right.
"live within their means" is relative to the means. If one's income is stable or declining and there's zero expectation of improvement, then fixing one's costs below that expected amount, with whatever reserves saved for a rainy day is prudent.
If the expectation is that one's income is growing, indeed with investment and time can grow a lot, then the 'within their means' is for a growth in spending. The more that's spent on productive investment rather than just out the door and into a dump yard, the better, but it's essential to that growth engine to continue to invest in oneself and one's family.
Our national debt load is well less than the typical family's mortgage or rent as a percentage of national income.
Which doesn't mean we should simply spend more, but actual productive investments make a ton of sense...and oh btw, so does taxing the richest corporations and individuals. Wouldn't take a lot to produce more government "revenue".
As a fiscal conservative (not hawk) I simply want the spending to be smart and productive.