HomeFairfax General ForumArrest/Ticket SearchWiki newPictures/VideosChatArticlesLinksAbout
Off-Topic :  Fairfax Underground fairfax underground logo
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: ferfux ()
Date: April 08, 2010 03:37PM

By Neil Irwin and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 8, 2010

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Wednesday that Americans may have to accept higher taxes or changes in cherished entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security if the nation is to avoid staggering budget deficits that threaten to choke off economic growth.

"These choices are difficult, and it always seems easier to put them off -- until the day they cannot be put off anymore," Bernanke said in a speech. "But unless we as a nation demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth."

His stern lecture came as the economy is emerging from the worst recession in years, sending the stock market up considerably over the past year and raising public hopes for a return to prosperity. But the economic downturn -- with tumbling tax revenue, aggressive stimulus spending and rising safety-net payments such as unemployment insurance -- has driven already large budget deficits to their highest level relative to the economy since the end of World War II. This has fueled public concern over how long the United States can sustain its fiscal policies.

The health-care bill signed by President Obama last month has further stoked the national debate over government entitlement programs, though the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the legislation would actually reduce future deficits.

Barely two months after Bernanke was confirmed by Congress for a second term following a bruising fight, he used his bully pulpit to tread into an area of economic policy that is usually the province of the president and Congress. He characterized the budget gap as the biggest long-term economic challenge the nation faces, even as he acknowledged that reducing the deficit immediately would be "neither practical nor advisable" given the still-weak economy.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Warhawk ()
Date: April 08, 2010 04:12PM

I'll gladly pay more taxes as soon as Congress stops spending money like drunken sailors. Fiscal responsibility cuts both ways. Those fucks on the hill don't understand that. They want to spend, spend spend and leave us footing the bill.

__________________________________
That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Vince(1) ()
Date: April 08, 2010 05:28PM

Warhawk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll gladly pay more taxes as soon as Congress
> stops spending money like drunken sailors. Fiscal
> responsibility cuts both ways. Those fucks on the
> hill don't understand that. They want to spend,
> spend spend and leave us footing the bill.

History will show that the spending the Obama Adm spent..was wisely spent and saved us from a decade of financial depression. How kind of you to consider tax increases..if we had a responsible Republican Party maybe the President would have a partner for the spending cuts and tax increases that is necessary to stop the deficit from growing (and thats all we really need to do. But Republicans a re a part first..country second organization and they will never stand up to Rush Limbaugh.

Registered Voter...a Big talking coward..big man on FFXU...little man in life.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: April 08, 2010 05:34PM

Warhawk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll gladly pay more taxes as soon as Congress
> stops spending money like drunken sailors. Fiscal
> responsibility cuts both ways. Those fucks on the
> hill don't understand that. They want to spend,
> spend spend and leave us footing the bill.


well said.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Registered Voter ()
Date: April 08, 2010 11:50PM

Vince(1) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Warhawk Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'll gladly pay more taxes as soon as Congress
> > stops spending money like drunken sailors.
> Fiscal
> > responsibility cuts both ways. Those fucks on
> the
> > hill don't understand that. They want to
> spend,
> > spend spend and leave us footing the bill.
>
> History will show that the spending the Obama Adm
> spent..was wisely spent and saved us from a decade
> of financial depression. How kind of you to
> consider tax increases..if we had a responsible
> Republican Party maybe the President would have a
> partner for the spending cuts and tax increases
> that is necessary to stop the deficit from growing
> (and thats all we really need to do. But
> Republicans a re a part first..country second
> organization and they will never stand up to Rush
> Limbaugh.

Earth to Vince - the Republicans are not in power. Blaming the Republicans over and over again is truly a sign of a weak and stupid mind in this particular argument. The Democrats control Congress atm - how about you push them in the ass and get them to make all these changes you are sure will put us on the fiscal road to no more redlined budgets.

If you can’t model the past, where you know the answer pretty well, how can you model the future? - William Happer Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Vince(1) ()
Date: April 09, 2010 09:22AM

Registered Voter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vince(1) Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Warhawk Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I'll gladly pay more taxes as soon as
> Congress
> > > stops spending money like drunken sailors.
> > Fiscal
> > > responsibility cuts both ways. Those fucks
> on
> > the
> > > hill don't understand that. They want to
> > spend,
> > > spend spend and leave us footing the bill.
> >
> > History will show that the spending the Obama
> Adm
> > spent..was wisely spent and saved us from a
> decade
> > of financial depression. How kind of you to
> > consider tax increases..if we had a responsible
> > Republican Party maybe the President would have
> a
> > partner for the spending cuts and tax increases
> > that is necessary to stop the deficit from
> growing
> > (and thats all we really need to do. But
> > Republicans a re a part first..country second
> > organization and they will never stand up to
> Rush
> > Limbaugh.
>
> Earth to Vince - the Republicans are not in power.
> Blaming the Republicans over and over again is
> truly a sign of a weak and stupid mind in this
> particular argument. The Democrats control
> Congress atm - how about you push them in the ass
> and get them to make all these changes you are
> sure will put us on the fiscal road to no more
> redlined budgets.


Earth to fuck head...if need be Dems will take unilateral action to decrease spending and raise taxes...god forbid the party of "just say no" actually earn their Congrssional paychecks except to represent frustrated whites like yourself.

Registered Voter...a Big talking coward..big man on FFXU...little man in life.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Date: April 09, 2010 09:28AM

Warhawk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll gladly pay more taxes as soon as Congress
> stops spending money like drunken sailors. Fiscal
> responsibility cuts both ways. Those fucks on the
> hill don't understand that. They want to spend,
> spend spend and leave us footing the bill.


Actually, the American people are to blame. We punish our elected officials for cutting things like Defense and Medicare or for raising our taxes. Americans need to grow the fuck up and pay more taxes AND accept cuts to Medicare and Defense. We have the lowest tax rates in the industrialized world (despite what Tea Baggers believe) and spend more on Defense and Medicare than virtually all other major economies. It's a formula for disaster.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Voter___ ()
Date: April 20, 2010 01:00PM

There is a good piece in today's Washington Times that explains pretty well how we went from a $300 billion surplus the year Clinton left office to the nearly $1.5 trillion deficits we are seeing now. I know it's fashionable among the right-wingers to pretend like the last 8 years don't count and that Obama is responsible for everything that is wrong in the country, including the deficit, but for anyone interested in understanding the true causes this article does a pretty good job.

RIEDL: A decade of historic spending increases

The federal budget picture has collapsed over the past decade. In 2000, Washington collected $2.6 trillion, spent $2.3 trillion and ran a $300 billion surplus. One decade later, in 2010, Washington is set to collect $2.1 trillion, spend $3.6 trillion and run a $1.5 trillion deficit (all numbers adjusted for inflation).

What happened?

Tax revenues in 2000 had been inflated to postwar records by the stock-market bubble, and 2010 revenues have been depleted by a deep recession. Setting aside those outliers, tax revenues are expected to rebound toward the historical average of 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) even if the tax cuts are made permanent.

The same cannot be said for spending. While spending grew just 11 percent faster than inflation during the entire 1990s, it [spending] expanded by 62 percent in the 2000s — the largest growth of the federal government over any 10-year period since the 1950s. And only a small fraction of this new spending is a temporary result of the recession. Most of it represents a permanent and accelerating expansion of government.

Where did all the money go?

Social Security and Medicare account for $400 billion of the $1.3 trillion spending increase. Most of this growth resulted from the natural increase in the number of retirees, combined with rising benefits and growing health care costs. The expensive 2003 Medicare drug entitlement also contributed in Medicare's 81 percent expansion.

Defense spending surged by 91 percent, or $342 billion. Spending levels had fallen dramatically after the Cold War ended in the early 1990s. The Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq returned the defense budget to the same percentage of GDP that prevailed 20 years ago.

Altogether, these additional Social Security, Medicare and defense costs make up a majority of the $1.3 trillion expansion of the federal budget during the 2000s.

Very quietly, the anti-poverty budget also expanded by $305 billion, or 89 percent. Under President George W. Bush, anti-poverty spending surpassed 3 percent of GDP for the first time ever. During the current recession, President Obama has increased it by an additional 33 percent.

The largest anti-poverty spending increases took place in Medicaid (82 percent) and food stamps (208 percent) as a result of rising benefits and 20 million additional recipients. Budget increases of approximately 50 percent were granted to child nutrition programs, food aid for those eligible for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and outlays for the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) budget leaped from $1.5 billion to $9 billion, and two programs that did not even exist two years ago — the refundable Making Work Pay credit and the homeowner bailouts — will cost a combined $50 billion this year.

A portion of these new costs should recede as the recession ends, although most of the increase will be permanent. And the new health care law's Medicaid expansion likely will keep those costs rising steeply.

Unemployment benefits surged from $30 billion all the way to $194 billion over the past decade. Those costs should fall once the recession ends and the jobs picture improves.

The veterans' budget doubled from $60 billion to $124 billion. The medical costs of treating veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as expanded veterans benefits, contributed.

Taxpayers may be surprised to learn that federal education spending soared 155 percent in the 2000s, to more than $100 billion. The kindergarten-through-12th-grade education budget already had grown 62 percent in the 1990s before the No Child Left Behind law set the stage for an additional 219 percent expansion in the 2000s.

College student financial aid increased 58 percent as well. State and local governments still provide the vast majority of education funding, although Washington clearly is expanding its control and influence.

Over the past decade, large budget increases also went toward international affairs (132 percent), highways and mass transit (79 percent), health research and regulation (69 percent), and federal law enforcement (51 percent). </b?

Only one part of the budget saw a significant decrease: interest on the national debt. Although the debt expanded by $4 trillion, record-low interest rates reduced annual net interest costs by $100 billion. However, once interest rates rebound to typical levels, net interest costs will double or even triple quickly.

Budgets are about setting priorities and making trade-offs. It is understandable for a few top priorities to take funding precedence. Yet it is completely unsustainable to provide permanent, massive spending increases to all the programs listed above.

The federal budget today is $1.3 trillion larger than in 2000 under President Clinton. Is America any better off? Perhaps returning most spending to those 2000 spending levels would not cause the sky to fall.

The alternative is to finance this spending with permanent tax increases of $10,000 per household. Such a tax increase — like a 20 percent value-added tax or doubling of all federal income taxes — would devastate families, businesses and the economy.

During the past decade, Washington lived under the fantasy that spending could nearly double without eventually forcing taxes to follow. Unsustainable budget deficits have shattered that fantasy. It's time for lawmakers to pare back spending or face impossible tax increases.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/20/riedl-a-decade-of-historic-spending-increases/

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Gonads & Strife ()
Date: April 20, 2010 01:00PM

tl:dr

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Voter___ ()
Date: April 20, 2010 01:06PM

I even bolded it for you so you could skim it. Carry on then, Obama is wrecking the country.

Gonads & Strife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> tl:dr

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Gonads & Strife ()
Date: April 20, 2010 01:19PM

I appreciate the effort to bold the important stuff...but the downfall is that too much of what you have to say is important...so I didn't read it. Not your fault. I have the attention span of a gnat.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Voter___ ()
Date: April 20, 2010 01:24PM

Doesn't help that I apparently forgot to close a bold tag...
Gonads & Strife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I appreciate the effort to bold the important
> stuff...but the downfall is that too much of what
> you have to say is important...so I didn't read
> it. Not your fault. I have the attention span of a
> gnat.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Date: April 20, 2010 01:38PM




STOP THE FONT MADNESS!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: You're welcome ()
Date: April 20, 2010 04:51PM

You're welcome...

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit
Posted by: Take two ()
Date: April 20, 2010 04:52PM

You're welcome

Options: ReplyQuote


Your Name: 
Your Email (Optional): 
Subject: 
Attach a file
  • No file can be larger than 75 MB
  • All files together cannot be larger than 300 MB
  • 30 more file(s) can be attached to this message
Spam prevention:
Please, enter the code that you see below in the input field. This is for blocking bots that try to post this form automatically.
 ********    ******    ******    ********   ******** 
 **     **  **    **  **    **   **     **  **       
 **     **  **        **         **     **  **       
 ********   **        **   ****  ********   ******   
 **         **        **    **   **         **       
 **         **    **  **    **   **         **       
 **          ******    ******    **         **       
This forum powered by Phorum.