U.S. Budget Deficit Widens 11.8% in First Quarter of Fiscal Year

Yeah it does. Which will lead to a balanced budget in the future. Save Medicare as well.
The dems oppose it, much like they opposed cutting taxes for working Americans

 

Fiscally irresponsible to cut taxes without cutting spending. In fact it is the opposite of responsible. It is reckless.

 

Not when the economy is in a slump. Now that the economy is booming, and folks are back to work, it’s time to cut spending.

why are you oppose to cutting spending?

 

A bustling economy we are told - except the manufacturing index has been negative for many months.

Worst manufacturing data in a decade drives yields lower
https://business.financialpost.com/...acturing-data-in-a-decade-drives-yields-lower

and this was not a a one hit wonder.

MANUFACTURING INDEX CONTRACTS FOR FOURTH MONTH IN A ROW
https://www2.staffingindustry.com/s...dex-contracts-for-fourth-month-in-a-row-52085

Real Wages have not increases in a significant way for decades - yet - consumer confidence is very high. This reminds me of the late 1990's when Greenspan made his famous "there is an irrational exuberance" comment.

Any idiot can prop up household GDP for a time by maxing out their credit cards - This is not a reason to jump up and down and say "look how great we are doing".

Trump is spending like a princess will a credit card - while the self proclaimed "fiscally conservative" right stands up and cheers - "look how great we are doing".

This is short term gains for long term losses. US GDP growth increased - not to 5-6% as promised but to 3.5% in the second half of 2017 through 2018. In 2019 GDP grown has averaged 2%.

Solution to the problem ?! - increase the amount of credit card spending even more.

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2018/11/w...al-debt-interest-than-on-these-vital-programs

Keep in mind this is "net interest costs" = the interest on our debt minus interest earned from other sources - SS being one of the main ones - contributing over 200 Billion/year in interest to the pot. This interest should be left to accumulate in the program - which would have kept the program fully self funding and solvent. Instead the Gov't steals this money and puts it into general revenue.

 

If you make $47,060 a year but owe $188,167 on credit cards skipping donating a grand to your local charity every month isn’t going to be a serious effort to paying down the debt especially considering day to day living expenses. Not also buying a gun at the end of the month for $800 will help and not giving your neighbor $200 to fight against his neighbor will help even more. Gaining more income and doing the previous are the optimal ways to tackle the issue.

 

Unfortunately, the flip-side of all that tax cut happiness is that people have gotten royally SCREWED on the interest their savings accounts earn. Trump has bitched and bellyached CONSTANTLY in favor of cutting interest rates to ZERO, or below! That not only kicks every person who actually saves money in the balls, but it also hurts the value of the American dollar, and encourages people to borrow money with even more witless irresponsibility than they do already.

I voted for Trump, and will probably be forced to do so again (if only because the viable Democrat candidates are just GUT-BUCKET AWFUL), but I really wish he would shut the hell up about cutting interest rates to zero! In view of actual demand for real money, interest rates should be at least 4% - 5% right now! The Fed's idea of what 'inflation' is in this country is a bunch of cooked-book FANTASY!

 

Veteran's benefits may not be included in your list - but it is part of Total Military spending - found under the category of "military related spending" It is absurd nonsense to consider "Veteran's benefits" not part of Military related spending.

 

Does the Budget propose a total increase in spending?

 

Of course not - Trump is proposing cuts in some areas - but increases in other areas - the total being a massive increase in spending.

What a ridiculous post btw.

 

Start with the military if you want to cut spending. It is the single largest socialist program and the single largest source of non-discretionary spending.

 

What are you talking about? That’s an extra grand to the debt...

 

If you are using your local bank savings account as your primary means of saving you are doing it wrong. Put it in a mutual fund

 

No it’s not, as Obama correctly highlighted Medicare and Medicaid are the largest drivers of debt.

 

The economy was not in a slump. Virtually every economic metric has been on the same trend line since 2010. And the tax cuts might (might) have given the economy a short-term boost to get GDP growth above 3% for one quarter, but the effect hasn't lasted and it is now hovering just above 2%. Not much better than Obama's 8-year average. Trump's best quarter has not beaten Obama's best quarter, and Trump's best year only ties Obama's best year.

So don't pretend the tax cuts helped. But even if you are right and the economy is now booming, the first step should be to return to the previous level of taxation IN ADDITION to cutting spending. That would be fiscally responsible.

 

They are sources of non-discretionary spending and would require legislation to change.

Trump can reduce spending on the discretionary spending right now by reducing the money provided to the single largest socialist program in the country.

 

It was flat, no growth...wages were flat etc.

 

Virtually every economic metric has been on the same trend line since 2010. Neither Trump's presidency nor his tax cuts have made any material difference to any of those trend lines.

The current economy is a continuation of what has been happening since 2010.

 

And watch it all get flushed down the toilet when the current, monstrous 'house of cards' collapses...?

The "Repo Crisis" that became impossible to ignore last September was a solid, unmistakable warning -- the worse mistakes that lead up to August 2007 have been repeated, and now it's just a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. The Fed doesn't want to admit it, but it's been in the business of furiously pumping and dumping hundreds of billions of new, imaginary dollars of 'overnight liquidity' into the economy -- AGAIN -- a virtual "QE4".... . Put money in mutual funds now? I knew several people who were all into "spiders" and mutual funds, and telling me how wrong I was to get rid of ALL my stocks and stock options back in May 2007. But I came out with my ass intact -- while they lost theirs! Now I'm comfortably retired, and they're all still working, still clinging onto jobs they have come to hate....

 

It isn’t actually considering you are still not living within your means — you are just reducing how much you are living beyond your means.

Lets be generous and say you can convert $1000 of that extra payment — that you have taken from the infirm so you can still buy your handgun monthly — and apply it directly to the principle. You were previously putting 40k a year on credit cards and now you will be only putting 28k (and that is if your spouse doesn’t see that savings to justify some other spending). You are still going in debt — your extra payments don’t even bring your monthly deficit to zero.

You need a second job, your spouse needs to contribute, you need to stop buying 12 guns a year and end financing the fued between your neighbors.

 

Sure there was major change in 2010 when the Dems got kicked out of the House, and lost bigly at the State level....but the real lasting boom has happened after Obama left office, taxes were cut, and wages increased. This is Trump and the GOP's economy.

Now, why are you all so opposed to cutting the debt and deficit?

 

Cut 2% from every budget across the board. I'm all for it.

But if he did that, the left would turn around and say he hates poor people and old people.

No matter what he does, the left will cry about it, so may as well make the most of it.

 

I'm for reducing the military spending, pulling everyone back home, and letting the third world slaughter each other in genocidal fashion.

Are you?

 

What "Repo Crisis"? Not sure what you are talking about.

We made some similar mistakes....by giving the Dems the House...but as long as we keep them from totally controlling Congress, let alone that and the WH, we should be able to avoid double digit unemployment again.

If only we could get the Dems on board with cutting debt and the deficit, we might be on to something

 

no economic metric has changed trends since 2010.

 

Absolutely, we need to primarily focus on our nation and our borders, secondary focuses on our immediate neighbors (to help secure our borders and limit instability) and our allies if they enact article five. Everything else needs to be ended and directly applied to our debt.
No more random bombings, no more choosing which dictator is best, no more paying nations to buy our military hardware from government contractors.