U.S. debt at $33.5 Trillion (October 2023)

e Because they were and are in serious problems. In Clinton's days FICA revenues covered the costs AND had large surpluses, that's not the case any more.

Worry less about "right" or "left" and look at facts and data for a change.

 

You picked a bad time to complain about the US national debt. With geopolitical tensions peaking, we might soon be in a position where we need to take on WWII levels of debt to respond to it.

I think it's obvious by now that we will never deal with the national debt. We're going to run in the red until we can't avoid driving over the edge of a financial cliff.

The Republicans haven't made things better at all during their time in power. If anything, they admitted that we're never going to pay back the national debt as they ran the money printer at full speed. Pre-COVID. While managing to put out a round of tax cuts to further reduce tax rates to historic lows.

 

Yes, it does.

 

if only the right tried to defend the middle class as much as they do the millionaires and billionaires

 

The middle class, like everyone else, is undertaxed.

 

there ya go...

 

Of course if you make a million per year, your tax contribution dollar-wise is going to amount to a lot, and half of Americans don't pay any income tax at all. We keep cutting taxes and we keep complaining about lack of revenue.

 

The share of the middle class that struggles to make ends meet is continually growing.

 

“This is my long-run forecast in brief:

The material conditions of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries, most of the time, indefinitely. Within a century or two, all nations and most of humanity will be at or above today's Western living standards.

I also speculate, however, that many people will continue to think and say that the conditions of life are getting worse.”
― Julian Simon

 

We each must finally address the situation in our own country. If that can be successfully done in the USA, that would mean an end to exploitation of Third World countries and a new policy of international non-interference. It would mean an end to taxpayer support for other nations that create of maintain problems in the world, like Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc. And since the USA is a model which is copied in some ways by the rest of the world, our progressive orientation would be undertaken by many other countries.

But meanwhile, what we see is that since capitalism “got back on its feet” following WWII and the New Deal, conditions for the working class have remained mostly flat with an average of very minimal improvements over the years, while the fortunes of the top 1% have multiplied enormously as they succeeded in seizing a continually increasing share of income and wealth, even though the workers were essential and indispensable in generating that wealth. THAT is an injustice. And real peace is impossible when so many endure injustice.

 

I understand your view. I do not share it.
IMHO, the period 1945-75 was a relatively lush "holiday from history" because the US emerged from WW2 intact and undamaged. What we have seen since roughly 1975 is a reversion to historic norms.

 

And that is true too.

 

The post war period offered an opportune time for ambitious, entrepreneurial, and people to work hard to advance themselves. And a time for ordinary Joes who just wanted to work 40hrs a week, go home, drink a beer, eat dinner, watch TV and go to sleep. Many of those in the first group managed to rise to the level their skills, talent and determination took them. And the same process still works today. do a ho-hum job earn ho-ho wages. Bust butt and go as far as you can.

 

Why is customer assistance so hard to find in stores today? And on the rare occasion when you find help they usually aren’t really much help. Why is that?

 

Schools turning out WOKE morons that can't perform in the real world, even at the lowest level.

 

America Is Flirting With Fiscal Breakdown
Bloomberg

 

You get what you pay for. For the political right it always seems to be about their hate and intolerance.

 

No irony here. None at all