Spending, not entitlements

[Will E Worm]

Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit

It's conventional wisdom in Washington to blame the federal government's dire financial outlook on runaway entitlement spending. Unless we rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the conventional wisdom goes, the federal government is headed for disaster.

That's true in the long run. But what is causing massive deficits now? Is it the same entitlements that threaten the future?

Yes, say some conservatives who favor making entitlement reform a key issue in the 2012 campaign. "We're $1.5 trillion in debt," Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said Sunday, referring to this year's projected deficit. "Where's the debt coming from? It's coming from entitlements."

There's no doubt federal spending has exploded in recent years. In fiscal 2007, the last year before things went haywire, the government took in $2.568 trillion in revenues and spent $2.728 trillion, for a deficit of $160 billion. In 2011, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the government will take in $2.230 trillion and spend $3.629 trillion, for a deficit of $1.399 trillion.

That's an increase of $901 billion in spending and a decrease of $338 billion in revenue in a very short time. Put them together, and that's how you go from a $160 billion deficit to a $1.399 trillion deficit.

Article


It's not an entitlement if you pay for it, or your taxes pay for it.

The spending has to stop.

 

[1ManRevolution]

I have no problem with reducing spending...as long as we increase revenue. They go hand in hand.

 

[Straight Shooter]

Yes Obama spent alot of money, but it wasn't for shits and giggles. We were in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and that stimulus helped avoid a second Great Depression. If I had to choose between doing nothing and going into a depression or massive spending and ending up with a massive debt but at the same time avoiding a depression, I'd choose the latter.

 

[1ManRevolution]

Yes Obama spent alot of money, but it wasn't for shits and giggles. We were in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and that stimulus helped avoid a second Great Depression. If I had to choose between doing nothing and going into a depression or massive spending and ending up with a massive debt but at the same time avoiding a depression, I'd choose the latter.

Now you're going to hear about how the Stimulus did nothing to stop unemployment from going up from the Conservatives...What they forget is that MANY a governor took that Stimulus money and instead of investing it in oh I don;t know...JOBS, they took it and plugged their holes in their State budgets. So the money was never used the way it was supposed to be used...But ALL of that is Obama's fault, of course.

 

[lurkingdirk]

Some government spending simply has to happen. If you don't, for example, maintain the highway system in the nation, the economy (and much more) will suffer greatly. That costs government dollars. There are many more examples like this.

I do agree with you, Will, on the whole, though. Spending needs to be reigned in. I don't know what the answer is, but I also don't put my name on a ballot and pretend to have the answers.

(Oh, and I don't go on to a porn forum expecting people to have the solutions to the current economic crisis, either.)