Say Anything Blog

The moonbats are claiming that our national debt is owned by China.

Does this pertain to me?
If so, you mis read my comment.
I never heard anyone say China owned our debt, even the Chinese aren’t that crazy.

“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Well actually I thought you had said that and you corrected me.  But I’ve seen it in other threads.

I found this in our ‘discussion’ (bats and clubs) but I thought it was interesting and deserved a post of it’s own.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

allyoucanupload huh?

Nice concept—too bad you can’t download anything from that site…

[Feet make good soup!]

Don’t flatter yourself, Mark.  You’re hardly the only “moonbat” around.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

They do hold $1.0663 trillion in currency reserves.

1987: 16.1b
1997: 148.2
2005: 623.0
2006: 845.2

Let’s hope they keep it up.

“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

Damn!!!!

“We have a dollar that’s adjusting and I am for a strong dollar.....
Our dollar doesn’t buy as many barrels of oil as it used to and so therefore it’s more expensive for the American people”..... Bush 3/12/08

The entire ploy of the so-called “national debt” is an attempt by the political class to avoid the blame for their wasteful and excessive spending habits.  They are using our money to buy the votes of their special interest groups.

If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it.

R108,

It is also an attempt to lay the groundwork for rationalizing raising taxes.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

Now wait a minute.

I’m no economist so help me out here.  The SO keeps mentioning “who is buying our debt” as in “who buys T-bonds”.  Yet the biggest slice of his pie-chart is the “U.S. Government”.

So does our government really buy most of the T-bonds that it issues itself? 

I dunno man, but that sounds like something Enron would do… what am I missing here?

[Feet make good soup!]

Marty,

The chart lists all federal debt.  The biggest chunk of that debt is “Special” bonds issued at reduced interest rates to the Social Security “Trust Fund.” This has been going on since LBJ and the Unitary Budget Act, which essentially allows the surplus Social Security funds collected from everyone’s payroll taxes, to be “loaned” to the US Treasury in exchange for these bonds.

There is NO Social Security Trust Fund.  Only a whole bunch of bonds, which SS will have to start redeeming in just a few years, depending on the projections used, to pay out benefits for retiring baby-boomers.

Of course, we already know what the state of the federal budget is. And there is no provision in any of the current budget projections for the cost of redeeming those bonds when the Social Security retirement fund goes into a negative cash flow/

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

To add to what Bat said, future socials security payments will not be made from those bonds.

They can only be paid from higher taxes. (likely) Program cuts in the general budget (yeah right) or future benefits will be reduced to people that are currently working now. (very likely).

So that’s not a debt, but we do have a monster obligation out there and Congress is lying about it.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

Marty,

Actually, your Enron analogy is right on the money (pun intended!)

The federal government books the Social Security “surplus” (the amount taken in from taxes that exceeds the amount needed to pay out current benefits) as revenue to the General Fund, and issues the “Special Bond” to the so-called “trust fund” account.  The government does not, however, book the resulting unfunded liability, that is, the net present value of that bond which will need to be paid out of general fund revenues when it (the bond) comes due.

In a very simplistic sense the federal government, OUR federal government, is doing exactly what it prosecuted Enron and Arthur Anderson for doing.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”