14 Facts about the Obama Presidency

[BlazerWookee]

Only a food would take a Photoshopped picture of the Blazers to make the grand generalization that there are no such things as facts.

At long last sir, have you no decency?

[Sammy Davis Jr. voice]What kind of food am I?[/Sammy Davis Jr. voice]

 

[Denny Crane]

Ah, but we are not paying on Regan's debt any longer. When Slick Willy left office the Nation had a "Surplus". No debt. George W. then decided to give every one a check! Married or single we all got a surplus check. That is the only way he won the election. You know, the election that he won by not getting the popular vote. The only president ever elected without it. Florida certainly came in handy right Jeb? I don't need to post links or facts. I lived it and know all to well.

The debt and deficit/surplus are different animals. We were charging lots on the national credit card; what we borrow because we can't afford to live on what we take in (in taxes) is the deficit. Clinton stopped charging lots, but the balance actually went up.

 

[barfo]

Thanks.

Something to think about is the deficits that congress ran up in the Reagan era are part of the debt that we're still paying interest on today.

Barfo's current/constant dollars reasoning doesn't wash.

Uh... I was talking about deficit, not debt. As a wise man once said, they are different animals

Also, I'm not sure you are really right about the debt, either. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that a lot if not all of the debt from the Reagan era has been paid off and simultaneously replaced with new debt. Isn't the 30-year bond the longest typical debt instrument?

barfo

 

[barfo]

Deficit:

So it looks to me like we've been doing better deficit-wise than either the White House or the CBO predicted back in 2009, based on your graph here and MarAzul's link earlier in the thread.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

Uh... I was talking about deficit, not debt. As a wise man once said, they are different animals

Also, I'm not sure you are really right about the debt, either. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that a lot if not all of the debt from the Reagan era has been paid off and simultaneously replaced with new debt. Isn't the 30-year bond the longest typical debt instrument?

barfo

I know you were talking about the deficit, but it doesn't matter about constant or current dollars as you reasoned. In 20 years, our kids will still be paying interest on the ~$500B amount, which is part of the overall debt your kind is foisting on them.

 

[barfo]

I know you were talking about the deficit, but it doesn't matter about constant or current dollars as you reasoned. In 20 years, our kids will still be paying interest on the ~$500B amount, which is part of the overall debt your kind is foisting on them.

I'm not following you here. You really think inflation is irrelevant when talking about long-term debt?

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

I'm not following you here. You really think inflation is irrelevant when talking about long-term debt?

barfo

I think we're paying $450B in interest payments, regardless of the inflation rate when any bit of that debt was accrued.

Think of the green energy black hole we could be pouring that money into instead of giving it to the rich people who can afford to by T-Bills.

In 20 years, our kids will be paying several times that amount because what matters is the interest rate and that will almost certainly rise from near zero to several times near zero.

 

[kjironman1]

The debt and deficit/surplus are different animals. We were charging lots on the national credit card; what we borrow because we can't afford to live on what we take in (in taxes) is the deficit. Clinton stopped charging lots, but the balance actually went up.

If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of the conversation we have to go back to the very first posted comment. The original statement was about the "Deficit" not "The Debt". The only way you can even begin to pay down the debt is to get the deficit under control. That is exactly what is happening. Any time in history the US made strides in getting the Debt under control the administration had to have a budget that was under control. This has happened and in time (albeit quite a bit) this will begin to pay off the debt.
This is basic economics 101. If you listen to all the naysayers all they want to look at is the problems. You have to accentuate the positives also. Right now things are getting better. Of course they had to because it could not have got much worse without total and complete collapse. Did Obama make all the right decisions? Absolutely not! Did he do a lot of thing right? Yes he did.
Now lets look at George W. Did he make all the right decisions? Absolutely not! But he did stand strong during this country's time of need. He was up against one of the toughest things any president ever had to deal with. The same goes for our current commander in chief. Maybe we should all try to support him?

 

[Denny Crane]

The lower deficits is a smoke screen for the massive increases in spending that started year 1.

The bailouts were done before obama took office. He did blow through half the TARP money that didn't need to be spent.

The reasons for the deficit decreasing year over year are the republicans refused to pass massive spending increases obama requested and there are a slew of new taxes in effect that are slowing the economy at the expense of more govt. spending than is needed.

 

[kjironman1]

The lower deficits is a smoke screen for the massive increases in spending that started year 1.

The bailouts were done before obama took office. He did blow through half the TARP money that didn't need to be spent.

The reasons for the deficit decreasing year over year are the republicans refused to pass massive spending increases obama requested and there are a slew of new taxes in effect that are slowing the economy at the expense of more govt. spending than is needed.

Not going to argue about the problems that he inherited. Those are well known and a huge club Democrats have bludgeoned the former president with over and over again. Time to work on the present.
If i really wanted to go back i would go much further to the Carter administration. Heck even Nixon had a hand in the way things are being handled right now. If Jimmy Carter had used 4 gunships instead of 2 to rescue the hostages they would have been successful. If that happens Reagan never wins the election and of course i don't become a double combat veteran fighting to save a bunch of oil fields that we eventually set on fire anyway. Don't try to tell me it was for the Kuwait people. I was there i know better. The point is Carter knew the country was "war weary" and did not do enough to end the situation. We had all had enough in Vietnam. Kind of sounds like the same thing we are doing now huh?
Can Obama end the Isis situation without boots on the ground? Nope. Will it cost the US millions or even Billions to end the situation? Trillions you say? Now lets get back to the whole deficit/debt thing shall we? This becomes a much different equation now huh?
If you have easy answers for all of this i am sure willing to listen as i am sure all of America is.
My overall view is this administration should have been working on the real problems abroad and with the economy instead of healthcare for the first 2 years. Fix the biggest problems instead of the ones they felt were only fixable with a majority vote. If they had done what needed to be done first then they would have had the ability to do what they wanted to do later. Unfortunately that is simply not the way things seem to work in Washington nowadays.
Like i said. Many mistakes have been made on both sides of the isle. It's time to get our country working together again. Wish i had all the answers....

 

[Denny Crane]

A simple question:

When will Obama's $8trillion in debt be paid back?

My back of the envelope calculation says that it would take ~$500B in spending cuts just to get to the point we aren't adding to his mountain of debt. If we cut another $100B and paid off the principle, it would take 80 years.

Every president inherits some mess left by their predecessor. There was a financial disaster in Clinton's last year that W inherited. No excuse.

 

[kjironman1]

A simple question:

When will Obama's $8trillion in debt be paid back?

My back of the envelope calculation says that it would take ~$500B in spending cuts just to get to the point we aren't adding to his mountain of debt. If we cut another $100B and paid off the principle, it would take 80 years.

Every president inherits some mess left by their predecessor. There was a financial disaster in Clinton's last year that W inherited. No excuse.

It would take a much better man than me to answer that question correctly.
It's weird though. Any more 8 trillion doesn't sound like that much. Guess we are getting a little numb.

 

[Denny Crane]

$8trillion works out to $125,000 for every family of four in the country.

This is $1T in stacks of $100 bills.

 

[barfo]

$8trillion works out to $125,000 for every family of four in the country.

DennyMath? Pretty sure there are more than 256M people in the country. Or are you assigning all the debt to families with exactly 4 members?

This is $1T in stacks of $100 bills.

View attachment 4255

It's a very tiny pile.

barfo

 

[barfo]

A simple question:

When will Obama's $8trillion in debt be paid back?

It's simple to predict the future. Accuracy is sometimes a problem, though.

My back of the envelope calculation says that it would take ~$500B in spending cuts just to get to the point we aren't adding to his mountain of debt.

How much of the back of the envelope did you use to calculate the current deficit?

If we cut another $100B and paid off the principle, it would take 80 years.

okay. So? Is that a likely scenario?

Every president inherits some mess left by their predecessor. There was a financial disaster in Clinton's last year that W inherited. No excuse.

False. George Washington had no such problem. Also, I doubt President Tyler had that problem either.

barfo

 

[Denny Crane]

DennyMath? Pretty sure there are more than 256M people in the country. Or are you assigning all the debt to families with exactly 4 members?



It's a very tiny pile.

barfo

Per capita debt is $60,000. More than half that is Obama's. 4x$30,000 = 120,000, give or take the $5K.

Where did I come up with the $8T number? That's the difference between today's $17.9T debt and when he took over.

That tiny pile is 1/8th of Obama's overspending.

 

[MarAzul]

Per capita debt is $60,000. More than half that is Obama's. 4x$30,000 = 120,000, give or take the $5K.

Where did I come up with the $8T number? That's the difference between today's $17.9T debt and when he took over.

That tiny pile is 1/8th of Obama's overspending.

Damn Denny! Give it up! You have exceeded all expectations to enlighten.

However, we do have here the prime example of what is wrong with our current version of
a democratic republic.

 

[barfo]

Per capita debt is $60,000. More than half that is Obama's. 4x$30,000 = 120,000, give or take the $5K.

Where did I come up with the $8T number? That's the difference between today's $17.9T debt and when he took over.

Is 8 really more than half of 17.9?

barfo

 

[MARIS61]

Are illegal aliens counted in the per capita figure, or are we cooking the numbers?

 

[Denny Crane]

Is 8 really more than half of 17.9?

barfo

Why are you quibbling?

You can't defend the spending, your inflation adjusted deficits, or much else.

 

[Denny Crane]

So what do the liabilities look like on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet since Obama took office? Another $3T or more in debt that doesn't show up on as T-Bill borrowing.

 

[Denny Crane]

 

[magnifier661]

View attachment 4256

Don't use facts... It tends to confuse the democrats

 

[Denny Crane]

The record high 47M on food stamps is surely something to be proud of.

 

[barfo]

Why are you quibbling?

Shouldn't someone quibble when you say 8 is more than half of 17.9?

Is basic math now considered a matter of opinion?

barfo

 

[MarAzul]

Shouldn't someone quibble when you say 8 is more than half of 17.9?

Is basic math now considered a matter of opinion?

barfo

It is quibbling! It should have been more than close enough to dissuade you from voting for the epitome of ineptitude..

 

[barfo]

It is quibbling! It should have been more than close enough to dissuade you from voting for the epitome of ineptitude..

I didn't say it wasn't quibbling. But if one wants to make fact based arguments, one should get the facts right. Not just maybe kind of close to approximately right. Even someone who lives in Brookings (ah, close enough) and is building a train (or something like that) out of mashed potatoes and bull semen (or similar materials) should be able to understand that.

barfo

 

[MarAzul]

I didn't say it wasn't quibbling. But if one wants to make fact based arguments, one should get the facts right. Not just maybe kind of close to approximately right. Even someone who lives in Brookings (ah, close enough) and is building a train (or something like that) out of mashed potatoes and bull semen (or similar materials) should be able to understand that.

barfo

"should be able to understand" Now there is an interesting subject and whom understands what. But I think I will leave you with the potatoes and bull semen. I take it you under stand that.

 

[Stevenson]

Don't use facts... It tends to confuse the democrats

Dude, YOU are the one whose take was

"This was the biggest "Bullshit" article I've read. Its like having a Ferrari sticker on your Honda Civic window and calling it a Ferrari."

Talk about not liking facts. You haven't cited even one in any of your responses to this thread. Silly asides and non-sequiturs are not facts and carry no argumentative heft.

 

[magnifier661]

Dude, YOU are the one whose take was

"This was the biggest "Bullshit" article I've read. Its like having a Ferrari sticker on your Honda Civic window and calling it a Ferrari."

Talk about not liking facts. You haven't cited even one in any of your responses to this thread.

It's because I don't have to. Denny is the master!!!

And it is a "bullshit" wag the dog piece. The tone of the article is proof enough. It's like a parent talking up a special needs child in comparison to a Olympic athlete.