US debt in perspective: If the US were a person that made 55 K a year.

[huevonkiller]

Agreed... but they also are very restricted in what they can do with it.

How so? Either we default completely or you cut spending, the only one restricting us are dems and Bush-era republicans.

It isn't like they can take trillions in the social security pool and stick it in a vault (that would be stupid... it depreciates just sitting there) Using it for expenses seemed better than borrowing money for other expenses and paying interest to someone. Up until the last few years we always were taking in more than we were paying out.

We DO have trillions of dollars just sitting there, hiding in oversea escrow funds. We have no way to pay for our overzealous promises.

Anyway... it is risky for the government to cut spending unless it is done very carefully because it is a source of income for many of the people that pay taxes. Greece massively cut goverment spending over the last few years and their problem is getting worse... not better.

Do we need to be careful and not wasteful? Of course! There are all kinds of shitty govenment programs from long long ago that just keep going and going and going... and we all see sometimes that we are making stupid decisions. I used to live of Forster near 162nd... and they build a culvert for salmon that was like 4 million or something... and it was a teeny little stream that I doubt ever had a fish in it. We can't wast money like that. I love salmon sure... but come one... at some point you have to say we can't afford that.

Dude no, you're not willing to take responsibility or recognize the magnitude of your failed policies.

Canada did exactly what Greece needs to do, and came out just fine. You are obsessed with worrying about Unions or small groups of people when you should be worried about the 46 trillion dollars in future benefits we've promised. Your post does not connect with the current math.

 

[blazerboy30]

Maybe it is time to reduce spending, yes our debt is very large. I was saying you can't judge the sucess of government expenditures by government ROI. You can judge an individuals financial decisions by ROI.

Sure you can. And you have to. Otherwise there is no reason to stop spending or keep spending in check. Or, on the other hand, there is absolutely no reason to spend at all.

If you can't make some reasonable estimate on the future value of a high-speed rail system, how do you know if you should spend $1billion or $1trillion or nothing?