Deficits not a problem in short run, White House says

[UpInArms]

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B071E004A%2D5AB8%2D467F%2DA1AD%2D2CAED94860C7%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Persistent budget and current account deficits are not a problem in the short run, top White House economic adviser Edward Lazear said Tuesday. Speaking to the National Association for Business Economics, Lazear said the federal budget deficit "is actually in pretty good shape" in historic terms. Lazear said the current account deficit is not sustainable at the current levels, but he said he expects a gradual reduction. "In the short run, it's important that we continue" to attract capital from foreigners, he said. Lazear spoke as the Commerce Department reported a record $68 billion deficit in trade of goods and services in July.

...short blurb...

Those nasty twin deficits - Budget Deficit and Trade Deficit - make for some nasty debts.


The estimated population of the United States is 299,487,384
so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,501.47.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.74 billion per day since September 30, 2005

[wtmusic]

1. Good -- what about the long run

you miserable POS? :grr:

[UpInArms]

4. short-sighted looters of the public trust, treasure and lives

aren't they?

:mad:

[radfringe]

7. it's part of the plan..

Run up big deficits

Blame it on the next Dem to be elected president

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Qualification: Blame the next democrat who proposes raising

revenue to pay down the deficit by calling him/her a tax-and-spend liberal.

[eccles12]

2. Deficits are only a problem when the Republicans want turn you against

the "welfare system" and other entitlement programs like Social Security, food stamps etc. That's all Reagan ever talked about until he was in office and ran up the highest deficits in history to that time. We will always have deficits as long as the Republicans keep cutting taxes and increasing pork and military spending and turning a blind eye to the corporate welfare system.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. The fact that the GOP is making such an outrageous claim...

Should prove once and for all that the Republi-cons have abandoned all pretence to being the party of fiscal responsibility. They are doing far, FAR more damange to the national purse in five and a half years than all of those hated "liberal give-away programs to the undeserving" put together.

[fasttense]

5. The US wouldn't have to worry about attracting foreign capital

if we didn't have a trade deficit and a budget deficit. If we didn't ship all our jobs out of the US, we wouldn't have a trade deficit. If the federal government didn't borrow so much, we wouldn't have to ship all our tax dollars to foreign countries to pay the interest on loans. Bankrupting the US is the goal of bushes.

[Parisle]

6. What Gov't Debt REALLY Is,...

---- No less of a conserviative icon than George Will has described the interest on the federal debt as the largest single income redistribution in history. It goes without saying that this income is not being redistributed downward, eh? The government (ie., the people) are left holding the paper, and the defense contractors are salting it away in their accounts. And the tabulation of the federal debt does not include unfunded amounts, such as federal pensions. At the US government's present debt-to-income ratio, it would not pass a typical bank's 3-to-1 ratio guage for buying a house. How healthy is that?

[tanyev]

8. Oh, good. That will give the next president something to do.

In addition to solving that pesky war problem. They're so thoughtful.

[whistle]

10. One question, how long is short? From FY2002 until when Mr President?

<snip>
4. The Budget Surplus and Fiscal Discipline

In 1998, the Federal budget reported its first surplus ($69 billion) since 1969. In 1999, the surplus nearly doubled to $125 billion, and then again in 2000 to $236 billion. As a result of these surpluses, Federal debt held by the public has been reduced from $3.8 trillion at the end of 1997 to $3.4 trillion at the end of 2000 and to an estimated $3.2 trillion in 2001. With continued prudent fiscal policies, the budget can remain in surplus for many years. Under the President's budget proposals, $2.0 trillion in Federal debt held by the public will be retired over the next 10 years—all of the debt that can responsibly be retired.

Put simply, a surplus occurs when receipts exceed spending in any year—just as a deficit occurs when spending exceeds receipts. Generally, to finance past deficits, the Treasury has borrowed money. With certain exceptions, the debt is the sum total of our deficits, minus our surpluses, over the years.

The Government incurred its first deficit in 1792, and it generated 70 annual deficits between 1900 and 1997. <more>

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/guide04.html

[ramapo]

11. Republicans have come a long, long way

Anybody remember Raygun's first campaign? Beating up Carter for the deficit, the pile of bills reaching to the moon??

Astounding how these crooks and liars have gotten away with their failures and outright
hypocrisy.

[sendero]

12. In the words of John Kenneth Galbriath..

... "in the long run we're all dead".

The problem with this short term is that it will eventually be long term.

[flaminbats]

13. actually deficits are a short term problem

Interest being spent on the debt this year is more than half the amount being spent on defense or Social Security. This year's budget deficit would be insignificant if not for the interest now being paid on national debt.

http://www.federalbudget.com/

Strange how so many websites, like the one above, can rant and rave against higher deficits..but also seek to abolish the income and inheritance taxes! They claim to support a national sales tax..but only in place of the progressive income tax. They claim reducing the debt is a longterm priority, but only as long as the Bush taxcuts are not repealed! They claim that Social Security has surpluses every year, but entitlements are simply too expensive to sustain..just leave babyboomers holding the bag. :eyes:

Deficit spending is a yearly problem which can only be reversed with a longterm strategy. Bill Clinton had the right idea, while many Republican and independent voters are slowly beginning to see that Bush and his Congressional pawns never will!

[brentspeak]

14. Too bad there is no "short run"

We'll be paying for Bush's budget deficit for years, and Reagan's national debt for eons.

[Jacobin]

15. Neither is falling off a cliff

[nealmhughes]

19. Actually, the act of free falling might be quite exhillirating...for a few

seconds...

[kurth]

16. Your credit card balance is not a problem in the short run

Just wait a few months...

[Fenris]

17. I didn't know it was possible to be so right and wrong at the same time.

It may be true that deficits are not a problem in the short run, but they are brutal in the long run. And historically, the budget is not "in pretty good shape."

[damntexdem]

18. Yeah, they're only a problem if we survive for a while.

Just a problem for our kids.

Only a problem if one cares about America's going down the tubes.

[Toots]

20. Our current deficit spending is over $100,000.00 per SECOND

No Problem Bush* says so....

[Guaranteed]

22. You should check your numbers.

With an annual deficit of about $400B, you're talking around $12K/sec.

Even the debt increase itself is only around $20K/sec (interest). $100K/sec would be over a $3 trillion deficit per year.

[Guaranteed]

21. delete nt

[BrotherBuzz]

23. I don't want my eleven-year-old saddled with that debt

You are a donkey, Mr Danger.
You are a donkey, Mr. George W. Bush.

[SoCalDem]

24. they never are..in the short run.. Let's say you are broke NOW

and cannot pay your mortgage, BUT when you get your payxcheck, you CAN.. well what if you get fired, or outsourced...whaddayahgonnadothen?

We sort of expect the people we hire to RUN THE COUNTRY, to have a long-view..:grr:

[Mike03]

25. Dick Cheney said:

"Ronald Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter" two years ago. But the fact of the matter is that deficits do matter and they ARE mattering. The plunge in value of the US dollar is attributable to our trade imbalances. And the plain fact of the matter is that China could crush us under their thumb any moment they like, by allowing their currency to revalue upwards while dumping their record-level holdings of US treasuries and equities. Apparently the best kept secret in the world (or worst kept, if you live OUTSIDE the United States) is that our nation is bankrupt and dependent upon the kindness of strangers who buy our essentially worthless paper.