Washington warned of crisis unless debt is stabilised

[The Northerner]

The US is heading for a public debt crisis unless action is taken soon to stabilise debt relative to national income, a bipartisan group of former congressmen, White House officials and budget experts warned yesterday.

"There is a real crisis looming," said Bill Frenzel, a former Republican ranking member of the House budget committee. Jim Jones, a former Democratic chairman of the committee, said there was no way of knowing when a market backlash might materialise.

The group, known as the Pew-Peterson commission, called on Democrats and Republicans to agree on a binding debt to gross domestic product target of 60 per cent by 2018. Under the plan, an enforcement mechanism would impose spending cuts and a tax surcharge if Congress failed to achieve the target in 2018 and each year beyond.

The group estimated that on reasonable assumptions US debt would otherwise rise to 85 per cent of GDP by 2018 and more than 200 per cent of GDP by 2038.

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[county worker]

1. Get rid of the Bush tax cuts, bring back manufacturing to this country,

put more people on the payrolls to pay income tax, or let this country become one of haves and have nots.

[NMDemDist2]

2. I saw them on CSpan last night

they had some good arguments

but first we have to stop fighting wars and start taxing millionaires

hope we do it soon.....

[ixion]

3. There's a train a'comin'

and most people won't even admit that it's there.

200% by 2038?

Wishful thinking. The pacific rim will not continue to finance our debt to that point. A Reckoning will occur long before that.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

4. We should get our Troops home. Now. Today.

[Festivito]

5. Bush'Rs borrowed and spent US into a pit and want to call it ground level.

As we slowly raise the people, they'll make that hard. Then by the time we do crawl out, they'll be ready to take our progress away once again - all they while proclaiming to themselves how much they deserve everything since they are so much smarter.

Pip-squeaks!

[2Design]

6. Good then they lose their benefits and overpaid salaries - tough n/t

[fasttense]

7. Where were fiscally responsible Republicons when Raygun gutted taxes for the uber wealthy

and increased taxes for the middle class and poor? Why weren't they worried about debt then? Did you know we are still paying back the debt Ronnie Raygun created?

During the WWII the federal government spent 122% of GDP and led us finally emerge out of the 1st Republicon Great Depression. Yet, we managed to survive as a nation.

Now all of a sudden they become fiscal conservatives. Where were they when the bushes were spending us into a hole? I saw neither hide or nor hair of these supposed fiscally responsible people.

But this is all one giant con by Pete Peterson, a millionaire who hates helping grandma, to cut the Social Security payments we have paid into all these years. He's trying to do another Greenspan bipartisan commission.

Remember the last one? With the last bipartisan commission Greenspan and Raygun doubled our Social Security taxes and put a cap on Social Security taxes paid for by the uber wealthy. Then they turned around and borrowed our Social Security trust fund. What a con that was.

And they want to do it all over again.

Don't buy into this con again.