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Monday, February 13, 2012

February 13th, 2012 - Morning Headlines

Morning Headlines:

- Greek parliament approves austerity measures as condition for more bailout funding (CNN): http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/12/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

- President Obama will be submitting the final budget of this presidency today. This budget is expected to carry a $901 Billion deficit (Fox News): http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/12/presidents-budget-out-monday-already-meets-gop-skepticism/?test=latestnews

- Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is indicted for contempt (Washington Post): http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistani-prime-minister-to-stand-trial-for-contempt/2012/02/13/gIQAHTfIAR_story.html?hpid=z4

Updated 9:56am:
From The Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-5-things-to-watch-in-obamas-2013-budget/2012/02/13/gIQAbYKhAR_blog.html

"- The broken deficit promise: This is one of those cases in which what's important will make headlines. The Obama administration is officially breaking its promise to halve the deficit by the end of their first term. The 2013 budget envisions a deficit of more than $1 trillion -- not halved by any stretch of the imagination. Republicans are right about that. But fulfilling that promise -- which would have meant moving to massively contractionary fiscal policy over the last year -- would have been a dumb thing to do. The Obama administration is right about that."

I'm not too sure about this... do you really think this will make headlines? I doubt it, but I hope I'm wrong. What do you think?
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2012 at 7:08 AM

    You know what pisses me off the most about this budget (the Fox News article):

    "The fund, which will be part of the budget plan, plans to help forge new partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train 2 million workers for good-paying jobs in high-growth and high-demand industries. It also seeks to provide funding for community colleges and states to partner with businesses to train workers in areas such as health care, transportation and advanced manufacturing."

    It is not the government's job to do this. This is what gets us into this mess. The government gets involved and, to put it simply, does not see the return on its investment. Leave the government out, leave it to the private sector, let people make their choices and stop wasting tax dollars on this which drives us further into debt when that return does not come like the government expected.

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  2. RKenFebruary 13, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    I've seen 'the broken deficit promise' on a few headlines, including CNN. So it seems the story has gained headway pretty well; but that doesn't quite change the reality that it's not a very important issue for most voters.

    I definitely am more on the side of urgency for our deficit/debt problems, but it doesn't seem to be of the popular opinion.

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    Replies
    1. LMEFebruary 13, 2012 at 11:32 AM

      RKen - To me, the interesting thing is... it should have a two-part negative effect. Not only did he break the promise, but, we are far worse off financially. This debt burden is unsustainable. We cannot go forward doing what we are doing. With current expenditures of $3.818 T, if we ran a surplus (starting now) of 10% (which would take a LOT)... say $382 B... It would take 42 years just to pay down this debt. That is also assuming no spending increases and no tax increases or cuts. I don't know about what you think, but to me, that's significant.

      Delete
    2. RKenFebruary 13, 2012 at 11:55 AM

      Even more difficult to fathom is the fact that our revenue stream is about $2.5 trillion, so for us to reach that $382 billion surplus we would a combined $1.7 trillion in spending cuts/revenue increases.

      Nightmare-ish reality.

      Delete
  3. DaraFebruary 14, 2012 at 10:28 AM

    These articles speak to what I said yesterday... in short, we're headed - at warp speed - down the wrong path, a dangerous one that will destroy our Great Country.

    Daniel Hannan, a Brit, said it better than ANY of our GOP candidates - at CPAC this past weekend.

    http://youtu.be/BujuEpGmKMg

    One point he made(this is paraphrased) Britain is headed for the cliff, with consevatives standing hard on the brakes, and when he looks in the rearview... we're roaring up behind - trying to pass them.

    And it's true - I just hope it's not too late for us to change course.

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