It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by PurdueNuc
don et. al.:
You want to help reduce the publically-held debt?
1. Make check payable to the "Bureau of the Public Debt"
2. In the memo section of the check, make sure you write "Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public "
3. Mail check to -
ATTN DEPT G
BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT
P O BOX 2188
PARKERSBURG, WV 26106-2188
Bureau of the Public Debt, U.S. Department of the Treasury
This is not a joke, that money will go straight towards federal debt reduction. Instead of raising taxes, with all the losses that will inherently be incurred (as well as misappropriations), you can ensure all the money you want to contribute will go where it's supposed to.
Let us all know when you send your checks!
Originally posted by Codemaster_01
I am a retired professor of Economics. The U.S. is not going broke. Here are the most basic of facts.
As a percentage of GNP, our debt is not as great as in past decades.
For 60 years until Richard Nixon became president, the U.S. had run a deficit.
For a few decades thereafter, the government was satisfied that balancing the budget on a federal scale served no purpose and continued to spend more than they took in.
The difference between a federal budget and a household budget is that a collector cannot call his debt due. The debt is owned by American citizens who buy bonds. We make money off the government's debt.
A household or corporate budget is completely unlike a governmental debt. Stop worrying. The US will not collapse.
Every presidential candidate and his advisors are completely aware of this but complaining about the debt makes good press and gets votes from ignorant citizens.
Just in case you believe, for example, that the current candidate wanting to win the presidency will balance the budget, listen to what he says. He wants to spend more, not less. That won't break us either.
Are you suggesting that it would be impossible to balance the budget and run a surplus by increasing taxes? Clinton already showed it is possible. We can do it again.
Originally posted by Disturbed Deliverer
Are you suggesting that it would be impossible to balance the budget and run a surplus by increasing taxes? Clinton already showed it is possible. We can do it again.
Clinton's policy had little to do with the economy. He cut back spending, and raised taxes. What made the 22 million jobs he created possible was booming tech industries. There was nothing impressive there.
People have been whining about the defecit for years. The economy isn't going to collapse. There isn't some vast conspiracy here.
For 60 years until Richard Nixon became president, the U.S. had run a deficit.
Are you saying that during the period 1908 to 1968 the federal government never had a balanced budget? You may be right, but I would like to see some documentation.
However the only times that the federal budget balanced prior to the 1990�s was once under Truman, twice under Eisenhower and once at the straddle between Lyndon Johnson and Nixon terms.
Originally posted by Hawk
You can't run on the platform of "raise taxes" because you'll almost surely lose.
Why? Because the American public has been so ingrained with "taxes bad" and "cutting good" that they believe every word of it. On top of that, you cannot show them the long-term advantages of raising taxes because everyone wants results this instant and not ten years from now. It's a side-effect of our ignorant populus and the predisposition that we want everything now.
I believe in raising taxes. I believe in long term goals. Most people don't. Most people, especially the ones in control, want money and they want it now; they do not care about long-term consequences to their actions.
I did want to say something else, but I forgot what it was. If it comes to mind, I'll post it.
Originally posted by Seth Bullock
DNC Don
You sure post a lot but never really say much. Please tell us exactly how much you wan't taxes rasied and on whom? And, try to do it without a link to Kerry's website. I would like to see your opinion please.
Originally posted by PurdueNuc
Ah yes, the old liberal rally cry: "tax and spend! tax and spend!"
I see why nobody has enthusiastically posted about them sending money to the address I posted above; they want the debt paid off, but they want it paid off by everyone else. That's the silent part of the rally cry: "tax [anyone but me] and spend [to benefit me]!"
Oh, wait, I have an idea: let's cut some of that pork out of the budget. You see, instead of spending more and taxing more, we can actually cut taxes and reduce the debt! All we need to do is cut out some of that pork barrel. Citizens Against Government Waste has some great examples of the waste of congress (oops, I mean of Bush - it's all Bush's fault!).
Originally posted by donguillermo
Yes, it is all Bush's fault. He signed every appropriations bill. I am still waiting for someone to give me an example of an appropriations bill that Bush vetoed. I could be wrong, but I don't believe there are any such examples.
Originally posted by DEEZNUTZ
However, our social services are second to none and our healthcare system(although still ripe with problems) can't be beat. Imagine never having to pay for medical care??
Originally posted by taibunsuu
This exposes the United States to financial or political risk that either bank will stop buying Treasuries - or selling them heavily.