Facebook Debates

Sometimes, you just have to take a private debate, public.  Names are omitted, but the following is an exchange I am having on my Facebook account, or I should say, on a post on someone else's Facebook account:

The health care bill was and is opposed by the vast majority of the American people and is probably the single most important reason for the coming debacle on November 2. If it is not stopped, it will destroy the best health care system in the world.

Actually, not only is it now favored by a majority of Americans, it actually grew in popularity after it was passed.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126929/slim-margin-americans-support-healthcare-bill-passage.aspx

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/25/polls-indicate-support-for-health-care-reform-has-increased-since-sunday-vote/?fbid=UOpdcnIl9IM

For Bush's last fiscal year, the Democrats were in control of the Congress. The President cannot spend one nickel, cannot raise or lower the deficit one nickel, without the approval of Congress. Am I to understand that you believe that the Democratic-controlled Congress did Bush's bidding? It is disingenuous to suggest that "Bush" did anything with regard to the budget.

The Democrats and Republicans in the Congress indeed passed the proposed budget by then-president Bush, which he then signed off on.  It was a record breaking $3 trillion, the largest budget in history at that time.  Indeed, it was a Democratic majority in the Congress at that time.  It's still a Democratic majority in the Congress and a Democratic president, with a reduced deficit over his predecessor.

Obama did not promise to "stabilize" the unemployment rate. He promised to lower it. He solemnly assured us that if Congress passed his "stimulus" act, the unemployment rate would not go above 8%.

While the stimulus wasn't big enough to keep unemployment below 8%, it did, in fact, stave off the worst of the crash overseen by Bush.  In fact, the Congressional Budget Office confirms that the stimulus added jobs to our economy:

http://factcheck.org/2010/09/did-the-stimulus-create-jobs/

The reason we are able to withdraw from Iraq is that Bush's "Surge" worked, after Obama promised us that it would not. Afghanistan will be Obama's Vietnam. In the long run, I believe that neither country can be saved.

As you may or may not recall, Obama said he would set a timetable upon entering office, which he did.  Iraq, even now, isn't even fully settled and corruption remains rife, especially the Chalabi elements Bush allowed to proliferate, along with their theocratic constitution.  Yet, we still drew down in accordance with Obama's stated timetable and exit strategy, something Bush never seemed capable of providing.

As for Afghanistan, it was Bush's war and it will always be Bush's war no matter how many presidents have to oversee it.

He also assured us that he would close Gitmo. Hasn't happened. Won't happen.

I guess you missed this, then:  President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum dated December 15, 2009 formally closing the detention center and ordering the transfer of prisoners to the Thomson Correctional Center, Thomson, Illinois.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-closure-dentention-facilities-guantanamo-bay-naval-base

He also assured us that the rest of the world would love us. It's worse than ever.

I guess you also missed this:

U.S. favorability ratings remain high in Western Europe and have increased markedly in China and Russia. But opinions remain negative in many Muslim nations. Mexican views of the U.S. tumbled following passage of Arizona’s immigration law. Confidence in Obama is high across much of the world, but support for his handling of specific policies is less widespread.

http://pewglobal.org/2010/06/17/obama-more-popular-abroad-than-at-home/

Congressional approval rating is at a record low. 60%+ of the people say we're on the wrong track. The Republicans are farther ahead on the "generic ballot" than at ANY time in the past, ever. In other words, the Democrats are farther behind. The Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda is the reason.

Congressional approval has been down for years now, yet Democrats still rate more favorably than Republicans and Obama rates better than all of them.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/142898/job-approval-ratings-low-parties-congress.aspx

What we are supposed to be regretting is expanded government power, increased government spending, more intrusion of government into our private lives, and (with the help of Congress) setting the United States on the road to financial disaster. Look at Zimbabwe and you'll know.

What we are supposed to be regretting is a narcissistic President who believes government is the answer to everything. We are supposed to be regretting a neo-Marxist who believes that America, capitalism and the free market is the problem.

Bottom line: "Yeah, but Bush . . . " just doesn't work for me any more. Bush is not President any more. Obama has been President for two years. This is not about Bush. This is about Obama. The Democrats will lose, and lose big, because of Obama and his agenda.

And this is where your rant deviates from debatable facts and into the realm of hyperbolic rhetoric and paranoia.  Neo-Marxist?  Really?  Have you ever even read Marx?  Can you actually show where Obama has decried capitalism even as he continued the tradition of suckling up to corporate interests in this country?  Can you show how Obama's spending habits differ all that much from Bush, who doubled the national debt, or Reagan, who tripled the national debt?

No, I think November isn't going to hold the surprise you think it does.  November will be the status quo because the US keeps electing the same folks, or similar to run things.  That's a clue for you.  Government isn't imposed on you by some foreign entity.  It's your fellow citizens and while you have aligned yourself, apparently, with a vocal fringe, you will find that the majority are pretty moderate, even liberal on most issues.

More Scary Math

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="387" caption="Historical charts of our national debt load provide a lot more context to judge under. The US national debt load isn’t even close to historical highs. Further still, the highest the debt load has ever been was following a period of government spending to end the Great Depression. Sound familiar?"][/caption]

The topic being touted from the right wing over the last few days has focused on the rising national debt, with alarm bells being sounded for its recent and predicted further increase.  The problem is, as Paul Krugman recently pointed out regarding an article in the same paper he writes for, is that a lot of emphasis is put on Big Scary Numbers, with little to no context provided to help non-economist laypeople understand.

Additionally, there is another sneaky tactic being used to further cloud the issue.  Some right wingersare trying to redefine the national debt to include anything and everything, including Social Security and Medicare pay-outs as the fabled Baby Boomers approach their “gimme gimme age” (aka, retirement).  This allows them to say the national debt is something like $100 trillion, or any other idiotic number they want to pull from an orifice.  Aside from being a completely false measure of the national debt, it also plays into the myth that SS/Medicare is going to bankrupt us with no hope in sight.  More on that particular subject in a later post.

However, even Krugman possibly over-estimates either the capacity for understanding or maybe underestimates the apathy within the mainstream public.  So let’s break it down a bit more and provide the required definitions and context to make sense of the manufactured hysteria over the national debt.

First off, national debt is a measure of how much the government of a country owes to various creditors whenever deficit spending has required that government to borrow money.  Right now, that total debt amounts to (Big Scary Number Alert) $12,016,320,934,466.71.  Of that amount, exactly $4,404,965,065,999.66 (36.6%) is owed by the government to ....the government.  That’s right, the US government owes itself over 1/3 of the national debt.  This can be everything from the SS/Medicare fund owning US securities or various agencies borrowing money from the Treasury in order to meet obligations (eg. US Postal Service).

This leaves $7,611,355,868,467.05 of the debt owned by the “public”, which is anyone who is not the US government.  This includes private citizens, banks, funds, or even other governments like China, which is another Scary Thing the right wing continually touts about the national debt.

China currently owns about $800,000,000,000 of debt, which is about 7% of the national debt.

Now, to put this set of very large numbers into context, let’s consider what the US is “worth”.  Aside from borrowing, the government funds its operations through taxes.  The US collected nearly $3 trillion in taxes last year, but budgeted for $3.4 trillion (the second US budget topping $3 trillion, the first being under Bush).  This results in a budget deficit which means we are back to borrowing.

But tax receipts are the true measure of our country’s worth.  That’s were the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes in.  This is the measure of our total economic value, as a country.  Currently, that value is $14.2 trillion, which for those paying attention, is a BIGGER number than our national debt.  The national debt is thus approximately 85% of our GDP.

To put this into perspective, consider someone who earns $100,000 per year.  That person then buys a house for $300,000, using a 30 year mortgage.  Not counting interest payments, the person now owes $300,000 while only making $100,000 per year.  Thus, his debt load is 300%, not even counting his other debt obligations like credit cards, etc.

This situation describes a great number of us, where our total debt owed far exceeds our yearly incomes.  Yet, to hear right wingers tell it, having an 85% debt load is akin to an economic disaster.

For further context, consider other nations, such as Japan.  Their economy is just behind the US in size, yet has a national debt load of 170%, over TWICE that of the US, without the dreaded hyperinflation fears pointed to by the right wing in their continual fascination with comparing everything to Germany in the early 20th century.