Blogs For Victory

Will, I think, end up exceeding two trillion dollars for FY 2009:

The US budget deficit accelerated in March to hit a record nearly one trillion dollars just halfway through the current fiscal year, as the government moved to bail out troubled institutions, government data has shown.

The deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year which began on October 1 was 956.80 billion dollars, according to the Treasury’s monthly statement of receipts and outlays…

… The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast last month the budget deficit could hit 1.845 trillion dollars for the whole year based on Obama’s 3.5-trillion-dollar budget plan approved by Congress early this month.

The CBO said its budget deficit estimate for fiscal 2009, which ends on September 30, would be four times the 2008 record shortfall and amount to 13.1 percent of the country’s total economic output.

The Obama budget forecasts a 1.750 trillion dollar deficit in fiscal 2009, but foresees that figure falling to 1.171 trillion dollars in 2010.

Which prediction by Obama is, as far as I can see, utter nonsense. There is no end to the spending and no indication that the economy is set to turn around at all, let alone grow fast enough to provide a major reduction in the FY 2010 deficit. All in all, Obama’s first two years in office might see us adding more than $3 trillion in actual debt (must keep in mind that you can’t figure Obama’s debt load by adding up the annual deficit – old debt is constantly being paid off, and thus gets subtracted from the amount Obama piles up). This, as I’ve said before, is not sustainable – we can’t tax that kind of money out of a shrinking economy, we can’t borrow that much money from our cash-strapped trading partners…only printing would provide such sums, and printing that much would lead to a catastrophic round of hyper-inflation.

The solution remains as it was – balance the budget at all costs, even if it requires tax increases after we’ve eliminated every department and program not dedicated to the immediate safety and health of the American people. We have to retrench and start to pay off the debt we’ve foolishly wracked up over the past 75 years. Its not nice and it won’t be easy, but our only way out of the hole is to stop spending more than we make. And don’t think I’m just for cutting welfare – no, boys and girls, the military will have to make do with what it has plus re-supply for the next five years or so…no new ships, planes, tanks and other equipment (and if we order them to maintain 100% combat effectiveness, our superb troops will do it…especially if its all part of a general national sacrifice for the good of the nation).

We must keep our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on duty; we must maintain our federal law enforcement agencies; we must keep the social security checks coming; we must provide for the basic health care needs of Americans who cannot afford health care on their own; we must ensure that no one goes without basic food, clothing and housing; we must ensure that our infrastructure is maintained in good, working order. Other than that, everything has to go – Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Labor; shutter them. All expenditures for research; suspend them (other than NASA, which has a strong national security component even in civil space exploration). All expenditures for art; suspend them. Any project with a completion date more than 1 year from today; suspend it. Wage increases for government employees; are you nuts? Once we’ve done that, if we’re still in deficit then we’ll have to raise taxes – but everyone who works or has wealth has to pony up. I don’t care if the tax being paid by Joe Poor Guy is only 10 cents a year, everyone has to kick in – no exceptions. We got ourselves in this together, and we’ll only get out of it if we do it together.

Will we do this? Not a chance. It would require telling the American people the truth and it wouldn’t allow liberals to play at politics with the people as so many blocks of wood for them to use as toys in a grand social experiment. And so, we are going to step beyond national bankruptcy and see if we can crush the entire world economy under a mountain of US debt and/or massive US inflation. Just remember, liberals, if it all goes to pieces (and it will), then you were warned – there were voices saying that only hard work and sacrifice would get us out of this mess even if you plugged your ears and pretended not to hear.