politics

Not saying that the US isn't in fiscal crisis, I'm not at all qualified to say either way, but: Comparing government balance sheets to household finances is a age-old conservative folly designed to encourage the working class to support smaller government in order to reduce taxes on the rich - in other words, encourage the turkeys to vote for Christmas (or in this case maybe Thanksgiving?).

The fact is that government finances and household finances are not at all the same thing, for many reasons I'm not qualified to explain, but a couple of obvious ones:

• Households can't choose to tax the rich to increase income.
• Households can't print money.
• Households can't secure low-interest loans that extend beyond their lifetimes (i.e. issue bonds).
• Households don't typically find spending increases income (i.e. Government workers pay taxes, infrastructure investment drives growth which increases tax revenue, etc etc).

The UK Conservatives used this line of reasoning around 2010 and it's led to 15 years of growth stagnation with no real improvement in the debt situation.

These yahoos are both from the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation, which is a conservative Republican think tank with ties to ALEC. Nothing they say should be taken at face value. They only serve billionaire interests.

Remember... He bankrupted a casino!!!!!

First, Congress should pass the bipartisan H.R. 3289 — Fiscal Commission Act, sponsored by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA), and 41 co-sponsors. Such a commission would force a public reckoning with the facts, the trade-offs, and the hard choices that restoring fiscal health requires.

Second, Congress should call an Article V Convention limited to proposing a fiscal responsibility amendment to the U.S. Constitution. H.Con.Res. 15, sponsored by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), would do exactly that.

Ah, the classic conservative austerity play: set up a false dilemma where the only alternative to a fuddy collapse is punishing the non-rich until they die.

Conservative debtslop

I don’t quite agree that the goal should be no debt.

Just like getting a loan to buy a house today pays out better over time, or getting an education loan works out better for everyone later, a nation going into debt makes sense.

It pays out better in the long run. In fact debt is one of the best exports we have. We take other peoples money to build infrastructure that accelerates growth, they get decent interest payouts.

"a $438.8 billion increase in federal employee and veteran benefits payable (now $15.47 trillion)."

I thought DOGE was supposed to save the U.S. all that?

The Government Accountability office can't hold the government accountable

The jokes write themselves