From 2008 to 2019, federal revenues are projected to grow by $1.45 trillion, but extra interest payments on the public debt of $550 billion will soak up nearly 40% of those extra tax dollars.Agreed--be very afraid. Unless you take comfort from the fact that President Obama plans to focus on deficit reduction in his State of the Union address two months from now.
Here is another: Consider that in 2008, Washington spent about half as much on interest payments ($253 billion) as it did on the nondefense programs that it budgets on an annual basis ($508 billion).
Those nondefense outlays cover homeland security, education, job training, housing assistance, veterans’ health, science, workplace safety, transportation, the environment and foreign aid.
But by 2019, interest costs would reach $800 billion under the Obama budget compared with $720 billion in spending on nondefense discretionary programs.
(via Ed Morrissey)
3 comments:
> Unless you take comfort from the fact that President Obama plans to focus on deficit reduction in his State of the Union address two months from now.
I predict:
More taxes. No spending cuts (unless it's on defense, which he will cut)
He can focus all he wants, that's not gonna do jack sh**.
This gets better if the USA loses it's AAA rating - just imagine what debt service becomes if we have to pay double or triple the current yield to make people take the risk?
The debt can rollover to new rates quickly, because we've been doing a lot of selling at the short end of the yield curve. Some people are *already* disdaining the long bonds.
Can you say "death spiral"?
Nah.
Sure, he intends to "talk" about it. Sort of like the Jobs Conference he's holding in December.
To a liberal, "talking about" seems to be the moral equivalent of "doing something", but without any downside.
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