"Getting" the Debt
“I don’t think a lot of people outside of Washington – and maybe some of the people here – really understand how hard this is. This may give them some idea.”
- Senior GOP congressional aide discussing with Power Play today’s vote on an unconditioned, $2.4 trillion increase in the federal borrowing limit.
The 2006 film “Flags of Our Fathers” was originally budgeted at $80 million. However, Clint Eastwood was able to shoot the movie in just over 50 days, or nearly half the shooting schedule, at a cost of $55 million although it was originally budgeted at $80 million. The budget for the companion film, “Letters from Iwo Jima” was officially credited at $20 million but according to Variety, the actual cost was $15 million).
Today, the House of Representatives votes on Obama’s requested increase in the Federal borrowing limit – the debt ceiling. According to Fox News, more than 100 House Democrats recently signed a letter demanding that Speaker John Boehner bring forward a vote for an increase in federal debt levels without any conditions for cuts or future spending curbs. Imagine their surprise when Boehner agreed and will serve up a bill that would provide enough borrowing to cover all of president Obama’s spending requests for next year without any preconditions.
Fox News predicts: “The legislation will go down to a bipartisan trouncing. Even many of those Democrats who were seeking such a ‘clean’ vote will now oppose the plan on the grounds that it was not offered sincerely. One Democratic communicator described the vote to Power Play as ‘cheap theatrics’ worthy of the cast of ‘Jersey Shore.’”
The Congressional aide was right: people do have a hard time understanding how hard it is to accept the fact that we’re broke. How could the greatest nation on earth, the capital of capitalism, be broke, in debt to some foreign countries while still loaning money to other foreign countries (who have even less hope of repaying their debt to us than we have of repaying our creditors)?
Happily, Glenn Beck explains it all in his 2010 book, “Broke.” Glenn warns that the “great experiment” may be failing, if we’re to judge by our national debt. Our debts and deficits are only the symptoms of our malaise, he cautions; it’s our national spirit that must be fixed.
In the first part of “Broke”, he gives an economics in history lesson. Actually, economics is all about the history of money. “The real battle we are fighting right now is with the laws of economics – and it’s a war that can’t be won. … the laws of economics say that when expenses are higher than revenues for a prolonged period of time, there will be repercussions.”
He explains that debt and deficits, unemployment, and inflation are all indicators of economic decline. But progressivism and a bloated government, spending irresponsibly, are the runaway engines dragging us to the brink of economic disaster.
Glenn brings us up from Ancient Rome to the beginning of progressive socialism, heralded in 100 years ago by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, right up to the Clinton years. We are reaping what the Socialists have sown. Social Security is bankrupt, Medicare is fraught with fraud, and Obamacare will finish the job, unless we rein in our spend-happy politicians, Right and Left.
Socialist policies are by no means the only culprits; war takes a huge chunk of our budget, as well as the blood of our young men. War may be necessary, but if it is, then Glenn says, we should declare, as the Constitution demands. Progressives use undeclared war as excuses for walloping the public with heft socialist programs. Lobbyists are another budget-buster as well as government pork, not to mention aid to foreign nations, like Somalia.
Beck’s “Broke” is easy-to-read, informative, well-written, and entertaining (if you happen to find the end of the financial world as we know it “entertaining”). If you’re not broke yourself and it’s within your budget, get hold of “Broke” and find out all about the government’s hidden financial agenda.
If you get the book, I guarantee, you’ll “get it.”
- Senior GOP congressional aide discussing with Power Play today’s vote on an unconditioned, $2.4 trillion increase in the federal borrowing limit.
The 2006 film “Flags of Our Fathers” was originally budgeted at $80 million. However, Clint Eastwood was able to shoot the movie in just over 50 days, or nearly half the shooting schedule, at a cost of $55 million although it was originally budgeted at $80 million. The budget for the companion film, “Letters from Iwo Jima” was officially credited at $20 million but according to Variety, the actual cost was $15 million).
Today, the House of Representatives votes on Obama’s requested increase in the Federal borrowing limit – the debt ceiling. According to Fox News, more than 100 House Democrats recently signed a letter demanding that Speaker John Boehner bring forward a vote for an increase in federal debt levels without any conditions for cuts or future spending curbs. Imagine their surprise when Boehner agreed and will serve up a bill that would provide enough borrowing to cover all of president Obama’s spending requests for next year without any preconditions.
Fox News predicts: “The legislation will go down to a bipartisan trouncing. Even many of those Democrats who were seeking such a ‘clean’ vote will now oppose the plan on the grounds that it was not offered sincerely. One Democratic communicator described the vote to Power Play as ‘cheap theatrics’ worthy of the cast of ‘Jersey Shore.’”
The Congressional aide was right: people do have a hard time understanding how hard it is to accept the fact that we’re broke. How could the greatest nation on earth, the capital of capitalism, be broke, in debt to some foreign countries while still loaning money to other foreign countries (who have even less hope of repaying their debt to us than we have of repaying our creditors)?
Happily, Glenn Beck explains it all in his 2010 book, “Broke.” Glenn warns that the “great experiment” may be failing, if we’re to judge by our national debt. Our debts and deficits are only the symptoms of our malaise, he cautions; it’s our national spirit that must be fixed.
In the first part of “Broke”, he gives an economics in history lesson. Actually, economics is all about the history of money. “The real battle we are fighting right now is with the laws of economics – and it’s a war that can’t be won. … the laws of economics say that when expenses are higher than revenues for a prolonged period of time, there will be repercussions.”
He explains that debt and deficits, unemployment, and inflation are all indicators of economic decline. But progressivism and a bloated government, spending irresponsibly, are the runaway engines dragging us to the brink of economic disaster.
Glenn brings us up from Ancient Rome to the beginning of progressive socialism, heralded in 100 years ago by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, right up to the Clinton years. We are reaping what the Socialists have sown. Social Security is bankrupt, Medicare is fraught with fraud, and Obamacare will finish the job, unless we rein in our spend-happy politicians, Right and Left.
Socialist policies are by no means the only culprits; war takes a huge chunk of our budget, as well as the blood of our young men. War may be necessary, but if it is, then Glenn says, we should declare, as the Constitution demands. Progressives use undeclared war as excuses for walloping the public with heft socialist programs. Lobbyists are another budget-buster as well as government pork, not to mention aid to foreign nations, like Somalia.
Beck’s “Broke” is easy-to-read, informative, well-written, and entertaining (if you happen to find the end of the financial world as we know it “entertaining”). If you’re not broke yourself and it’s within your budget, get hold of “Broke” and find out all about the government’s hidden financial agenda.
If you get the book, I guarantee, you’ll “get it.”
posted by Belle | 5:43 PM
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