Congress has lost its mind...

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by richlevy

Just wait until Obama starts placing the National Guard on alert on Aug 2nd. That should get everyone's attention.

Until he realizes he might not be able to pay them.

[infinite monkey]

That is a much better answer. Good on you.

[ZenGum]

I only wander though this thread occasionally, so maybe this was mentioned already, but ...

There is a last resort.

Print cash.

It staves off insolvency for a while. In fact, since US debt is denominated in US dollars, it will mean your debt represents a smaller and smaller percentage of your GDP.

Problem is, it also causes devaluation and possibly hyperinflation. Anyone with cash in the bank, cash under the bed, or an income fixed in dollar amounts, will find their position somewhere between eroded and vapourised.

[tw]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

There is a last resort.

Print cash.

Nixon and Ford did that. As a result, the dollar dropped to almost one fifth of its value. Stagflation. Eventually, Jimmy Carter and Greenspan did what was necessary to fix the problem. Interest rates approaching 20%. Wholesale selling of American assets - most of Hawaii, major NYC real estate, construction equipment, bankruptcies, massive unemployment, sell off everything inside factories, etc. It fixed the problem but cost Carter his job. And did not finish fixing until the second half of Reagan's first term.

We have a fundamental problem traceable to when these debts were incurred. "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." So Cheney had no problem spending money we did not have - just like Nixon. Nixon did it in 1968/70. Cheney did it starting in 2001. Therefore jobs and recession happened in 1975/79. And 2008/now. We are simply paying for the debts incurred back then. Do you also want to bring back stagflation? We are in far better shape than we should have been.

Debts created by Cheney/George Jr are much larger. And continue to exist due to Mission Accomplished and their protection of bin Laden. Whereas Carter was not incurring new debts. Obama is stuck with wacko extremist created disaster including Afghanistan, a completely screwed up space program, a military that is sucking the life out of America, and the 'enrich the drug companies' prescription drug plan that by itself is another $1trillion. Add to it so many wacko extremists in Congress that we cannot even do the simplest things - eliminate the paper dollar bill – an immediate $1billion saved annually.

So you want to print more paper money? That was already done by George Jr when we flew three 747s with pallets of hundred dollar bills into Iraqi (with no accounting) to ‘save’ that country. Time to pay for all that printed money is now.

Now is when all those debts start coming due. It is rather amazing that our unemployment did not exceed 20%. Maybe because this time we did not print more money.

[Spexxvet]

We could sell Minnesota, if anyone would buy it.

[BigV]

this is exactly what china has complained about already

they say they've lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value of their investments due to the dilution of the dollar by the quantitative easing programs. programs that literally just printed money.

keep trying please. we need all the ideas we can get, and you can't possibly be less informed than some members of congress, despite your merely occasional visits here.

[ZenGum]

China? #$%@ 'em.

Their practice of pegging the RMB to an artificially low rate against the US$ is the cause of about 1/4 of the US's problems. The fact that a US devaluation would screw China and OPEC is about the strongest argument in favour of it that I can think of.

China complaining about other countries messing about with currency games? Hypocrisy! That's rich. No, wait, its China that's rich.

[BigV]

I agree completely.

Unfortunately, I (the corporate/royal/national I) still have a problem.

[piercehawkeye45]

I resent that. Wisconsin is a much better choice.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

I resent that. Wisconsin is a much better choice.

Minnesota would get rid of Michelle Bachmann, too.

[infinite monkey]

Well, how about if we tack on North and South Dakota?

[tw]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

Well, how about if we tack on North and South Dakota?

Does the Minot Nuclear bomber base go with them?

Nobody needs a nuclear non-proliferation treaty any more. Balance the budget at all costs.

[TheMercenary]

Here is a great link:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[classicman]

Spexxxx - were those R or D congresses?
redo and resubmit please & thanks.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by classicman

Spexxxx - were those R or D congresses?
redo and resubmit please & thanks.

If you're that interested, do the leg work yourself. Bottom line is that the POTUS signed the bills into law.

Here, I just remembered that I have this bookmarked, for just such an emergency. Emergency, I say, boy!

http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgov...division_2.htm

Correlate and draw causational conclusions at your leisure.