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Sequester Your Own District/State...

We don't ever need to pay the $17 trillion back. The country isn't like a household. We can run deficit spending in perpetuity.

Now we have to keep it under control.
 
ChrisL68 said:
We don't ever need to pay the $17 trillion back. The country isn't like a household. We can run deficit spending in perpetuity.

Now we have to keep it under control.
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You can drink your own urine if you want to, but that doesn't mean you should.
 
jhmd2000 said:
You can drink your own urine if you want to, but that doesn't mean you should.
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Bad analogy. We have been doing it since the beginning of the century during the same time we built the US into a superpower.
 
ChrisL68 said:
We don't ever need to pay the $17 trillion back. The country isn't like a household. We can run deficit spending in perpetuity.

Now we have to keep it under control.
Click to expand...

However, there may be a time when people no longer want to take the risk of lending to us. Also, it is outside of my area of expertise/understanding, but what is the deal with China asking for a new world currency? Does that have anything to do with our debt, etc?
 
Economic saber rattling.
 
Sgt Hulka said:
However, there may be a time when people no longer want to take the risk of lending to us. Also, it is outside of my area of expertise/understanding, but what is the deal with China asking for a new world currency? Does that have anything to do with our debt, etc?
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They claim the US is politically unstable due to the TP, but bAsically what PH said.
 
ONW said:
This is not correct.
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On balance, public sector departments try to grow their budgets year-over-year. It's a sign of "success" inside most government organizations. I didn't work in government very long, but at both the state and federal levels I remember the last day of the fiscal year being "Use it or lose it". I've never seen anything close to that in the private sector; in fact, getting things done under budget is encouraged. I am not saying there isn't a tremendous amount of waste and inefficiencies in private sector work, but the structural pressures move budgets in different directions from public and private sectors.
 
jhmd2000 said:
On balance, public sector departments try to grow their budgets year-over-year. It's a sign of "success" inside most government organizations. I didn't work in government very long, but at both the state and federal levels I remember the last day of the fiscal year being "Use it or lose it". I've never seen anything close to that in the private sector; in fact, getting things done under budget is encouraged. I am not saying there isn't a tremendous amount of waste and inefficiencies in private sector work, but the structural pressures move budgets in different directions from public and private sectors.
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Literally the exact same thing happens in large private corporations. They didn't just grab this storyline out of nowhere:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surplus
 
jhmd2000 said:
On balance, public sector departments try to grow their budgets year-over-year. It's a sign of "success" inside most government organizations. I didn't work in government very long, but at both the state and federal levels I remember the last day of the fiscal year being "Use it or lose it". I've never seen anything close to that in the private sector; in fact, getting things done under budget is encouraged. I am not saying there isn't a tremendous amount of waste and inefficiencies in private sector work, but the structural pressures move budgets in different directions from public and private sectors.
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have you ever worked for or with a giant global corporation for an extended period of time?
 
jhmd2000 said:
On balance, public sector departments try to grow their budgets year-over-year. It's a sign of "success" inside most government organizations. I didn't work in government very long, but at both the state and federal levels I remember the last day of the fiscal year being "Use it or lose it". I've never seen anything close to that in the private sector; in fact, getting things done under budget is encouraged. I am not saying there isn't a tremendous amount of waste and inefficiencies in private sector work, but the structural pressures move budgets in different directions from public and private sectors.
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lolz
 
Damn. I know more about working in the private sector than jhmd.
 
PhDeac said:
Damn. I know more about working in the private sector than jhmd.
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You have over 30,000 posts where you assert you know more about everything than everybody. That you think you do is not news. Weirdly, the offers to serve as offensive coordinator at a BCS school haven't started rolling in yet.
 
Weird how your answer to everything on these boards is 30,000 posts.
 
Straight out of the jhmd playbook:

1) Make broad claim with no factual support whatsoever
2) Ignore any legitimate responses, still refuse to provide any factual support
3) Go with ad hominem attacks
 
BeachBumDeac said:
Straight out of the jhmd playbook:

1) Make broad claim with no factual support whatsoever
2) Ignore any legitimate responses, still refuse to provide any factual support
3) Go with ad hominem attacks
Click to expand...

i thought my question to him was pretty simple, yet still no answer. how odd.
 
BeachBumDeac said:
Straight out of the jhmd playbook:

1) Make broad claim with no factual support whatsoever
2) Ignore any legitimate responses, still refuse to provide any factual support
3) Go with ad hominem attacks
Click to expand...

Is it your belief that government organizations are responsible with their resources in each and every case, and without exception? If not, what does "whatsoever" mean in this context? If $17T in debt isn't per se mismanagement (and how could it not be?), we could begin with this, follow with this, and conclude with the fact that the federal government of the United States will spend twenty-five billion dollars this year maintaining abandoned properties. $70M per day to maintain properties they've actually abandoned. BTW, that's an annual expense. #whatsoever

Are we done debating whether there is "no factual support whatsoever", or would you like a link to the fact that our government will spend millions of dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job? B/c if so, go here.

More highlights:

8.A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[

11.The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]

23.Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]

49.The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49] (Standing offer: I'd be willing not to do it for half that; BOOM, one billion dollars in savings right there).

43.Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]

38.Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]

39.Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]

None whatsoever, huh?

Millhouse: I'm happy to review a similar list from multinational companies. I conceded that private sector companies waste money too (as I did in the original post), but my point asks you, what is the structural incentive for a public sector organization to save money, year over year? I can show a dividend-receiving shareholder for a private company, with a vote on the board who elects senior management. Who is the peer of that person in the federal government? The voters? Srsly?
 
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jhmd2000 said:
Is it your belief that government organizations are responsible with their resources in each and every case, and without exception? If not, what does "whatsoever" mean in this context? If $17T in debt isn't per se mismanagement (and how could it not be?), we could begin with this, follow with this, and conclude with the fact that the federal government of the United States will spend twenty-five billion dollars this year maintaining abandoned properties. $70M per day to maintain properties they've actually abandoned. #whatsoever
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No, it's my belief that private corporations are also irresponsible with their resources.

To add to that: My belief is that every single large organization is going to have a fair amount of inefficiencies and waste, whether it be a government, a corporation, a non-profit organization, anything. The federal government isn't inefficient because it's government, it's inefficient because it's large.
 
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