3 years into Trump's Presidency and there is no nuclear war!

[tango]

When did stagnant come to mean vibrant?

I realize that the two sound and look somewhat similar, but really...

The economy was vibrant, in the same way I would be rich if I lived in a mansion and drove a brand new Maserati. And if you were willing to overlook the fact I could barely pay the interest on all the loans I'd taken out to fund my exuberant - sorry, vibrant - lifestyle.

 

[tango]

Some fun numbers to play with.

The US national debt is something in the region of $23 trillion. Throwing around words like "trillion" make things seem trivial so let's write it out in full. The national debt is in the region of $23,000,000,000,000.

If the average rate of interest paid on this debt is 1% (and much if it will be higher than that) that means the annual bill for interest is in the region of $230bn, or $230,000,000,000.

Divide the annual interest by 12 and we see the monthly bill for interest is $19,166,666,666.

Divide the monthly interest by 30 and the daily bill for interest is more or less $638,000,000.

Divide the daily interest by 24 and the interest costs $26,600,000 every hour.

Divide this by 3600 and we can see that the interest on the national debt incurs a cost, every single second of every day, of $7,400.

Seven thousand, four hundred dollars, in interest on the debt, every single second of every single day, and the debt keeps rising. The national median wage is, I believe, somewhere in the region of $55,000. That means what the median working person makes in a year, the national debt costs in less than eight seconds.

Yup, the economy is vibrant. If you're willing to take the kind of definition of "vibrant" that would make Bill Clinton's verbal gymnastics during the Monica Lewinsky saga look positively reasonable.

 

[RichWh1]

Well, Obama added more to the debt than all the previous presidents in our history put together. Under Trump that debt of around 20 trillion dollars has gone up by about 1 trillion dollars. That's the standing debt; we pay interest on it and little of it has ever been paid off, no matter who has been president.

The Democrats who never faulted Obama of course went crazy about how this increase under Trump was going to doom the country.

And then their leading candidates to replace Trump, Senators Sanders and Warren--not to mention other Democratic members of Congress--began promising programs that even they had to admit would increase the national debt by as much as 100 trillion dollars!!!




.

Obama might have added to the debt but he decreased the National deficit!

 

[Albion]

Obama might have added to the debt but he decreased the National deficit!

Whoopee. The national debt was increased by more than the increase under all the other presidents in our history put together, and doing that is supposed to be a success story??????????????????

 

[RichWh1]

Whoopee. The national debt was increased by more than the increase under all the other presidents in our history put together, and doing that is supposed to be a success story??????????????????

Every President has ADDED TO the National Debt not every President has DECREASED THE DEFICIT!

Do you know the difference between debt and deficit?

 

[Albion]

Every President has ADDED TO the National Debt not every President has DECREASED THE DEFICIT!

Do you know the difference between debt and deficit?

Did you read my post? Obama was president during the greatest increase in the national debt in all of our nation's history! He increased the debt by more than all the previous presidents PUT TOGETHER.

A short-term decline in the rate of increase (which is what you are going on about) is peanuts compared with this fact about the national debt!

 

[Josiah]

BUT....

Won't giving Medicare to everyone solve all this?
Won't paying off everyone's college loans solve all this?


During Obama and Democrats in both houses, wasn't the unemployment rate among African-Americans at near zero and it's skyrocketed under Trump? Wasn't the unemployment rate among women at zero during Obama but skyrocketed under Trump? Wasn't the Dow average MUCH higher when Obama and the Democrats ran things? And wasn't veteran services so much better then?


I didn't vote for Trump.... and I probably won't again.... but I think by most indexes, well..... especially in the economic realm (and didn't the Democrats chant over and over and over and over, at a deafening volumn, with the Press repeating endlessly: "IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!!!! IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!!!!!)?

But to ME, the greatest accomplishment of Trump is his court appointments.... if there will be one reason TO vote for him for re-election, that would be at the top of my list.




.

 

[tango]

Obama might have added to the debt but he decreased the National deficit!

... which, even if true, makes little difference if he borrowed more in 8 years than the nation borrowed in the previous 200+ years.

But hey, spin the story so that a small gain is presented as if it's more important than a huge loss.

 

[tango]

Every President has ADDED TO the National Debt not every President has DECREASED THE DEFICIT!

Do you know the difference between debt and deficit?

It's actually pretty easy to decrease a deficit if you are selective about how you measure it, and don't mind borrowing more money earlier so you don't borrow as much during the period you're comparing.

You know, if the deficit is a trillion dollars a year when you take office, borrow $1.2trn every year for three years and then magically reduce the deficit during your final year to only $800bn. You get to crow about reducing the deficit even though the net effect of your four years is an increase in spending of $400bn compared to your predecessor.

 

[RichWh1]

Do you what ‘deficit’ is?
Deficit the amount by which expenditures or liabilities exceed income or assets.
a lack or shortage; deficiency.