Bailouts could top $23 trillion — yes, trillion.
Holy Toledo! More than the entire cost of all wars the U.S. has ever fought. More than the New Deal. More than the cost of sending a man to the moon. Almost twice the yearly gross domestic product of the entire United States of America.
That’s the possible cost of the 50 bailout programs to which the U.S. is now committed — $23.7 trillion — according to Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP). The ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa of California, points out that spending a billion dollars a day back to the birth of Christ would have added up to only $1 trillion. Barofsky’s report is expected to be delivered today to the House oversight panel.
If Congress ever needed a bucket of cold water on its over-heated passion for spending, Barofsky’s warning should provide it. Some Democrats representing districts where people earn enough to feel threatened by President Obama’s massive new spending proposals, and specifically by proposals to levy new taxes to cover the projected new health care entitlement, are beginning to balk. The trillion dollars that entitlement’s likely to cost over 10 years — a modest, low-ball estimate no doubt — will soak the rich and, finding that revenue source insufficient, will soak the middle class, too. Throw in higher energy costs, higher manufacturing costs, and the general increase in the cost of goods and services that “cap-and-trade” or, more correctly, “cap-and-tax” will cause and suddenly the liberal majority begins to look unaffordable.
The numbers are now so staggering that it’s virtually impossible to grasp them. Even asserting a variant of Issa’s calculation, spending the entire annual budget of the State of Georgia every single day back to the birth of Christ, would still not equal $23 trillion. Staggering. Debt will sink America.
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190 comments Add your comment
@@
July 21st, 2009
7:39 am
Staggering. Debt will sink America.
Leftists putting their children and grandchildren on the bullet train to socialism without “a care”.
They’re a very selfish lot, Jim.
Copyleft
July 21st, 2009
7:56 am
But trillion-dollar optional wars are still a viable option!
Yeah, the leading REPUBLICAN offered a negative spin on the necessity of fixing Bush’s Depression. Huge surprise.
What did the competent economists have to say?
Mac
July 21st, 2009
7:57 am
Yeah, we need to go back and undo most of these bailouts. They are not stimulating anything, so the government should tighten its belt as we citizens do.
Aquagirl
July 21st, 2009
7:57 am
It’s hard to take any complaints from a Republican seriously. Where the crap was Issa when his party was running the economy into the dirt? Bush’s response to 9/11 was a stirring challenge to Americans to spend more.
What we have now are costs resulting from years of idiocy and avoidance of any responsibility. We’ve been running a bar tab for years. Someone’s got to pay up.
Mac
July 21st, 2009
8:00 am
Yes, Copyleft, this is the Bush recession, no doubt about it. But all of them are culpable and all of them need to make sure we don’t sink permanently in debt.
By the way, wasn’t Wooten supposed to retire and have Kyle “Right” Wingfield take over management of this hotdog stand? And, wasn’t Cindy Tucker supposed to start blogging, too. Guess it’s not just politicians who break their promises.
Ga Values
July 21st, 2009
8:06 am
Both of our Socialist Senators voted for TARP. Saxby got $2,500,000, what did Johnny get?
Churchill's MOM
July 21st, 2009
8:09 am
Wingfield is no Conservative, just another big spending RINO. Why did the AJC hire a liberal who calls himself a conservative?
Class of '98
July 21st, 2009
8:56 am
Actually, spending $1 Billion dollars per day since the birth of Christ would add up to about $733,000,000,000 ($733 Billion).
But I get your point. After a while, we’re talking about real money. sheesh.
matt
July 21st, 2009
8:57 am
This nation needs to stop trying to fix the problem in the middle and get to the roots of it the back bone of America the people, if you used the money to BAILOUT the people this nation would make a quick turn around. I dont ever see it getting better with how these decision makers are driving America in the ground. They give bailouts to these companys but the people are still in DEBT!! While the companys are in the black now we still owe so doesnt that actually double the money the companys get while the people are still in DEBT!!!
Rickster
July 21st, 2009
8:59 am
And yet Joe “Foot-In-Mouth” Biden says we have to SPEND MORE in order to avoid going bankrupt.
Class of '98
July 21st, 2009
8:59 am
Ooops… that was supposed to be MILLION dollars per day.
One trillion dollars equals one thousand billion dollars, so if you spent one billion dollars per day, it would take about 3 years to spend a trillion.
oops.
Not a Math Expert
July 21st, 2009
9:08 am
I think Jim needs to go back to school. A billion dollars a day would make Christ born in 2006. Either you have your math wrong or the date Christ was born. Like so many other things Jim you take something you hear, and run with it before you check the facts
jconservative
July 21st, 2009
9:19 am
And if we sit tight & do nothing on medical care reform, the costs of Social Security, Medicare & Medicade will easily surpass that $23 trillion after all the baby boomers are retired. You folks born after 1965 are headed for the modern version of Dante’s “Inferno” if you do not get the medical care problem solved. Republican/Democrat has nothing to do with the problem. I recomend a Conservative solution, but there are no such people in Washington, DC at present. Not one!
JF McNamara
July 21st, 2009
9:21 am
Wooten,
Can you point us to the actual article. The NY times has this number at a lot less.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/04/business/20090205-bailout-totals-graphic.html
Committed: 12.1 Trillion
Spent: 2.45 Trillion
It’s also looking like most of the committed money won’t be used. Perhaps they should quote dollars actually spent and dollars actually expected to be disbursed instead of “Committed”.
Peadawg
July 21st, 2009
9:22 am
Hope all you Democrats explain to your grandchildren that this is your fault since you voted this man into office. You need to explain to them that it’s your fault they are still having to pay for all these ’stimulus packages’ and universal health care.
db
July 21st, 2009
9:26 am
We’re screwed.
WWR
July 21st, 2009
9:31 am
While a lot of the mess we are in stems from the past 10-12 years, neither of those Presidents is in office. I am so fed up with people pointing fingers and not accepting responsibility. How much credibility would anyone of us have in our respective jobs if every problem was blamed on the predecessor, while taking credit for every victory?
Focus: 33% of Americans think that the proposed health care legislation would improve care. Whether it’s $23 trillion (astounding how flippantly the “T” word is thrown around in the past 6 months) or $10 trillion that is an enormous price tag for something one-third of the constituents believe in. The fact of the matter is this is not a partisan issue, and republicans and a growing number of democrats are offering up solutions that would bring positive reform to the broken system, but they are being drowned out by those who are only interested in pushing their agendas. Something that is going largely overlooked is the rhetoric from the Administration does NOT match the language in the House’s bill.
It’s frightening to see over 200 years of personal responsibility, prosperity and selflessness erode into a Government Knows Best society with an open hand.
Tom
July 21st, 2009
9:31 am
Issa and Wooten demonstrate the razor-sharp mathematical acuity we’ve come to expect from our conservative legislators and commentators.
Worker Paying Taxes
July 21st, 2009
9:33 am
And Congress wants to investigate Bush and Chaney for getting information from terrirists on plots against America, but Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are telling us how to turn the economy around?? Shouldn’t these two be tried and impeached for their manipulation of Freddie and Fannie and how they (or their significant others) benefitted from it with high saleries and sweetheat loans. This is the root of the whole mess. Bush should have had a spine and stood up to them instead of backing down when the left said they were heartless and were keeping the American Dream of home ownership only available to the “rich”. No – just those who could be responsible. Now we and generations to come are paying for this failed social engineering experiment. 2010 can’t get here fast enough !!!!!
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 21st, 2009
9:34 am
General Motors received three final offers for its Opel unit in Europe,
with Magna International, Germany’s preferred bidder, proposing to take
a bigger stake from its Russian partner.
Captain Freedom's Immortal Soul
July 21st, 2009
9:34 am
Greetings, Wooteneers, this THE Captain calling down from His lofty perch at the right hand of the Lord, Yahweh. We’ve been pretty busy up here lately striking down all those celebrities, and then finding good spots for them up here (or down there, as the case may be). But the Big Guy’s only begotten son saw today’s column and asked THE Captain to speak for him.
Jeezy (he’s in a hip-hop phase right now…I know….kids these days) would like you all to know that if you took those 23.7 trillion dollars in singles and made a staircase out of them, he could have walked those stairs clear up to heaven and avoided all that unpleasantness at Golgotha. And now him and the big guy are arguing again over that “Father why hast thou forsaken” bone that the kid picks now and again.
But anyway, Jeezy just wanted to point out that you can come up with all kinds of brain dead metaphors about how much money things cost now, but he just wishes you lunatics would leave him out of it. He says he suffered enough.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 21st, 2009
9:35 am
Managed care provider UnitedHealth Group said it will pay about $510
million to buy rival Health Net’s operations in the northeastern U.S.,
which include 578,000 members in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 21st, 2009
9:35 am
A Southern California resort where American International Group Inc.
sponsored a luxury retreat after receiving federal bailout money has
been seized by Citigroup,
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 21st, 2009
9:38 am
T. Boone Pickens, whose hedge fund posted steep losses last year, is
seeking new investors in BP Capital, which has risen as much as 79
percent so far this year,
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 21st, 2009
9:40 am
Employees at The Boston Globe voted Monday to accept a package of
concessions on wages, benefits and job security six weeks after they
rejected a similar plan, capping a period of labor strife.
Northern Songs, Ltd.
July 21st, 2009
9:46 am
Hey Class and Tom : Dontcha know math is just another science, and we all know how the cons feel about science.
Dee
July 21st, 2009
9:58 am
The current administration has rendered the ultimate “Argumentum ad Captandum”. By pushing healthcare reform onto the masses,who unfortunately to a great degree do not even understand what it is, a great tragedy is unfolding. There is not any type of program that can be effective and cost efficient when it is rolled out in this fashion. We can point fingers to the previous Bush administration in an attempt to find solace is what it currently being sold – but sold we will be if a program of this type is rammed through. A thought to keep in mind a this unfolds – there are those who do not like to lose gracefully or admit that sometimes it is necessary to step back and re-assess.
Neanderthal
July 21st, 2009
10:00 am
Class of ‘98…. ‘Actually, spending $1 Billion dollars per day since the birth of Christ would add up to about $733,000,000,000 ($733 Billion).’
It has been 733 days? They must have been skimping on math in 98!
gafarmer
July 21st, 2009
10:09 am
Enter your comments here Any number with six zeros or more to the left of the decimal point is huge to most folks.
Ram It Through--We Don't Want 'em
July 21st, 2009
10:09 am
Looks like the Republican fookup since Ragan is going to end up costing us a lot of money. We never should have had any of ‘em in office. They’ll never see the light of day again.
How ’bout that Birther segment of your severly mentally ill party? The hits just keep on coming as the voting public looks for cages in which to permanatly house you pubtards. You nutcases just won’t accept that we have a black Presiident born in the USA who can stomp you. Long live racial bigotry–your ignorance is the gift that just keeps on givin’.
Reminds you of a McCain-Palin campaign event, doesn’t it?
A woman gets up, holding a baggie containing her birth certificate, and unleashes a rambling, minute-long tirade tirade about how the president is a “citizen of Kenya.” The crowd hoots and cheers when she’s done. Castle responds, diplomatically: “Well I don’t know what comment that invites. If you’re referring to the president, then he is a citizen of the United States.” That elicits roars and boos from the crowd, so Castle presses on. “You can boo, but he is a citizen of the United States.”
Ole fat sonny just chuggin along continuing to be stupid spending your money on futile appeals when there has been tight Supreme Court precedent against unplanned Atlanta water hogging in place. An appeal is going nowhere but it will hemorrhage your money, and of course that’s what pubtards do best.
Ole Sax in the hemorrhage money tradition. We”re going to slam the door on his nutcase F22 attempt and do it with pleasure.
dave
July 21st, 2009
10:15 am
Hate to tell you regular contributors of “hate” to my friend Jim’s column but he’s not going away for a long time. He’ll just write his short piece setting on the dock down at the farm and post it online and go back to fishing and let you guys pee all over yourselves. While anyone who is willing to look at what’s happen to the economy knows it’s not (all) Bush’s fault, that same “reasonable” person can see that the current attempt to fix it, is not and will not work. But you guys really don’t care because you can still blame Bush.
Copyleft
July 21st, 2009
10:18 am
Dave: Actually, according to Keynesian economics (the only kind that are proven to work), federal spending IS necessary to make up for drops in consumer spending, especially when interest rates have already bottomed out.
In other words, the stimulus plan is both necessary and correct. Sorry to disappoint you. But then, the far right has a pretty poor record when it comes to accurate predictions, don’t they?
im4ball
July 21st, 2009
10:19 am
so the government give money to instituitions who screw the people and still the economy is in the toilet.
I say just give every registered voter in the U.S. $100,000. This would actually save the Government money and would help the economy more than bailing out companies who failed due to incompetence and/ or greed.
not that the Government would do this but it could fix:
1) much of the housing problem by allowing people to pay their mortgage or others to get into a home
2) get people out of credit card debt.
3) solve problems in the automobile industry by allowing people to purchase cars
4) by helping other industries, businesses would start hiring again which would help the unemployment problem
I know, nice dream but it isnt going to happen because it makes too much sense and that is not what the government is about…making sense
Ram It Through--We Don't Want 'em
July 21st, 2009
10:20 am
Oh No!
“You just ‘cain’t mispell Saint Reagan’s name–the e comes before da a and everuhthing. Alzheimer’s for years in Office is the Republican mantra and style.”
The Bush CIA who has been lying since 1994 got their butts in trouble in federal court yesterday. Ah loves it when Bush deadender lawyyuhs gets in trouble.
Wooten is totally unaware of what happens in a federal courtroom so I’ll educate you.
A federal judge has ruled that government officials committed fraud while defending a lawsuit brought by a former DEA agent who accused a CIA operative of illegally bugging his home.
In rulings unsealed Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote that he was also considering sanctions against five current and former agency lawyers and officials, including former director George Tenet, for withholding key information about the operative’s covert status.
Bush CIA is now implicated by the former head of the FISC court in lying to Congress and the federal courts. Put ‘em in prison.
AtlE
July 21st, 2009
10:23 am
It wasn’t totally Bush’s fault, but he stood by and allowed the corporate vultures to prey on hard working blue collar Americans. Guys like W
Class of '98
July 21st, 2009
10:26 am
Hey Big Bucks GOP, everybody makes mistakes.
Actually, I’m a proud “con” and most cons I know are much smarter than liberals. Even fancy book-learnin like science.
One thing I’ve never understood… how can conservatives, in the opinion of liberals, all be both stupid and rich at the same time?
I guess all those welfare queens that blindly vote for democrats all got perfect scores on their SATs and complete the New York Times crossword everyday, huh?
Conservatives are either rich or stupid. Pick one or the other. You can’t have both. They are mutually exclusive.
deegee
July 21st, 2009
10:27 am
JF McNamara, Surely you don’t expect people to read an entire news article all the way to the end. We have CNN Headline News, USA Today, political sound bites, and now the ubiquitous News Crawl at the bottom of the screen. The American people drink widely from the well but seldom do they drink deeply.
I read the article yesterday after seeing the sensational $23 trillion headline on the Drudge page. What is more disturbing about the Barofsky report is the refusal of the banks to disclose to the Treasury what they are doing with the money they have received. The banks said that it is too difficult to track because the money flows into the bank like water flows into the ocean. Is there still any lingering doubt as to who really runs this country?
howard
July 21st, 2009
10:31 am
It just goes to show you what a really horrible mess Bush made of things and how much it is going to cost us to get America back on track. Let us hope we never go “bush league” again when it comes to selecting our leadership. We simply can’t AFFORD another compassionate conservative who goes to war without provocation ruining our image in the world, while trampling on civil liberties at home,lets Wall Street run a muck and spends like there is no tomorrow without regard to how you pay for it with no real benefit to average Americans. What a mess Bush made of things.
Gordon
July 21st, 2009
10:33 am
Copyleft,
Does Keynesian economics, the kind you claim is the only one that has been proven to work, say anything about running up debt that is a multiple of the entire GDP? No one is asking you to become a republican, but how long are you going to defend the indefensible? Is there anything the federal government can’t afford in your mind? We are a bankrupt nation in more ways than one.
Munch
July 21st, 2009
10:34 am
“Conservatives are either rich or stupid. Pick one or the other. You can’t have both. They are mutually exclusive.”
Alas, no.
One of the central tenets of the conservative program is the continuity of family wealth down the generations. This leads to many obvious examples of the stupid-and-wealthy that ‘98 claims cannot exist. Sen John Ensign, for example, who is wealthy by virtue of his family’s gambling fortune, and who is clearly as dumb as a rock.
Conservatives decry the unfairness of the estate tax, despite the fact that the preponderance of estates do not get hit with a tax due to inadequate size. What they really mean, and what their rube followers fail to understand, is that they intend to preserve the aristocracy.
Conservatives love the aristocracy. Liberals support a meritocracy. Only in a nation as devolved as this one would the masses of people confuse the two.
Class of '98
July 21st, 2009
10:38 am
Howard, did I actually read that Bush “spent like there is no tomorrow without regard to how you pay for it with no real benefit to average Americans”?
Wow. Bush spent more than I would have liked, but it was peanuts… no that’s not good enough… peanut SHELLS compared to what Obama is spending. It’s not even close bud.
And “no provocation” for going to war? The congress (democrats included) passed a resolution to go war based on the intel we had at the time.
But “let Wall St run a muck (sic)?” Ask Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama (all dems) how their “everyone deserves to own a home through Fannie and Freddie” idea worked out. (p.s. the word is “amok”)
Keep believing everything Jon Stewart, Colbert, and Maher tell you. They know the TRUTH, by gosh!!
AtlE
July 21st, 2009
10:38 am
These are Mr. Wootens neighbors and golfing buddies so he has to continue to defend the nonsense that has been going on for decades but really got bad under Clinton and W. But the big problem and will continue to drag down the economy is real estate and the credit markets. They no longer have the little mans money to play with and distribute among themselves and until they come up with the next great American scam and sell it as the great American dream, they’ll continue to use the one common denominator, fear. America will be alright, the guys on top just have to realize that the people gathering the ingrediants and baking the pie, want their fair share too!
Dan
July 21st, 2009
10:42 am
Keynesian economics (the only kind that are proven to work)??
Sure digging a hole and filling it up again will help the economy.
Actually buying into his theories would result in a more feudal system. As far as proven to work you are right, they work spectacularly as an example of what not to do if your goal is a robust economy that improves the lives of everyone.
Munch
July 21st, 2009
10:42 am
Gordon decries the mountain of debt while ignoring the purpose of the spending. I doubt he showed much concern over the mountain of debt incurred by Dubya, whose his pointless and ineffectual tax cut cost more over ten years than the projected healthcare reform would without a public option component. Nor do I expect Gordo was concerned about the money down the Iraq-Afghanistan rathole. Nor the giveaway to big pharma under the Medicaid prescription reform.
Government spending, targeted at areas of the economy that are productive and stimulative, is the core concept of Keyne’s theories. Copyleft is correct that it has been proven effective time and again (despite what the re-writers of Depression history would have you think). And that kind of spending comes back to government through the multiplier effect, as each dollar of targeted spending generates multiples of spending as it moves through the economy. Not so with pallets of greenbacks delivered to Afghan warlords, for instance.
The GOP always cries that government does not work, and whenever it takes the levers of power, sets out to prove its own prophecy through arrogance, stupidity, and corruption. But at least they love Jesus and Real Americans, or some such shyte as that.
Munch
July 21st, 2009
10:47 am
Again, and slowly so the wingtards will undertand…
Keyensian stimulative spending is not about “digging a hole and filling it in”. It is about building roads and bridges, funding education, investing in scientific and technology research. This is why we have an interstate highway system, the Internet, advances in telecommunications, etc. Because of stimulative government spending.
Digging-and-filling is the way the Haliburtons of our world make their money. It is the system that allows Perdue to get rich from real estate ‘investments’ that his official duties enable him to make profitable. But to the wingtards, that is just good ole American entrepreneurial gumption.
booger
July 21st, 2009
10:49 am
Copyleft,
So how does Keynesian economics explain all those recessions which ended without a stimulus. I’ll go with the Congressional budjet Office who says this recovery will take place about as quickly with or without a stimulus.
Sam
July 21st, 2009
10:52 am
Dave: Actually, according to Keynesian economics (the only kind that are proven to work), federal spending IS necessary to make up for drops in consumer spending, especially when interest rates have already bottomed out.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Keynesian economics proven to work HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Works at getting us into a killing debt load and manipulating markets and creating crippling inefficiencies and manufacturing epic booms and busts and then prolonging them.
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is economic gibberish. Read some Henry Hazlitt if you want to know the bone-headed truth of Keynesian economics. It’s all about government control of the economy. Bunch of evil-doing good-doers.
Therefore, Copyleft condones funding the warfare-welfare state and giving the government just what it needs to live and breathe and fester – dominion over the sheeple. Copyleft is so indoctrinated it thinks that Roosevelt’s New Deal and WW2 saved the country from the Great Depression.
In reality, the government finally got the hell out of the way after WW2 and people saved – YES SAVED – their money during it, unlike what we are commanded and coerced to do today by our benevolent leadership.
Copyleft thinks the government should conjure up more “money”, have farmers destroy their crops to keep prices up, implement price and wage controls and keep them artificially high, and build tanks and bombs to boost economic output.
Copyleft thinks Bernanke’s doing a hell of a job – like Brownie did. Afterall, he’s a great scholar of the Great Depression. Just look how much he knows – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ79Pt2GNJo
Copyleft – the delusional, sad n’ sorry epitome of modern American ignorance and arrogance. And always showing up somewhere.
Munch
July 21st, 2009
10:57 am
Sam closes his spittle-laced screed with “the delusional, sad n’ sorry epitome of modern American ignorance and arrogance. And always showing up somewhere.”
This is what educated people call “projection”. Whadda rube.
booger
July 21st, 2009
10:59 am
Munch,
Liberals love meritocracy? This is the absolute bane of the liberal dogma. Conservatives have always owned the concepts of individualism and meritocracy.
Chris
July 21st, 2009
11:04 am
The ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa of California is quite obviously mathematically retarded. Spending 1 billion per day, it would take just a shade under 65 years to reach 23.7 trillion dollars. If the “ranking Repug” is that incompetent with numbers, it’s no wonder the economy is in the sh*thouse.
Sporty
July 21st, 2009
11:05 am
I believe the bailout is a good thing if it helps citizens, and right now it is not. The average tax payer in the middle income range is suffering. If you want the bailout to work and spending to begin, take soem of the trillions that are being spent and payoff individuals mortgages and the people will spend. The biggest expense for many is the one thing that the government let get out of control. I would rather see my tax dollars pay for those who are in good tax standings and have their mortgages clear, than to have big business continue to use federal funds to pay pesions and bonuses.
Chris Broe
July 21st, 2009
11:06 am
This is really the religious right’s kill piece on the health care plan: Do you think they could exaggerate the exorbitance even more exponentially?
Grading Wooten grading Obama’s health care plan: A neocon’s neurotic, nonsensical notion about a nativity/neonatal-Rx nexus.
C+
Jklol. The Birth of Christ! Lovin’ Mr. Woo, of China, today.
RGB
July 21st, 2009
11:07 am
“Liberals support a meritocracy.”
That’ll be the most asinine comment anyone makes all week….unless the president’s teleprompter speaks again.
Munch
July 21st, 2009
11:08 am
Booger, you are sadly mistaken. Conservative leaders have appropriated (that’s a nice word for stealing) the concepts of individualism and meritocracy as sales slogans while in fact perpetrating a fraud that rewards conformism, blind obedience, and cronyism.
Since you and your wingtard crowd are malleable little sheep, it was an easy sell. Rubes.
Redneck Convert
July 21st, 2009
11:11 am
Well, if I got a printer and can churn out as many bucks as I want I’m not going to worry about a little debt. If somebody wants to get repaid I’ll just churn out some more bucks to pay him. And if I don’t want to pay him and I’m the U.S. of A., I’ll just ask how many A-bombs and army divisions he has.
But this health care thing is diffrent. I’m dead set against us paying for the health care of a bunch of free loaders. And I’m against taxing all the rich people to pay for it. If we do that we’re going to loose tons of jobs. All the yacht salesmen and people that work at luxury resorts and the people that make the luxury cars will be throwed out of work. And want to draw unemployment on my dime. Anyhow, every once in a while we need to thin out the heard. Even GA does it when it holds a special deer hunting season. So if a few million free loaders die, well, they ain’t Productive members of society and we can afford to loose them.
Somebody ask Captain Freedom if the Lord got my prayer last night. Have a good day everybody.
JF McNamara
July 21st, 2009
11:11 am
Thanks for the link deegee. Anyone who wants to see the actual article can go here.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164.html
Relevant quotes:
“The $23.7 trillion estimate generally includes programs at the hypothetical maximum size envisioned when they were established,” Williams said. “It was never likely that all these programs would be ‘maxed out’ at the same time.”
There’s also a lot of other items in the number which you can see from the article, but it’s really neither left nor right slanted.
Thanks for adding no real thought or analysis Wooten. Try being a journalist and creating more than sound bites.
booger
July 21st, 2009
11:15 am
Watching liberals in denial is a sad thing. Reminds me of the story from a titanic survivor. He tried to get an older couple to come with him to the lifeboats. They told him to go ahead, they were sure the captian would have this problem fixed shortly. When he asked why they thought this, the old man said,”anything else is just unthinkable”.
matt
July 21st, 2009
11:15 am
How is this bailout to the companys going to help me? Its not . This bailout will not help this nation. You start with a real stimulus check to the people, not one that wouldnt even pay my bills for the month! but a real bailout for the people get everyone person out of debt. This will trickle up to the companys take them out of the red into the black and then onto Wall Street which will increase stock values I’m willing to wager this will be cheaper and have a much faster turn around, again i ask you how is giving those bailouts to the companys going to help this nation ? Its not ,it will get much much worse until our leaders wake up and reconize its the person struggling from paycheck to paycheck that needs the bailout
Chris
July 21st, 2009
11:15 am
Ahh…the actual quote from Issa was “a million dollars a day” not “a billion dollars a day.” Even as a liberal, I was thinking “there is no way the man is that incompetent,” so I checked the original quote, and Wooten misquoted Issa (typo, maybe?).
Which brings us to another problem…the US spends over a million dollars a day on our defense budget alone, so what exactly is his point, other than gov’t funded bailouts authorized by Democrats are bad?
RGB
July 21st, 2009
11:18 am
Oh, since a guy made a math error then it’s OK to end this country as we know it by spending $24 trillion of other people’s money.
Thanks. Don’t tell your president what comes after a trillion.
booger
July 21st, 2009
11:21 am
JF,
Yeah, this $23 trillion number is bunk. I’m bettin it tops out at only about $21 trillion.
RGB
July 21st, 2009
11:22 am
Ever notice those TV commercials targeting people who buy big screen televisions “with no credit check and a low WEEKLY payment.”
Their target market isn’t conservatives.
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
11:23 am
Typical Democrat — “Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie”.
And oh, by the way, “I ain’t payin’ for nuthin’”
The ONLY way a democrat can be successful is to take from somebody else who earned.
I hope the hole you’re digging yourselves is deep enough for all of your friends and neighbors.
The bulldozer / loader is on standby just in case you need to borrow it.
Chances are a Republican owns it, but I’m quite sure they’ll be happy to share.
Bring it on… 2010
Bye, bye liberal crybabies.
Don’t let the door hurt your feelings on the way out.
RGB
July 21st, 2009
11:30 am
Oh, and Democrats never remember to calculate interest. So go back to your Excel spreadsheet and calculate spending–but not repaying–a billion dollars a day for 747,520 days. Be sure to use Jimmy Carter’s interest rate of 17.5%.
I’d rather be a conservative nut job than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
AmVet
July 21st, 2009
11:31 am
People!
DO NOT EVER presume for a single moment that anything that comes from a Republiconned’s mouth related to mathematics or science is accurate.
With that starting point, things become much clearer…
TRUTH
July 21st, 2009
11:34 am
The RINO Saxby Chambliss is trying to waste $1,700,000,000.00 on planes the Air Force doesn’t want or need, is that liberal or conservative?
sharecropper
July 21st, 2009
11:35 am
Boo hoo. The wingnuts get a prediction from another wingnut and predictably, let by Wooten — once upon a long time ago a respected journalist — are off and running on their train to nowhere. But tell me, please: do any of you spewing those “statistics” actually believe what you are spewing? I don’t know about going all the way back to the Time of Christ to get to $23 trillion. Sounds off to me, since we have topped $1 trillion in about six years in Iraq. Lemme see, here: 23 wars in Iraq, six years each, a trillion bucks each, and we go back … 138 years? Holy cow. The creationists are right. The earth is only 138 years old!
booger
July 21st, 2009
11:35 am
Munch,
Once again, denial is a sad thing to watch.
-Does the liberal teachers unions support merit pay?
-Do unions in general, who are liberal, support merit pay?
-Is spreading the wealth around, the backbone of Obama’s plans, a merit driven idea?
-Who is pushing for teaching children that everyone deserves a trophy and no one really wins in a sport?
-Who wants to cap salaries, regardless of performance?
-Who pushes affirmative action?
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Now you can go ahead and name call some more. You are really good at that.
booger
July 21st, 2009
11:38 am
sharecropper,
The total cost of the Iraq war by the end of this fiscal year will be $694 billion.
Munch
July 21st, 2009
11:40 am
Alohagator…2010 hinges on two things: the state of the economy and healthcare reform. The GOP knows this, and will do whatever it can to block anything that Obama tries. DeMint and Bill Kristol both said it out loud over the weekend– if they can stop healthcare, Obama is finished.
There are two reasons the GOP opposes ANY healthcare reform: 1) they want to defeat Obama, 2) they are shills for the insurance interests.*
_____________
* This includes fake Dems like Baucus and the Blue Dogs.
RGB
July 21st, 2009
11:41 am
Actually, what bothers liberals about discussing spending a sum of money every day since Christ’s birth is not the amount money.
What makes them uncomfortable is acknowledging the existence of Christ.
TRUTH
July 21st, 2009
11:43 am
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Secret Service protection has been extended for at least another six months, beginning Tuesday.
Normally, ex-veeps only get six months of protection at taxpayer expense. But Cheney asked for an extension, and President Obama – whom Cheney has excoriated in several interviews since leaving office – recently signed off….
If the Obama administration hadn’t gone along with Cheney’s request, he would have been forced to hire his own security agents – or go without.
Cheney’s friends have said he has become more concerned about his privacy and personal safety in recent years.
Sorry Government working for all Americans
July 21st, 2009
11:49 am
I dont know what up here. I do know that the following are true
#1. The stimulus was nothing but a political payback
#2. The way to create a economic flow is to lower taxes, put money in the hands of spenders, drop programs that do not work or create double work flow, cut government spending and stop the corruption.
#3. They want to fix healthcare then take the regulations out of it. There is no reason a single man should be paying for maternity nor is there a reason for a family of 4 with the women fixed to be paying for maternity. There is no reason for most families to be forced to pay for mental health benefits or drug and alcohol coverage. Especially when they dont drink or do drugs. If americans were able to pick what coverage they needed without regulation then cost would go down. Also the poor are already covered through medicaid and so are children of low income workers by either medicaid or peachcare. Most people that dont have insurance dont want to pay for it, its not that they cant afford it. Stop allowing the medicaid and peachcare working mothers to use hospitals as doctors offices and build 24 hour clinics around the city for uninsured and charge by income. I just dont get the big hype behind everything. There are surely a lot of suckers listening to big government.
Now that I have fixed the economy and the healthcare issue I should tell all to quit fighting among each other and stand tall for your freedoms and rights as American Citizens. Nowhere in the Constitution does it give Congress the right to pass legislation to Tax the American people to supply Health Care for one and all. This government has and continues to take advantage in the Americans sleeping and its time we all wake up and stop it. If we dont stand tall and together we will not be that Free Nation that we all grew up in. All our kids and grandkids will suffer for this. Its time Americans ban together for the good of the Nation.
Oh one other thing. Dr Martin Luther King was a great man. His speach was historical. His speach also wanted his people to stand on their own two feet, to educate, to thrive to produce (and no not produce as in kids). He wanted you to stop living the system and start being what you can be. Dr Martin Luther King was also a member of the Republican Party and a Conserative. Not many know that or will admit it. Its really a shame that the only time you believe and cheer and follow his teachings is on Martin Luther King day. To many its just a day off of work.
Ram It Through--We Don't Want 'em
July 21st, 2009
11:50 am
Conservatives are eite her rich or stupid. Pick one or the other. You can’t have both. They are mutually exclusive..
The hell they can’t be moderately or very wealthy and stupid. I’m see ‘em every day. I lsee doctors who are politically stupid and I see doctors who coundn’t Rx antibiotics appropriately if their lives depended on it.
Pasty White
July 21st, 2009
11:52 am
The gop created the PROBLEMS THAT LED TO THE DEFICIT and ENABLEDit by giving banks license to steal. Stop your whining – we are cleaning up your mess.
BUSH BELONGS BEHIND BARS (CHENEY, ROVE, RUMSFELD, TOO)
AmVet
July 21st, 2009
11:57 am
“What makes them uncomfortable is acknowledging the existence of Christ.”
Close, but no cigar:
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
~Mohandas Gandhi
matt
July 21st, 2009
11:57 am
Who gives a crap what party your in!!! I dont care how much you think we should or shoudnt spend. How does any of that mumbo jumbo your fussing over help? I,m telling you get the person out of debt is the cure!! If you think helping the companys first is the solution your wrong!!! unless you look at it like this we pay our taxes to the Goverment the Goverment bails out the companys so we have already paid our debt everyone should have a clean slate right? O thats right that wouldnt be America you have to pay on top of what the Goverment gave them so in reality your paying TWICE think its funny or think what i said is stupid if you want but its there in black in white or is there no logical thinking in this nation anymore? how can something so simple be so hard to understand?
Munch
July 21st, 2009
12:03 pm
“What makes them uncomfortable is acknowledging the existence of Christ.”
No, what makes us uncomfortable is you always dragging your imaginary sky fairy into the discussion. You might as well talk about unicorns or hobbits.
Ram It Through--We Don't Want 'em
July 21st, 2009
12:14 pm
Religion belongs in a church, synagougue, mosque or place of worship. It has no f_cking place whatsoever in government or politics.
bilko
July 21st, 2009
12:27 pm
Maybe Jim should invest $10 in one of those calculators with really big buttons and display. Spending a billion dollars a day back to Christ’s birth would be around 733 trillion.
Copyleft
July 21st, 2009
12:27 pm
Class of ‘98: You’re right on one point: All conservatives ARE either rich or stupid… sometimes both.
Question: Are you rich?
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
12:29 pm
Dear Munch @ 11:40
Your comrades have full control of both houses of Congress.
If they wanted to pass something there’s nothing to stop them except for the fact that they want to be re-elected. Americans will crucify anybody who goes along with this fairy tale called “universal coverage”.
Few Democrats have any idea, much less a proven track record, of how to run a private, for-profit business that actually employs workers.
Where will all your enlightened leaders go when they lose their gigs? Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea… the list is getting smaller every week. They ought to book their reservations now.
It’s tough to find work nowadays…..
MSNBC is bankrupt so that’s out. I heard Janine Garafalo was looking for dishwashers at her vegan only, no perfume wearing, no shaved legs, IOU accepting coffee house.
Fox News Channel might parade a few of them out so they can whine about poor little Octomom and why she isn’t getting all the things she wants. Don’t forget about the 11 million illegals who’ll be denied they’re “right” to unlimited medical services courtesy of the law abiding, working people in this country.
Go munch on some cat litter.
It will taste better than the Kool-Aid you’ve been conned into drinking.
david wayne osedach
July 21st, 2009
12:31 pm
It is wise to look at the end-all possibilities of Obama’s stimulus/bailout programs. They need to be cutdown and cut off before they grow to exponential numbers.
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
12:31 pm
Asking a democrat to fix the economy is like going deer hunting with a box of explosives and a burning flare.
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
12:35 pm
Hey copyleft —-
Did you ever figure out who Vernon Jones was or should I paste your comments from a few weeks ago into this blog?
Copyleft = Vernon Jones – GOOD
Copyleft = CONFUSED, UNINFORMED, GASBAG BLOGGING FROM MOMMIE’S BASEMENT !!!
Copyleft
July 21st, 2009
12:40 pm
I’m still puzzled by what sort of “point” you think you’re scoring with that one…
An article mentioned Vernon Jones, and I said I knew nothing about him. Period. I said nothing about Jones, good or bad. So what?
I admit I’m flattered by your obsession with me–the stalking, the namejacking–and I know it must frustrate you no end to be haunted by the specter of the Liberal Who’s Much, Much Smarter Than You. But why keep going back to Vernon Jones as though that will redeem you?
Ram It Through--We Don't Want 'em
July 21st, 2009
12:40 pm
The Senate has passed the Levin-McCain admendment 58-40 and body slammed, stomped and crushed the stupid white Georgia racial bigot hicks into the gorund. I pronounce the dinasaur F22 deader than a doornail. Long overdue. Anytime Jawjaw white hick bigots are slammed to the ground in the US Senate, it’s the start of a great day. We have to continue to stop the Republitard lobtomized hemorrhage of our money on crap pork . Here lies the JawJaw Hick F22 Dinosaur which should have been killed long ago. It’s dead now.
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
12:55 pm
Copyleft says, as he sits on her couch, “MOM…. Meatloaf !!!!!!”
Randy L
July 21st, 2009
12:57 pm
Never heard any of these type complaints when Bush Jr pushed the debt by double ( fact, check it out )….Wooten is showing his “true color.
FAILED LIBERALISM
July 21st, 2009
12:58 pm
Good news here on the CommieCare plan: moderates are holding it up. Their constituents are calling, writing, and emailing them on what an absolute DISASTER government-run health care would be not only for this nation’s economy – including jobs – but for the quality of health care and cost itself; two of the very things that the idiots on the left thought they would “fix.”
Even the NY Times has a piece out today on Liberal Democrats overreaching and people taking notice and rejecting it, just like they did with Conservative (so called anyway) Republicans that got voted out in 2006. The CBO says no way can we do this, and now the Mayo Clinic says no way:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mayo Clinic’s reaction to House Tri-Committee bill
Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.
In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented. Lawmakers have failed to use a fundamental lever – a change in Medicare payment policy – to help drive necessary improvements in American health care. Unless legislators create payment systems that pay for good patient results at reasonable costs, the promise of transformation in American health care will wither. The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course those with our heads out of Obamanationass know that this has NOTHING to do with “Free” health care for all and EVERYTHING to do with giving POTUS his “win” in legislation. Then the White House delays a report on the state of the economy and spending – well DUH why the hell do you think that is? We HAD TO HAVE IT PASSED NOW, and POTUS promised “immediate” relief. Uh huh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WASHINGTON (CNN) — On April 20, President Obama challenged his Cabinet to cut $100 million in spending over the next 90 days. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says a report on Cabinet spending cuts will be released “in coming days.” The deadline came — and went — without a report from the White House on whether or not that promise was fulfilled. Asked about the spending cuts, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that information still was being compiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And POTUS pulls back on decision making regarding Gitmo by six months:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Home > News > Politics
Gitmo review delayed 6 months
Obama puts vow in doubt
By Joseph Curl (Contact)
Originally published 04:45 a.m., July 21, 2009, updated 11:16 a.m., July 21, 2009
President Obama on Monday extended by six months a task force charged with determining how terrorism suspects should be interrogated, held in custody or handed over to other countries, putting in jeopardy his promise to close the military detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January.
The move came on the same day the president pushed back the release of a congressionally mandated report on the nation’s economic conditions, and the White House began to extend a self-imposed deadline for overhauling the nation’s health care system.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can’t wait to see what these incompetent left wing crackpots bring us next………….
booger
July 21st, 2009
1:01 pm
alohagator,
The deer hunting reference was great….and on the nose.
DebbieDoRight
July 21st, 2009
1:01 pm
Oh please!!! The repuglican thugracy, going the exact same path that they’ve been going down for years, would’ve not only bankrupted America, but also would’ve turned America into a 3rd world country!!!
Guess you forgot that this “recession” with job losses and home foreclosures, have been going on for the past 3 years huh? It didn’t start in 2008 — but, like everyone but repuglicans know, 2006!! Anyone remember Starbucks, Home Depot, AT&T, Verizon laying off those thousands of employees? What, you think it just happened on January 21, 2009? Please!!
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
1:03 pm
Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve (HR 1207) now has 275 co-sponsors, and the numbers keep growing! At the same time, HR 1207’s companion bill in the Senate, S 604, has already attracted 17 co-sponsors
This is history in the making, and victory is within reach. Imagine what will happen if HR 1207, The Federal Reserve Transparency Act, comes up for vote in Congress! With more than 55% of the House of Representatives already co-sponsoring this bill, it has real potential to pass — BUT only if we educate and rally the people to support it and get our Congresspeople to put it to vote and pass it.
111th Congress – 1st Session
H.R. 1207
A BILL
To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.
1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009″.
SEC. 2. AUDIT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY FOR THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.
(a) IN GENERAL. – Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after “shall audit an agency” and inserting a period.
(b) AUDIT. – Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(e) AUDIT AND REPORT OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. -
“(1) IN GENERAL. – The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.
“(2) REPORT -
“(A) REQUIRED. – A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each sub-committee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
“(B) CONTENTS. – The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.”.
FAILED LIBERALISM
July 21st, 2009
1:07 pm
Actually Debbie, this nation started going down after Democrats took over Congress after the 2006 elections.
Anyone notice that the only thing the leftycrats can do here is bring up Bush? Since the little bedwetters can’t grasp reality, let’s allow someone to put things into perspective. This is all you, Demotards:
A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government’s watchdog over the effort says – a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation’s entire economic output for a year.
If the feds end up spending that amount, it could be more than the federal government has spent on any single effort in American history.
For the government to be on the hook for the total amount, worst-case scenarios would have to come to pass in a variety of federal programs, which is unlikely, says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the government’s financial bailout programs, in testimony prepared for delivery to the House oversight committee Tuesday.
The Treasury Department says less than $2 trillion has been spent so far.
Still, the enormity of the IG’s projection underscores the size of the economic disaster that hit the nation over the past year and the unprecedented sums mobilized by the federal government under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to confront it.
In fact, $23 trillion is more than the total cost of all the wars the United States has ever fought, put together. World War II, for example, cost $4.1 trillion in 2008 dollars, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Even the Moon landings and the New Deal didn’t come close to $23 trillion: the Moon shot in 1969 cost an estimated $237 billion in current dollars, and the entire Depression-era Roosevelt relief program came in at $500 billion, according to Jim Bianco of Bianco Research.
The annual gross domestic product of the United States is just over $14 trillion.
Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams downplayed the total amount could ever reach Barofsky’s number.
“The $23.7 trillion estimate generally includes programs at the hypothetical maximum size envisioned when they were established,” Williams said. “It was never likely that all these programs would be ‘maxed out’ at the same time.”
Still, the eye-popping price tag provoked an immediate reaction on Capitol Hill. “The potential financial commitment the American taxpayers could be responsible for is of a size and scope that isn’t even imaginable,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. “If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth of Christ, that wouldn’t even come close to just one trillion dollars – $23.7 trillion is a staggering figure.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164.html#ixzz0Lulfz3TR
Randy L
July 21st, 2009
1:09 pm
“FAILED LIBERALISM” also blogs on rightwingsnuts.com
Randy L
July 21st, 2009
1:16 pm
“I think everybody should just calm down. Give Obama four years. See what he can do. Then if he’s a miserable failure, we’ll do what we did with George W. Bush and elect him to a second term.”
alohagator
July 21st, 2009
1:20 pm
Thanx Boog -
On a different subject…
Today Ms. Pelosi claimed the CIA lied to her when they briefed Congress about common sense.
Apparently, the speaker sent a staffer in her place. That staffer claimed that the PhD. giving the presentation was an idiot because he didn’t blame Global Warming on cow flatulence and the AIDS quilt.
Thank goodness she’s leading the charge to turn this country and get it pointed it the right direction…. LOL:)
Shawny
July 21st, 2009
1:27 pm
It is ok to label it a Bush recession. If you believe that, and feel that out of control spending caused it, then how can you support spending a lot more as a solution? What is being spent does not create anything positive, except debt.
Great piece today from the well respected David Brooks of the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/opinion/21brooks.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
He is right on. Republicans had power, then drove their car off the cliff. Now dems have it and are doing the same.
Randy L
July 21st, 2009
1:31 pm
“alohagator” needs encouragement. If a he gets an answer right, tell him it was a lucky guess. That way he develops a good, lucky feeling : O
Tall
July 21st, 2009
1:37 pm
Patsy White…”The gop created the PROBLEMS THAT LED TO THE DEFICIT and ENABLEDit by giving banks license to steal. Stop your whining – we are cleaning up your mess.
BUSH BELONGS BEHIND BARS (CHENEY, ROVE, RUMSFELD, TOO)”. Do you really believe that?
Can you shed some light on this argument, please?
Yes, the Republicans did run the cash register without a tape. Can you mention any Democrats that objected to the spending? Charles Rangel has been the Chairman of the House Ways and Means committee for a long time and he wields a big stick(doesn’t pay taxes either). Sen. Robert Byrd was chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Niether of them are noted for fiscal restraint. In fact, Sen. Byrd used his influence to have the U.S. Navy establish a facility in his home state of West Virginia!! If the Democrats are the progressive champions of the people, why does Nancy Pelosi need her own airliner?