FYI:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm Interest on the Federal Debt Historical Data, Fiscal Year End 2012 $359,796,008,919.49 2011 $454,393,280,417.03 2010 $413,954,825,362.17 2009 $383,071,060,815.42 2008 $451,154,049,950.63 2007 $429,977,998,108.20 2006 $405,872,109,315.83 2005 $352,350,252,507.90 2004 $321,566,323,971.29 2003 $318,148,529,151.51 2002 $332,536,958,599.42 2001 $359,507,635,242.41 2000 $361,997,734,302.36 Again I ask. how many people could $400 BILLION feed, or provide basic medical care for???? And when interest rates begin to go up, those interest payments will also go up and consume the vast majority of the fed'l budget. the income tax rate would have to go up to 80+% to maintain fed'l spending. The interest payments are tax-dollars WASTED. Ever ask yourself who is getting those interest payments. that's a helluva lot of money going somewhere! -Mark From: Edmund Storms [mailto:stor...@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 3:55 PM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Cc: Edmund Storms Subject: Re: [Vo]:Another article about the impact of automation on employment Sorry Jed, but your analysis conflicts with every economist that I have read and I read many. Raising taxes back to Clayton is not possible because the economy is not growing as fast as it was then so that the tax rate would have to be a bigger fraction of the income to provide the same amount of money, which people resist. Also, the debt is much larger now. We have passed the point of no return according to most analysts. Ed On Jan 26, 2013, at 4:11 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote: Edmund Storms <stor...@ix.netcom.com> wrote: Debt is good within limits, Eric. The problem comes when the amount of debt exceeds the ability to pay back or even to service, i.e. to pay the interest. This is why people lost their homes. The US government has now reached a debt so large that it cannot be paid back and can barely be serviced. This is a fact. That is not true. All we have to do is raise taxes back to the level they were under Mr. Clinton. If the economy recovers the debt will soon begin to decline. It was declining rapidly under Clinton. Government expenditures have not increased, except for the Pentagon, and now that the wars are over I don't see why the military budget should be so high. The debt crisis is ginned up nonsense, in my opinion. It could be fixed with slightly higher tax rates so small we would hardly notice them. Mainly on wealthy people. I am sure that wealthy people can afford to pay 3% more than they now do. It is trivial matter for them. For that matter, the U.S. government can print money. A little inflation would soon reduce the debt as a percent of the GDP. We would hardly notice that, either. The Japanese government under PM Abe is deliberately trying to inflate by 3%, after years of deflation. It is about time! If they succeed and the economy also grows, their debt will decline. It is twice as high as the U.S., as a percent of the GDP, but Japan is not in crisis. - Jed
