The U.S. has finally reached its Debt Ceiling, and in theory, they should not be able to borrow any more money, much like you or I might be if we reached the credit limit on our Credit Cards. The other similarity is that we can simply call the Credit Card company and ask for our Credit Limit to be raised, and they might allow us to go farther into debt, and this might happen for the U.S. as well, but that remains to be seen. Remember we talked about the U.S. National Debt Video on Saturday.
The American Debt is now $14 Trillion dollars (approximately), wonder what type of American Express Card you might get with that kind of credit limit, Diamond encrusted Platinum?
“I’m sorry Mr. Obama, your order for 10 Stealth Fighters can’t go through, your Card has been refused…“, is that possible? Not really, but it is a fun scenario to think about.
Canada’s Debt?
Does Canada have a National Debt? You damn right we do! It’s a poop-load!
No I don’t view this as the gospel truth, but it is close. So if Canada’s Debt is $600B it seems like a lot less than the U.S., but then again, we are about 1/10 the size of the U.S. in terms of population, and we aren’t funding a bunch of wars either.
We were up until about 3 years ago actually paying back the debt, but that kind of went out the window with the Debt Crisis.
Who holds Canada’s Debt? You do, I do, and mostly our Parents do, in terms of Treasury Bills, and Canada Savings Bonds. Not sure the exact percentages, but the debt is mostly held by Canadians, so defaulting on the Debt might not be a good idea (unless making our Senior Citizens eat low ash Cat Food is in the Government’s plans). The estimates I have seen is that 10-25% of our debt is held by foreigners, but that might increase, given Canada’s good standing in the International Monetary community.
What’s happened here in the U.S. is that we’ve blithely voted in a bunch of politicians, heavily funded by corporate interests that want to pay no taxes and that would like to have a workforce of people who will work for third-world wages (because we’ll have no other choice), who are operating by an unholy combination of demagoguery and misguided ideology.
Until Mr. Bush engaged us, by dint of falsehood, in a war in the Middle East that has lasted longer than World War II, the United States had never gone to war without raising taxes. Now, though, instead of raising taxes to fund the current endless wars, we actually lowered them.
The obvious result of this stupidity is now upon us.
Do the demagogues see the error of their ways? Why, no. Given an opportunity, they’d lower taxes still more. Instead of raising funds to pay the debt and pay for their war, they want to cut government services, get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, create still more suffering for the poor and for what remains of the middle class, and put still more people out of work.
The difference between the U.S. and Canada appears to be that the Canadians have not taken leave of their senses.
U.S. economy and debt are all screwed up. The lobbyists have taken over Congress.
government of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists, for the lobbyists. Common man and woman have become persona non grata. You exist but you don’t.
You make an interesting point! The U.S. government needs to take a hard look at their debt. More importantly, they realize they cannot keep spending for everything. They cannot be the world policeman.