24 thoughts on “Peter Pan Fiscal Policy”

  1. Today the Obama administration proposed another attempt to introduce a line item veto.

  2. We haven’t reached Greek-dumb yet. Put in a sufficiently large VAT and presto! we’re fiscally solvent again. The economy may never eventually recover to it’s old levels, but that’s for the next Republican administration to deal with – and end up carrying the can for.

  3. Today the Obama administration proposed another attempt to introduce a line item veto.

    Which, if they get it, will be used for nothing but the Pentagon.

  5. The cacophony of idiot voices needs to be replaced. We need real reporters that give no ground. Can we somehow clone Laura Ingraham? She hunts RINO’s.

    The collapse of civilization may not be the best solution.

  6. Ingraham says “uh huh” in that same tone of voice as the wife whose husband tells her for the 63rd time that he promises not to stay out too late, after failing to keep the first 62 promises. Make her press secretary.

  7. Actually, I’m in favor of a default by the Federal Government. I don’t like the suggestion that we pay off the profligacy of previous decades by screwing the younger generation, either with pissy benefits vis-a-vis what their parents enjoy, or with brutal taxes, or with a moribund economy.

    So let the holders of US Treasuries take the haircut, or at least a substantial portion of it. As bonus side effects, those who invested in private ventures instead of the government will do comparatively better, and investors will be so badly burned they won’t think of lending to the government for decades to come — which will do more than any morning-after “promises” by Congress to prevent irresponsible borrowing in the future. You can’t trust a drunk. Cut off the sauce.

    For those of the hairshirt green persuasion, the consequent appalling slump in the dollar — with consequent steep rise in the price of oil — will be an added benefit, although for my part I can only applaud the fact that it will totally sweep away any foolishness about banning offshore drilling, forgoing nuclear power, or greenhouse gas regulation.

  10. investors will be so badly burned they won’t think of lending to the government for decades to come

    How will this stop them from instituting a VAT? …at 101% since this makes perfect sense in their world.

  11. I think it was Herbert Stein, advisor to Pres. Nixon, who said –

    “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”

    Seems pretty true today.

    Great blog, been reading at least since 2004.

    Mike T.
    Merritt Island, FL.

  12. Generally we do OK holding the line on taxes, ken. Because no politician really wants to be hanged with his own guts, which is what tends to happen to you if you take a stand for big new taxes.

    What’s going on here is that the people who got us into this mess are daring us to let the bondholders eat it, and thereby trying to get cover for a giant tax increase. They’re appealing to our inherent sense of responsibility and patriotism. You wouldn’t let the Yooonahted States of ‘Mericah go on and deee-fault, now wouldja? That’d be like spittin’ on the flag, boy. Besides, a promise made must be a promise kept, eh? So just bend over and take it like a man.

    I say call their bluff. You buffoons say you can’t cut spending, and without a huge tax whack the sacred US Treasury bond will go sproing. And I say: so what? Let it. Let the whole corrupt stinking mass that is national-level government be exposed for the rotting lamprey vortex of Ponzi-scheme farce and destruction it is.

    I’m mildly sorry for people who bought Treasuries, I guess. But they may be mostly fabulously rich Democratic donors and union pension funds. Should’ve invested in good ol’ American companies instead, fellas. Er…except for the Chinese government. I’d laugh out loud if their paper trillions evaporated.

  13. Carl, if anyone else suggested it I wouldn’t consider it, but I think you may be right. However, I have some questions.

    Screw up America’s credit doesn’t mean we don’t go begging hat in hand, it just means taxpayers pay more to foreign lenders; doesn’t it?

    How bad will inflation get and will the average person be able to handle it?

  14. Oh, well if you’re going to take me seriously, ken….part of the idea would indeed be to screw foreign bondholders. Unfortunately I would guess the biggest, or among the biggest chunk of them are Brits and Canadians and suchlike, fellow Anglospherians. It wouldn’t be just the Chinese or Arab sheikhs. But oh well, next time put your faith in agencies that create value, not just those which parasite them.

    Of course, it would be disastrous for the ability of the Feds to borrow money afterward. That is the point, essentially. Total well-poisoning. But what’s this about “we” going begging, huh? Do you work for the Federal government? Did you, personally, make any guarantees, issue any bonds? If you didn’t — I don’t see why you should be saying we instead of they, meaning the fools who did, supposedly in your name. Let us stop thinking that we, the citizens, must backstop every action of the Federal Government, come hell or high water. This is not a government that owns a nation — it’s a nation that employs a government. Maybe when government has gone bad, it’s OK to disavow it, to reject ownership of its promises. Yes that means people will be very, very wary of its promises in the future, and it will be tremendously weakened. But that’s a feature, not a bug.

    Ah, inflation. That is what they’d do, isn’t it? The final refuge of scoundrel kings: print money until you solve the problem. And with a moronically “progressive” tax system you’ve got automatic tax increases that way, too. I don’t know if there’s any good solution to that problem. It seems to exist wherever there’s a central bank under the government’s control. Perhaps Andy Jackson was right.

  15. Let the whole corrupt stinking mass that is national-level government be exposed for the rotting lamprey vortex of Ponzi-scheme farce and destruction it is.

    What an awesome line. I’ve been calling several entitlement programs Ponzi schemes for years, but I can’t wait to use that masterpiece at the next opportunity.

  20. The government keeps spending more and more no matter how I vote. This overspending is a moral issue. I keep trying to get a government that will not overspend, and the government keeps overspending not just my money, but the money of my children. It is immoral for the government to spend my children’s money. And because of that, I don’t see that my children have a moral obligation to pay back the money immorally borrowed by our government.

    In the interests of disclosure, I should mention that I pretty much have stocks and real estate, not government bonds or cash, so I wouldn’t (directly) lose a lot if the government defaulted on its bonds. It’s just always seemed to me that I’d rather own pieces of productive companies and physical property, rather than government promises. It also looks like a safer bet against inflation to me.

    And as a side issue: the Chinese government keeps ‘lending’ ‘us’ money. The Chinese government is completely uninterested in protecting American intellectual property rights. Chinese pirates copy movies and software (and I’m assuming patents) with abandon and no payment to the property holders. Intellectual property rights are a complicated issue, but it seems obvious to me that the development of intellectual property is an area where America excels, and that property, unabashedly stolen by China, has immense value. If the Chinese government wants to make an issue out of the money they have put into government bonds, perhaps some gigantic intellectual property protection fines are necessary, something roughly on the order of the amount of Chinese bond holdings.

  21. That is what they’d do, isn’t it?

    I was really afraid you’d agree with me Carl. The only solution is to get rid of the scoundrels then. Will we? Or just replace them with a new set.

    The ‘We’ you refered to, was only because I still consider myself a citizen and therefore responsible even if the scoundrels are not doing my will. I’ll try to correct that usage in the future.

    I hate what THEY are doing to MY country.

  23. Racist teabagger hate-speech.

    [pointing finger at Carl…] he did it. I tried to say we…

    [bowing to Obama…] PissBUH.

    [innocent look…] 😉

    Did any of ya see a ridiculously large gavel around here?

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