It is all fine and well for Democrats to propose big ideas in preparation for election 2020.
The Green New Deal, Medicare for All, Infrasturcture spending, and Tax Fairness are all ideas whose time has come.
What no one seems to see, hear and much less speak about is a twenty two trillion dollar national debt that will have a negative impact on every big idea democrats can put foreword.
Sooner or later someone is going to have to grapple with a debt that is unsustainable and the solutions politically unpopular.
We have kicked the can down the road for too long. Economics has failed us or we have failed economics.
What say you trail mixers? When and how should we address this problem?
jace, not to worry – after the next gov’t shutdown showdown, we’ll have either raised the debt limit or been foreclosed on by china or both.
interesting data from the balance:
US Debt to China, How Much It Is, Reasons Why, and What If China Sells
Why China Is America’s Biggest Banker
The U.S. debt to China is $1.138 trillion as of October 2018. That’s 29 percent of the $3.9 trillion in Treasury bills, notes, and bonds held by foreign countries. The rest of the $22 trillion national debt is owned by either the American people or by the U.S. government itself.
China has the greatest amount of U.S. debt held by a foreign country. Japan comes second at $1.018 trillion, followed by Brazil at $314 billion. Ireland holds $287 billion, and the United Kingdom owns $264 billion. The map below shows a breakdown of the top five countries owning U.S. debt. Combined, they hold almost 77 percent of U.S. debt held by foreign countries.
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meanwhile, things we learn between the scenes afterhours
Is Bernie really American? If so, why is he determined to see SFB reelected? Where are my slippers…I don’t want to puke inside the house.
I well remember interviewing a Reagan economist after they unveiled their first budget. I asked how can you cut taxes and raise defense spending without blowing up the debt and endangering social programs. He matter-of-factly said “We intend to break the back of the welfare state.” Big debt was their strategy to restrict Democratic social spending for a generation.
Jamie & Jace,
I see from an email last night fearless leader has entrusted you guys with the reins of the trail’s chuck wagon to watch over while he’s busy with the homestead sale and to dispense the vittles that the rest of us hands have wrangled, butchered and uploaded. i’ll do my best to provide as many provisions as I find inspiration for and hope others will also contribute drafts on the trail dashboard for you to pick from and publish as you see fit. please let us know when we’re running short and we’ll do what we can.
PatD for Secretary of C&C (Commitment and Comity)
ahh shucks, flatus, thanks for the purty words
I don’t know enough about debt on the global scale to offer much of an opinion. I’m not sure what the recourse for creditors holding our debt is or what our recourse is if say, China, calls its debt in, but words like recession and depression come to mind. Who knows – one day we may find out. While it’s easy to spend into an unsustainable debt situation, my understanding is that it is not really possible to cut our way out of it without draconian cuts to SS, M/C other social programs and the military (which of course would lead to a dramatic economic slowdown) and because of the need to borrow to service the interest and the term of the paper underlying the existing debt prevent any fixes within the time frames dictated by the debt’s terms. But my understanding is from 10,000 feet at best.
But to the weather, etc. We’ve got daffodils coming in – I’d guess blooms within a week – and Iris starting to emerge. Our forecast is 39 today and mid 40s to upper 50s for the next week – all in February. SFB asked where global warming went – well, it’s back, at least in WV. (And the East Coast will get snow so we’ll here the snarky comments from the mouth breathers.
Finally, WV teachers are on strike today over state legislation pending that would take public school funds to establish charter schools. Glad the teachers get it – our idiot legislature certainly doesn’t.
Aren’t there several Democratic candidates for prez talking about putting higher taxes on the wealthy if they get in office.
And correct me if I’m wrong… but didn’t Bernie go back to being an Independent after the 2016 election. And if so… wouldn’t that mean the Democratic Party has to allow him to run again as a Democrat. WTF….is there something I’m missing or just don’t get…
Off topic to be sure. Sorry.
NoBernie no way! As much as anybody I hold him responsible for the election of Donald Trump.
I don’t think anyone myself included realised the damage his campaign damaged HRC. All his talk of a rigged primary and his continued campaign after it was evident that he had no chance of winning opened the door for Trump.He was far more damaging to HRC than anything the Russians could have done.
He has had his fifteen minutes of fame and he needs to go away quietly. Democrats don’t need him in this cycle and this democrat doesn’t want him anywhere close to the primaries.
Bernie who ? I don’t see him on the party rolls.
Let’s save some money by withdrawing our subsidy of International BIG Oil. If saudi Arabia and the Gulf States want their oil to arrive safely in India and Japan, they can protect the oil train itself, or pay the US for two fleets. A carbon tax would help speed the conversion to solar, geothermal, and wind power. The money saved could be earmarked for debt reduction over the first 5 to 10 years.
We can switch the direct oil subsidy to a solar subsidy that’ll pay for itself in a few years.
We can cease subsidizing sugar, and tax it instead. The money raised could be earmarked for health care.
We could also dramatically increase the tax on airwaves, with the increased revenue earmarked for the military. The selling point being that 1 radio station = a cruise missile. rightwing radio can’t look like it wants to weaken our troops & leave the nation defenseless. (snickers cynically)
Patd,
Thank you, we will do our best to keep things up and running.
I apologize in advance if there a few glitches early on while I learn the ropes.
Trailmixers all, please feel free to contribute posts and We will get them up.?
A 20% tax on donations to political campaigns and pacs. The funds raised should be earmarked for reducing the federal debt.
Now there’s a second example of putin telling trump how to deal with US security. Use of the 25th Amendment is definitely in order.
Lock him up. Lock them ALL up
wapo:
Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said Tuesday that officials briefed a bipartisan group of lawmakers after the bureau opened an investigation into President Trump in May 2017, and that no one in the room pushed back.
“That’s the important part here, Savannah,” McCabe said in an interview with Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today” show. “No one objected. Not on legal grounds, not on constitutional grounds and not based on the facts.”
[…]
The briefing, McCabe said, was with the Gang of Eight — a bipartisan group of lawmakers comprising the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the leaders from both parties of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
McCabe — who is in the middle of a media tour promoting his new book, “The Threat” — told Guthrie the FBI felt it had good reason to investigate Trump in May 2017 after he fired James B. Comey as the bureau’s director. He said the bureau thought it was “possible” that Trump was working on behalf of Russia, and opening a case signified that the FBI was treating the matter as a national security threat.
“It is saying that we had information that led us to believe that there might be a threat to national security — in this case that the president himself might, in fact, be a threat to the United States’ national security,” McCabe said.
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from darcy column in plain dealer
Rachel Maddow looks at Donald Trump’s outsized panic at the possibility that his business dealings with Deutsche Bank were being investigated by the special counsel and notes that now Democrats are pursuing those avenue of inquiry without the vulnerability of being fired by Trump for crossing his supposed red lines.
Ann Telnaes nailed it yesterday (I hope this posts)
Let’s try again.
Nope. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
And really, what is this posting too quickly bullshit?
Pogo… let me try…
A very nice thing about enjoying illness (my neighbor was home sick for ten days with this thing) is only surfacing every now and then to check the obituaries and being disappointed then crawling back under the covers. During one moment of delirium or was it hunger, I stopped in at MicroCenter and selected the parts to make a new computer. It took a while to put it together, laying down frequently slowed progress. Today it is up and running. What a difference in speed.
Looks like Roger the rat is going to enjoy a regimented lifestyle. Good for him.
bbronc, yep, roger’s in for it now
politico:
The federal judge presiding over Roger Stone’s case said Tuesday she’s considering gagging or jailing the longtime Donald Trump associate after he posted images on Instagram targeting her.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Stone to appear at a Thursday afternoon hearing in Washington, D.C., to explain why his social media posts shouldn’t change the terms of Stone’s bond and why she shouldn’t impose harsh new restrictions on his speech.
[…]
Jackson’s reactions in other Mueller-related cases could be a sign that Stone is in for a rough hearing Thursday. The same judge slapped a gag order on Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, as well as their attorneys, in the fall of 2017, just days after the special counsel’s initial indictment against the former Trump campaign chairman and his deputy. She also jailed Manafort last June — he’s remained in federal custody ever since — after prosecutors accused him of witness tampering.
[…]
Stone, who was released from custody on a $250,000 bond after his arrest, is currently under court restrictions that limit his travel to south Florida, New York and the Washington D.C. area. He’s also not allowed to contact any potential witnesses in his case.
lock him up
Blue Bronc,
Did you send in a post? I have one in drafts that looks like yours.
jace
RR, tyvm. I haven’t mastered shrinking images. One of these days …
Oh, and the focus of the Stone kerfuffle has been the image he posted. Screw that – If I were him I’d be much more concerned with the message he posted along with the image. I can hear it now – a pissed off federal judge saying something like, “Mr. Stone, could you explain to me why I should believe your apology is sincere for posting a picture of me with what certainly looks like cross hairs and a message suggesting that the fix is in because I was appointed by President Obama when the reason you are before me in the first place is that you stand accused of obstructing an investigation and lying on at least five occasions? Before you answer I suggest you consider exactly how low on the scale your purported sincerity strikes me. Now go ahead and tell me why I should believe you.”
The scariest thing about the National Debt is that it is owned by Americans i.e. Social Security and the Congress that ran up the debt doesn’t want to pay it back with interest and now wants to call Social Security insolvent.
Who Owns The National Debt
Dodgers fans mourn the loss of Don Newcombe today. He was 92.
Jace – no. While I was writing that reply I decided to write a full article, but due to the content, which tended to the oblique from our typical posting, I posted it on my website and did not create a TrailMix post.
big story in NYTimes about evidence of trump attempting obstruction. talking heads all agog.
WASHINGTON — As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation, according to several American officials with direct knowledge of the call.
Mr. Whitaker, who had privately told associates that part of his role at the Justice Department was to “jump on a grenade” for the president, knew he could not put Mr. Berman in charge because Mr. Berman had already recused himself from the investigation. The president soon soured on Mr. Whitaker, as he often does with his aides, and complained about his inability to pull levers at the Justice Department that could make the president’s many legal problems go away.
Trying to install a perceived loyalist atop a widening inquiry is a familiar tactic for Mr. Trump, who has been struggling to beat back the investigations that have consumed his presidency. His efforts have exposed him to accusations of obstruction of justice as Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, finishes his work investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump’s public war on the inquiry has gone on long enough that it is no longer shocking. Mr. Trump rages almost daily to his 58 million Twitter followers that Mr. Mueller is on a “witch hunt” and has adopted the language of Mafia bosses by calling those who cooperate with the special counsel “rats.” His lawyer talks openly about a strategy to smear and discredit the special counsel investigation. The president’s allies in Congress and the conservative news media warn of an insidious plot inside the Justice Department and the F.B.I. to subvert a democratically elected president.
An examination by The New York Times reveals the extent of an even more sustained, more secretive assault by Mr. Trump on the machinery of federal law enforcement. Interviews with dozens of current and former government officials and others close to Mr. Trump, as well as a review of confidential White House documents, reveal numerous unreported episodes in a two-year drama.
White House lawyers wrote a confidential memo expressing concern about the president’s staff peddling misleading information in public about the firing of Michael T. Flynn, the Trump administration’s first national security adviser. Mr. Trump had private conversations with Republican lawmakers about a campaign to attack the Mueller investigation. And there was the episode when he asked his attorney general about putting Mr. Berman in charge of the Manhattan investigation.
Mr. Whitaker, who this month told a congressional committee that Mr. Trump had never pressured him over the various investigations, is now under scrutiny by House Democrats for possible perjury.
On Tuesday, after The Times article published, Mr. Trump denied that he had asked Mr. Whitaker if Mr. Berman could be put in charge of the investigation. “No, I don’t know who gave you that, that’s more fake news,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s a lot of fake news out there. No, I didn’t.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Tuesday that the White House had not asked Mr. Whitaker to interfere in the investigations. “Under oath to the House Judiciary Committee, then-Acting Attorney General Whitaker stated that ‘at no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel’s investigation or any other investigation,’” said the spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec. “Mr. Whitaker stands by his testimony.”
The story of Mr. Trump’s attempts to defang the investigations has been voluminously covered in the news media, to such a degree that many Americans have lost track of how unusual his behavior is. But fusing the strands reveals an extraordinary story of a president who has attacked the law enforcement apparatus of his own government like no other president in history, and who has turned the effort into an obsession. Mr. Trump has done it with the same tactics he once used in his business empire: demanding fierce loyalty from employees, applying pressure tactics to keep people in line and protecting the brand — himself — at all costs.
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jace, I sent in a draft plus I emailed you about it twice. you may not have seen them as they were replies to a previous message.
It’s not your fault, pogo- WordPress is terribly out-dated technology. I think the developers stopped maintaining it, years ago.
roger stone could be fishing for a (perceived) softer judge. Or, he might figure that Judge Berman’s reaction to his antics could be the basis for an appeal of the inevitable conviction. If so, this is a dangerous gambit. Some criminals, like trump, seem to get sustenance from the feeling of power. Others get it from the thrill of hand-feeding crocodiles or skiing down Mt Everest. It seems to me that stone is one of the latter.
Roger Stone a lifetime of criminal and immoral behavior — and I do not include his interest in swinging in that category that is merely icky.
No to Bernie
Bink, I know. I wasn’t taking blame, I was assigning it.
KC, ditto.
McCabe is doing a good job of pointing out SFB’s lies. McCabe is not the kind of guy I typically find compelling. I find him compelling.