(CNSNews.com) – When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be “no new deficit spending.” Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
“After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,” Pelosi said in her speech from the speaker’s podium. “Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.”
Pelosi has served as speaker in the 110th and 111th Congresses.
At the close of business on Jan. 4, 2007, Pelosi’s first day as speaker, the national debt was $8,670,596,242,973.04 (8.67 trillion), according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. At the close of business on Oct. 22, it stood at $13,667,983,325,978.31 (13.67 trillion), an increase of 4,997,387,083,005.27 (or approximately $5 trillion).
Pelosi, the 60th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has added more to the national debt than the first 57 House speakers combined.
Words do have meaning… to some of us.
She is a bitter and disillusioned woman now. The only reason she is still smiling is because Botox gives her no choice
Actually, she could care less. She and her millionaire husband reaping no bid contracts are happily raking it in.
They all lie, all the time.
Hey, I can’t stand Nancy Pelosi but if you think that anyone would be not able to increase deficit spending when our entire economy took a crap than you are a complete moron.
This is a non-point. Next time you want to criticize Pelosi point out the dozens of oher idiotic things she’s done(Cap and Trade, revoking most of FISA).
Good info about history of US deficit.
#3 is right. In times of national calamity you spend. Other big national problems have seen spending in excess, by percentage of GDP, of today.
The right has been trying to sink the New Deal programs for years by spending excessively. After years of spending while we should have been saving now we should save when there is an actual, not manufactured, emergency?
The party of Reagan/Bush II telling the Dems about excessive spending?
Surely you jest.
The states that have kept their budgets in balance have been doing better than the ones that haven’t. If it is just this deficit spending that is keeping the economy in shape, why are so many of the new jobs disproportionately in Texas? Is it all from Swift Boater Pickens’ windmill subsidies?
#3, #4
I guess the Europeans are morons too? The world is waking up to the fact that spending to get out of a recession is wrong. The Japanese are up to their eyeballs in debt and it has wrecked their economy for the next generation or so. Spending to get out a recession extends the pain, provides less flexibility for dealing with a real crisis like a war and makes things worse in the long run.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jeremywarner/100008311/will-someone-please-shut-krugman-up/
The New Deal never actually got us out of the depression. By 1940, after eight years of government spending, we still had over 15% unemployment. Certainly, drafting half the workforce is a way of reducing unemployment if that is what you are suggesting.
@#3 All other idiotic things Pelosi have bee doing are big part of why economy have been taken to crapper and why there was any need for deficit. Also, if Congress have been run with fiscal discipline in the time of drowning in the crapper, additional spending would have been significantly smaller (one could ague at least 20% less: no stimulus or up to 50% less: no stimulus, no union bailouts, no BigBusiness bailouts, no owning of the whole industries, no money for Fanny and Freddie,…) and some would claim that we’d be better off in every aspect under such conditions.
It is not merely her spending the country into oblivion. It is her obnoxious “holier than thou” attitude that is infuriating.
“we have to pass the health care measure in order to find out what is in it”
What the FUCK!??
Is everybody asleep?
Or when a reporter asked her where in the United States Constitution it allowed her and her cronies to compel every American to buy a product, she replied, “Are you SERIOUS?, are you SERIOUS?” As if it were a major insult to her for someone to question her knowledge of the Constitution. Well, gang, Dvorak has it right. Nullification. That’s what we need to do.
Not to bring up non-revisionist history but I remembering the few, admittedly feeble attempt to institute pay-go legislation by the Dems met with total obstruction by the Repugs. I mean, Dems instituting Republican plans (of several years prior) were blocked by some of the same Republicans who were for them in the past.
Oh, and then there’s this little thing called (by any reasonable measure) a depression (oh, I’m sorry,) great recessions instituted by Shrub but certainly brought about by some Blue Dog Dems and a majority of Republicans who didn’t want such necessary things as regulations (that would have prevented said recession). The only known cure in historical record for such a horrible de… erp, recessions was to, in effect, spend your way out of it, as in Keynesian Economics. Remember 1929, mess? Remember that it was only through consistent deficit spending that we got out of that mess (not just WWII as some cloudy headed historians claim)? Remember how every time the spending slowed, the economy faultered? Remember how every time programs such as the WPA, CCC, etc. got money to hire workers, the economy grew and got better?
Nah, if your currently voting Republican or Tea Party (howls of derisive laughter off-stage) you probably won’t even look at those facts.
And by all means, let’s not get liberals in power that want to return to those FDR/Keynesian policies that saved the country. Let’s vote conservative or just plain crazy and hand even more power to oligarchs.
If our country is failing now, it is because we have ignored the lessons of the past and mindlessly voted for quick-talking rich, corrupt, conservative, oligarchic controlled marionettes. In other words, we’re giving the country back to the monarchs we won independence from.
Oh, and #6, your reading of history is selective and completely flawed because of it. But don’t look at facts or read, say, any nobel prize winning economists who would beg to differ from you. As I alluded to earlier, every time we spent money putting people to work, pumping money into our economy, spending by the public went up, our economy actually got better AND unemployment dropped. It also had something to do with the fact that this money was funneled through the government rather than through a big business filter to hire people as we frequently have now. The government didn’t just let big business control things and give money to them to give to people but did it more directly to the populace. In other words, the efficiency of government run programs helped get us out of the depression too.
But I guess if you can’t read easy charts you’ll just make up statistics to suit your own need. And no, I’m not gonna bother putting links to posts to back me up because anyone can do that with google or by reading Krugman. It’s really that easy. The only people who think Keynesian economics are wrong are those who either have less than a basic understanding of economics or have something in it for themselves by denying it works.
#9
The only known cure in historical record for such a horrible de… erp, recessions was to, in effect, spend your way out of it, as in Keynesian Economics. Remember 1929, mess?
Sorry but you are wrong. Spending has never gotten a country out of a recession. Before the war, we still had 15% unemployment. It was only the drafting of half the country’s workforce that got us out of the depression. Further, it’s not like the standard of living improved until well after the war. Since none of our manufacturing was bombed, we had a decided lead over everyone in the world for decades. Further, Keynes/Krugman’s theory requires that Congress *not spend* when times are good which is akin to sending a teen aged boy to a strip club and telling him not to get a hard-on. Lastly, where does the spending stop? Suppose we are still in a recession and our debt load is 60% of GDP. Do we continue to spend? What about 100% of GDP? What about the situation where the Japanese are now with 200% of GDP? In the long run, spending to get out of a recession simply does not work. It robs Peter to pay Paul. It takes money out of the taxpayer’s hands and redistributes it at pennies on the dollar.
Economics–one of the better subject matters where anybody can say or think whatever they want to supported by graphs, charts, and historical examples all correct or not and feel vindicated while all others are dopes. SO==you gotta go “behind” the totally convinced positions to other positions held by your adversaries.
Do they think taxes are a form of slavery?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Do they think cutting taxes always results in additional income?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Do they think rich people create jobs with their windfall profits?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Do they think they are better off if estates over 25 Million don’t pay death taxes?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Do they think that providing tax credits to move jobs offshore helps establish free trade?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Do they think that minimum wage reduces the number of jobs available?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Do they think children should be given the freedom to work for free/reduced wages/experience as interns?===Then you are dealing with an idiot. Ignore all their pronouncements.
Course you probably have caught on by now that all the above is brought to you by free market republican thinking. Yes, they are all idiots. Anti-American too.
Stupid Humans All.
#10
There are armies of economists that made their PhD showing that Keynes was wrong (the best example is Milton Friedman) and that spending did not get us out of the depression. Just before the war, the unemployment rate was higher than it is now and that’s after eight years of wild spending. Read the article I posted in #6. The Europeans are waking up to the fact that you cannot spend indefinitely in the vain hopes of getting out of a recession. All it does it prolong the pain.
Say Thomas==you sound quite convinced. Care to share you judgment on the background questions?
keynes worked in its day but in global economies it has been a disaster for us. by pumping up the us economy through tax cuts and spending all the money went to asian companies/countries that dumped cheap products here. since the carter/reagan recessions to now we have transfered so much wealth to asia it is almost incalculable and all so politicians could get reelected. outsourcing, disfranchising , over inflating our dollar… the russians attacking us directly couldn’t have done the combined damage of the dems and the republicans. we have to stop the madness of trying to spend our way out of this mess and start paying down the debt and strengthen the dollar.. but how do you do it when the economy is so wacked and we are so dependent on asia. good question i doubt even keynes would have the answer to.
@Thomas
Which Europeans are waking up, specifically? I don’t think the French are waking up and neither are the Greeks or Italians. The Brits may have gotten the message though. It won’t happen in the good ‘ol US of A until the world stops buying our Treasury bonds. Then the shit will hit the
Usually when you’re lying. Your mouth gets dry. As you can see at the end of the video. She was going for the water. Her mouth was almost ready to seal shut. It’s just too bad it didn’t.
Did you hear her at :26 she says “Our NEW AMERICA” I didn’t want a new America, I like the one the founding father made.
Do they think taxes are a form of slavery?
No. Silly idea. However, debt could be construed as a form of slavery.
Do they think cutting taxes always results in additional income?
It certainly does to the person whose taxes are reduced.
Do they think rich people create jobs with their windfall profits?
They will not if they do not invest in new business starts or to help expand an existing business. There are many forms of investment and only a portion of them actually lead to new jobs.
Do they think they are better off if estates over 25 Million don’t pay death taxes?
Who is “they”? The person with 25 million that may or may not have to pay death taxes? Certainly that person would be better off. Are the rest of us better off because they do not have to pay death taxes is probably the question you are trying to ask.
Do they think that providing tax credits to move jobs offshore helps establish free trade?
No since the two concepts are orthogonal. Further, the idea that someone creates tax credits for the express intent of moving jobs offshore is silly. Instead what happens is that a corporation lobbies for tax credits and still moves jobs offshore because the costs are still lower than not moving.
Do they think that minimum wage reduces the number of jobs available?
The entire field of microeconomics along with current evidence disagrees with you. When the minimum wage is increased, businesses have three choices: 1. raise prices/revenue, 2. lower costs, 3. lower profit margin. Since choice #3 is the very last choice they will take, it comes down to some combination of #1 and #2 and typically the place where they have control over variable costs is labor. Further, as prices go up, demand decreases which causes a decrease in supply or supplied services (microeconomics 101). I.e., businesses retract. In microeconomics, minimum wages are considered a form of a price floor whose effects are well known.
Do they think children should be given the freedom to work for free/reduced wages/experience as interns?
Define “children”. Newborns? Obviously not. 18 yr olds? Sure. 16 yr olds? Maybe. It is common for high school and college students to take internships to gain experience. They are not obligated to take jobs with no wages or reduced wages (but obviously cannot be lower than the minimum wage) nor are businesses obligated to offer them. Like businesses, labor competes in the marketplace. You are as valuable as your employer’s ability to replace you. If you are difficult to replace, you are more valuable to the employer and the higher the wage you can command. A HS student with no experience can easily be replaced and thus does not demand as high a wage as someone with five to ten years experience. It should also be noted that people also have the freedom to choose a different employer if they do not like job or pay they currently have. Don’t like being paid nothing? Don’t take an internship.
#16
The Greeks are a great example of the result of Keynesian economics. According to Krugman, they should start spending faster to get out the recession, right?
Pelosi is a lying witch. It’s as simple as that. And yes she’s done a LOT of idiotic things.
Yeah, but that was before the Bush economic meltdown in late 2008.
Oh, and President Obama is free to send troops to Iraq if they declare war on the US.
#18
“Did you hear her at :26 she says “Our NEW AMERICA” I didn’t want a new America, I like the one the founding father made.”
Well you are late by about 130 years.
1. Build time machine
2. Set to 1840
3. Bust time machine
4. Profit
You will never see THAT USA again.
Cursor_
#19–Thomas==whats that level of mental deficiency one step above imbecile? Is it idiot or moron? I do want to give you your credit due.
Yes, the defective building blocks used to build a defective grand theory. Much more clear to go after the bricks than the building.
Still, can’t be too negative as “who knows?” but that is a well beaten horse, but how can I soar like an eagle when I’m surrounded by turkeys?
There is synergy in working “together”, but only a downward spiral race to the bottom when the motto is: “I’ve got mine, screw you.”
Poor Thomas.
#24
The problem here is that you have a fundamental ignorance with respect to microeconomics. Specifically, you do not fundamentally understand how firms and individuals make decisions in the face of scarcity. So, instead, your solution is resort to ad hominems when you have no basis for a retort.
In order to work together both parties have to be grounded. If one wants to go off and fly like an eagle, it does nothing towards the goal of finding solutions. Having an apathetic, site-around-the-campfire-singing-kumbayah, “it’ll all work out on its own cause I’m too ignorant and too unmotivated to find out on my own” is frankly a worse motto. Doubly worse if you vote with that attitude.
We shouldn’t have been running deficits in 2007. We should be running them in 2010. This is conservative economics which, these days, only the Democrats seem to believe in.
Conservative economics say you are supposed to run surpluses when the economy is up so that you CAN run deficits when the economy is down.
But REPUBLICAN economics say that you run INSANE deficits when the conservatives are in power and then CRY LIKE BABIES about spending when the Democrats are in power. This is insane.
BTW, any of you aware that deficits are down this year? Did Fox or even the supposed “liberal” media tell you that?
http://tinyurl.com/2fgzdds
Why? Because the stimulus package worked and increased revenue – just as it is supposed to under (real) conservative economics.
Yep. When you take a loan from China to pay off your unimaginable debt, you get temporary stability. That is, until the bill arrives. Good job idiots. You’ve sold us out to China by the trillions.
#26. “Why? Because the stimulus package worked and increased revenue – just as it is supposed to under (real) conservative economics.”
ROTFLMAO….because words just fail me at the moment. Man I have seen you post some stupid shit……but the award goes to you. I can’t take it anymore.
Government didn’t recover our economy. Private businesses made huge sacrifices to rebuild our economy. The only recovery the stimulus assisted in was the recovery of bloated government from going bankrupt. We basically took out another loan because we couldn’t pay our current one. Idiots.
“Democracy in Deficit” by James M. Buchanan is a must read if you want to learn about why Western nations have been spent themselves into the ground during the past 70 years.