Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Six charts from the CBO that spell big trouble for the U.S.

Jim Pethokoukis points us to a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office (PDF) that includes some extremely troubling graphs.

Catastrophic budget deficits and unemployment levels (purposefully understated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) as far as the eye can see. The good news? By 2022 the economy will have collapsed been "fundamentally transformed" under soaring interest rates and unpayable debts.

Obama can blame Bush, Martin Van Buren, or Mary Tyler Moore -- but the facts are simple: those last four bars are owned 100% by the Democrat Party. The Stimulus package, which I like to call "the most audacious armed robbery in world history" continues to be spent every year as it is built into the baseline budget. Which somehow seems to escape legacy media's attention as they discuss taxing "the rich", "oil companies", "doctors who charge $30,000 for an amputation", and anyone else who tries to make an honest living.

The CBO defines the GDP gap as, essentially, the delta between where the GDP is and where it should be. They're too diplomatic to put it the way I would, which is: "the difference between where the GDP is now and where it would be if we didn't have a radical ideologue beholden to the environmental flat-Earth no-growth Marxists and the public sector union bosses as president".

I don't believe the CBO's projections for the future, especially in the case of this chart. There's a concept called "reversion to mean" that, roughly translated, says that figures generally return to their average. Note the average interest rates the country's seen over the last four decades. Now add in the monstrous amounts of global debt that lies lurking, ready to smash into the global economy at any moment thanks to the insanity of bankers and their surrogates in government. We'll be lucky if we only see a reversion to the mean over the next 10 or 15 years.

• "The U.S. housing industry, where experts believe the economic crisis began, is the target of President Barack Obama's latest initiative to strengthen the economy. Mr. Obama has unveiled a $75 billion plan to prevent as many as nine million Americans from losing their homes." (2/18/2009)

• "Obama expands mortgage modification effort - Under fire to do more to stop the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration announced new mortgage modification steps on Friday to help the unemployed and those who are "underwater" with a bigger loan than their home is worth." (3/26/2010)

• "OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR TARGETED FORECLOSURE-PREVENTION PROGRAMS TO HELP HOMEOWNERS STRUGGLING WITH UNEMPLOYMENT - Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund Will Provide $2 Billion of Additional Assistance in 17 states and the District of Columbia; HUD to Launch a New $1 Billion Program to Help Unemployed Borrowers in Other Areas..." (8/11/2010)

• "Obama’s Plan Announced - On Monday, the Obama administration announced a plan which will attempt to help struggling homeowners refinance their mortgages." (10/31/2011)

I got a million more of 'em.

Hey, isn't central planning grand?

If we don't vote these malevolent Statists out of office in November, this country may be gone.


5 comments:

  1. Do the charts assume Obama will still be in office past 2013?

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  2. NOTHING A MOON BASED COLONY CAN'T FIX!

    :)

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  3. Anonymous10:17 PM

    ReliaPundit: Your comment is brilliant! The corollary of your thinking is that the CBO is SO optimistic, they're assuming:
    -Obama is OUT on his ass,
    -Americans get serious about our 'problem',
    -Illegal aliens are gone, poor people take the jobs with vigorous enthusiasm and develop work-ethic,
    -Repubs get 60 votes in Senate and turn on the energy-production drilling, nuclear, etc, vigorously.
    -All govt entities freeze their DB pension plans thus saving taxpayers hundreds of billions each year,
    -Regulations and tax rates are reduced,
    .....That's what could make the CBO projections realistic. We can only hope!! In fact, it's our ONLY HOPE! All the above!!

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  4. Great points but I can't agree.

    The numbers used in these graphs are fudged figures to begin with. This is "garbage data in, garbage data out" thinking. Structurally, we are screwed. Republicans are no better than Democrats. They are all self centered thieves. This cannot be fixed by a bunch of spineless, sackless, elite bastards and their banker masters.

    It's over. Fact. Unless you have some miraculous way to pay 16.2 trillion in debt with another 70 trillion coming due. Good luck with that fantasy thinking.

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  5. "Catastrophic"? It looks to me like, by every measure, things are projected to improve, not get worse.

    What am I supposed to be seeing when I look at these charts? Are you upset that the economy isn't projected to improve quickly enough?

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