National Debt vs GDP - why does it matter?

[vaylorie]

HBB,
As I said, defense shouldn't be exempt from cuts and very likely needs reforms. Looking at defense as a focus point when it actually represents less than 15% of government spending while turning a blind eye to the 500 lb gorilla in the room of mandatory spending is foolish. Especially as there aren't ever-increasing obligations that are expected to grow tremendously in the coming years with defense given that congress evaluates it every year as part of a budget process.

[pickled_heretic]

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less than 15%? naw dude. also it's a larger piece of the pie than discretionary spending fwiw.

[pickled_heretic]

if you're serious about spending cuts and your discussion does not discuss all three of the big line items, your efforts will be futile.

[Aadill]

and that's what the automatic cuts are going to do.

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by Kraftwerk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I concur in that we need to cut spending. Military spending in 2011 is ~$700B. But you know what else we need to cut, permanently? Obamacare. Medicare/Medicaid is already ~$800B this year (Social security is a nice #2 at $730B) and the insanity that is healthcare for everyone will cost us an arm and a leg. .

people keep repeating this, but seriously? even before we had 'obamacare' we were already spending more per capita on health care than any other industrialized nation in the world... if other nations can provide health care for everyone for less, why can't we?

[Aadill]

Originally Posted by pickled_heretic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

if other nations can provide health care for everyone for less, why can't we?

the problem that BOTH sides of the argument forget is that we have 310 million people in our country. You can't cover them all but you sure as fuck can't forget them either. Obamacare was supposed to help cover the forgotten at a slight expense to everyone else.. people object to caring about other people and that's where opposition comes from.

[pickled_heretic]

yes, we have 310 million people in our country, who cares? we also have a GDP to match that number.

[vaylorie]

Yeah,... Defense Spending is the problem...


(as a % of GDP)
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[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by vaylorie [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

(as a % of GDP)

stopped reading, we're talking about federal budgets not GDP, thanks.

[pickled_heretic]

honestly you could not have posted a more asinine and irrelevant graph.