Lesson in budgeting

[Brian Ellis]

Let's imagine you knew a family whose financial situation looked like this?

Annual family income $21,700
Money the family spend $38,200
Increase in credit card debt $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card $142,710
Total budget cuts so far $38.50

Looks unhealthy, doesn't it?

...

...

Now, let's add a few zeroes:

U.S. Tax revenue $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget $3,820,000,000,000
Increase in debt $1,650,000,000,000
National debt $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cuts $38,500,000,000

Does that look any better?

Here is another way to look at the debt ceiling.
Lets say, you come home from work & find, there has been a sewer backup in your house & there is sewage all the way up to your ceilings.
What do you think you should do?
Raise the ceilings, or remove the shit?

[UtwigMU]

Heard another good comparison.

Like a guy who instead of getting another job (raising revenue) or cutting spendings buys new car and quits his job.

[dZeus]

Let's imagine you knew a family whose financial situation looked like this?

Annual family income $21,700
Money the family spend $38,200
Increase in credit card debt $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card $142,710
Total budget cuts so far $38.50

Looks unhealthy, doesn't it?

...

...

Now, let's add a few zeroes:

U.S. Tax revenue $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget $3,820,000,000,000
Increase in debt $1,650,000,000,000
National debt $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cuts $38,500,000,000

Does that look any better?

Here is another way to look at the debt ceiling.
Lets say, you come home from work & find, there has been a sewer backup in your house & there is sewage all the way up to your ceilings.
What do you think you should do?
Raise the ceilings, or remove the shit?

You left out the fact that the family can print money if they need to, and has control over a big military that makes sure that the world uses their currency to buy things like oil. In fact, because of the arrangements, the rest of the world depends on this family spending more than it earns.

This changes things considerably, up until the point where rest of the world no longer wants the family's money. At that point, the family needs to make sure it can live without needing to get too much stuff from the rest of the world. Increased domestic energy production is of key importance to that.

[cjolley]

You could also add that the family business has $150,000/y in cash flow but they won't give themselves a raise to pay for the things they insist on buying.
They talk a big game but would rather keep the cash and live off the credit card.