Comments for Representative Ryan Can't Tell the Difference Between Greece and the United States: Where Is the Ridicule? at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 16 out of 16 comments http://www.cepr.net Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:04:14 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6680 I think you are being a bit unfair. Just because Mr. Ryan says the U.S. could be "like" Greece does not mean exactly so. Would you not agree that if over the next 30 years our federal government's fiscal condition continues on its current path that our balance sheet might be "like" Greece's? The latest CBO Outlook shows public debt o/s moving to 78% of GDP by 2021---before the worst of the Medicare spending kicks in. In its 2009 outlook, the CBO showed that public debt could be 300% of GDP by 2080. Would you not think that would in some way make us like Greece today? - Rich Hodde Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:24:52 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6618 Ryan is smarter than you dorks think.... i'd love to see any of you debate him on the budget. greece was an "analogy" you fool. basically, if we don't get our fiscal house in order, bad things will happen - very bad things. does anyone think we can sustain this trajectory? - W. Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:18:31 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6617 I'm not sure who coined the phrase but someone said a gaffe is when a politician inadvertantly tells the truth. - scottinnj Thu, 27 Jan 2011 06:40:55 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6616 He may actually not know, politicians are experts on only one thing and that is getting elected. It is more important that median vote know but he is rationally ignorant. Now that is an argument for free banking. - Floccina Thu, 27 Jan 2011 05:02:34 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6615 Trillions of U.S. Debt, % of GDP (Actual, 2010) 9.018 62.1% Debt Held by the Public 4.509 31 % Debt held by Govt Accounts 13.527 93.1% Totals From Table C2 http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12039/01-26_FY2011Outlook.pdf You have to be consistent. If the bonds in the SS trust fund are an asset to SS, then they are a liability to the federal government. - AndrewDover Thu, 27 Jan 2011 02:34:57 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6614 So, lets see, the key to prosperity for the US then is to keep the printer going... Since we borrow in our own currency, and we pay back that debt in our own currency, hell lets keep printing until we can borrow enough to buy everything, and then we'll print more to simply pay back what we owe. This is stupidity that Ryan is talking about. He is not saying that we are some little fly speck of a nation, with crap for currency, he is saying that the road to ruin is in front of us, we can hit the breaks and preserve the value of our currency now, so that it actually continues to have value in the future, or we can take another shot of vodka (stimulus, monetary easing, whatever they call printing new money these days) or five, and get to the work of finding a wall to run into. What a stupid assertion that we can just keep on printing and everyone in the world will keep right on playing our game... I think I hear a printer starting up DC... You like Smirnoff or Stoli? - What? Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:59:10 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6611 [i]U S politicians have promised many benefits that cannot possibly be paid.[/i] They can't be paid - now - because the obligations are in the future. The future will take care of itself if we take care of the present. This unfunded obligations BS is like calculating the amount of uh, excrement the human race will produce in the next century and concluding we are all about to be drowned in a tsunamis of sh*t. Flush as you go, like pay as you go, works a lot better. And skeptonomist - the principal [i]financial[/i] difference between Greece and the USA is having our own currency. - Calgacus Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:30:43 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6610 Greece's debt amounts to 110% of their GDP. Our adds up to about 60% of GDP--not healthy, but certainly nowhere near Greece's. - signsanssignified Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:21:51 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6609 I disagree. There can't be a handful of people inside the beltway who understand economics. But the lobbyist and patronage folks are as dishonest as can be, so they've got that covered too. - fuller schmidt Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:43:06 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6606 He is simply dishonest (gee, another dishonest political hack in DC - who da thunk it?) The media doesn't call him on it because it likes the story of U.S.=Greece. The media can write and talk about it week after week and month after month. No doubt we will still be hearing it years from now. Here's a news flash from DC: FACTS DON'T MATTER! Only the story matters, i.e., the BP oil "disaster" the the Gulf of Mexico that would last forever. - paul Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:51:05 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6605 over his potential Republican foes. For that he needs lots of Wall Street 'votes'. His actions as President, his 'compromises', are easy to understand in that context. - fairleft Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:00:20 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6604 U S politicians have promised many benefits that cannot possibly be paid--current value of unfunded Federal liabilities of $100 Trillion. The sovereign debt problem started in Iceland, moved to Dubai and then to Greece/Eastern Europe. It is migrating through Europe and has already raised interest rates in many countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium. Japan is on the radar and England was in the crosshairs until the recent election. The option of either printing money to buy the debt or buying our own debt involves much higher interest rates in a country that is too highly leveraged. Our consumers must move to more savings and less consumption. This would surely happen if interest rates jumped but there would be no growth in the economy under that scenario. Yes the dollar would fall and we would see imports decrease and exports increase but it will not create enough jobs to make up for the jobs killed by higher interest rates. The U S is on notice by the credit rating agencies for a downgrade and if we fail to address government spending; we will destroy our standard of living. Either we get more efficient or we decline. Government is a cost of doing business and we are coming close to finding out that government borrowing has a high cost. The real issue is the old versus the young and it is to the advantage of the young to demand fiscal responsibility in government now. The sovereign debt problem is not over; it is migrating and we need to pay attention or pay the price. - Alex Sinclair Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:08:27 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6603 Those like Krugman who think that if a country has its own currency and its own Maestros it can surmount any problems - or even such problems as those faced by Greece and the other problem countries of Europe - are going overboard. Many countries which are not in Europe and have their own currencies have encountered problems of inflation, bad credit, etc. and have not been able to overcome them with exports. If a country can't produce anything to export this is not a solution. The US is not nearly in this situation yet, though it seems to be going in that direction. Of course cutting entitlement programs is not a solution either, either in Greece or the US. The US is not Greece but the principal difference is not our independent currency and our infallible Maestros. - skeptonomist Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:34:07 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6601 [quote]... Ryan suggested that the United States could be like Greece if it did not change its current budget path.[/quote] As one of the three founding members of the House GOP Young Guns Program, Ryan introduced the Roadmap budget program in 2010 designed to make the USA more like Greece by adding $4T to the deficit caused by tax cuts for the upper 5%. Don't be bitter with the macaca slurs Whose Your Nanny. Ryan understands the role of economic competition essential to recovery, so clinging to it desparately as a religion is a virtue, not a vice. Ryan can transform the USA into Greece faster than Obama ever could. May the best man win. - izzatzo Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:04:51 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6600 Ryan is pathetic. - J-Bentham Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:47:46 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/representative-ryan-cant-tell-the-difference-between-greece-and-the-united-states-where-is-the-ridicule#comment-6599 It seems that everyone missed the big headline, again, about SOTU. President Obama is offering to compromise before we've even begun, which means that he really wants to cut spending. Is he trying to kill his reelection prospects? - J-Bentham Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:46:35 +0100