Chuck Woolery on Budget Cuts

US Debt Visualized

One Hundred Dollars

$100 - Most counterfeited money denomination in the world.

Keeps the world moving.

Ten Thousand Dollars

$10,000 - Enough for a great vacation or to buy a used car.
Approximately one year of work for the average human on earth.

One Million Dollars

$1,000,000 - Not as big of a pile as you thought, huh?
Still this is 92 years of work for the average human on earth.

One Hundred Million Dollars

$100,000,000 - Plenty to go around for everyone.
Fits nicely on an ISO / Military standard sized pallet.

One Billion Dollars

$1,000,000,000 - You will need some help when robbing the bank.
Now we are getting serious!

One Trillion Dollars

$1,000,000,000,000 - When the U.S government speaks about a 1.7 trillion deficit - this is the volumes of cash the U.S. Government borrowed in 2010 to run itself.
 Keep in mind it is double stacked pallets of $100 million dollars each, full of $100 dollar bills. You are going to need a lot of trucks to freight this around. If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now...but ~$700 billion - same amount the banks got during bailout.

One Trillion Dollars

Comparison of $1,000,000,000,000 dollars to a standard sized American Football field and European Football field.
Say hello to the Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner that's hiding on the right. This was until recently the biggest passenger plane in the world.

15 Trillion Dollars

$15,000,000,000,000- Unless the U.S. government fixes the budget, US national debt (credit card bill) will topple 15 trillion by Christmas 2011.
 The Statue of Liberty seems rather worried as United States national debt passes 20% of the entire world's combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product). 
In 2011 the National Debt will exceed 100% of GDP, and venture into the 100%+ debt-to-GDP ratio that the European PIIGS have (bankrupting nations).

114.5 Trillion Dollars

$114,500,000,000,000 - US unfunded liabilities.
To the right you can see the pillar of cold hard $100 bills that dwarfs the 
WTC & Empire State Building - both at one point the world's tallest buildings.
 If you look carefully you can see the Statue of Liberty.
The 114.5 Trillion dollar super-skyscraper is the amount of money the U.S. Government 
knows it does not have to fully fund the Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, 
Social Security, Military and civil servant pensions. It is the money the USA knows it will not 
have to pay all its bills.
If you live in the USA, this is also your personal credit card bill; you are responsible along with 
everyone else to pay this back. The citizens of the USA created the U.S. Government to serve
 them, this is what the U.S. Government has done while serving The People.
The unfunded liability is calculated on current tax and funding inputs, and future demographic 
shifts in US Population.
Note: On the above 114.5T image the size of the base of the money pile is half a trillion, not 1T as on the 15T image. 
The height is double. This was done to reflect the base of Empire State and WTC more closely.
Everyone needs to see this.
Source: Federal Reserve & www.USdebtclock.org - visit it to see the debt in real time and get a better grasp of this amazing number.

Gene Simmons: “Capitalism is the best thing that ever happened"

'Debt crisis like fat people blaming bakers'

by Gene Simmons

THE first thing I would do if I was the benevolent dictator of planet Earth would be to fire all politicians — who are basically university lecturers in positions of power.

They might be able to quote the existential philosophers but that doesn't mean they know how to run businesses.

Countries are businesses — they have imports and exports and you want your exports to be higher than your imports so you can have a profit.

You want to make sure that whatever money you give out to your population is money that you can afford to send out.

Countries are a house of cards — and when the bottom few cards fall down they all topple over. Look at Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

If businessmen ran the country, this wouldn't happen. Richard Branson would make a great PM. He's more qualified.

Government makes money by taxing and spending.

It's so simple. If you spend more than you tax, you're out of business. MPs don't know what they're talking about.

And we created this miserable economic state. It's like fat people who think it's the bakery's fault they got fat.

No, you kept going in there and you kept eating cake. It's not the bakery's responsibility to tell you to slow down.

Banks shouldn't have to tell you not to borrow so much.

They're banks — they're supposed to lend you money. If you can't afford to take out £100,000, don't take out a £400,000 mortgage.

It's your responsibility to be a grown-up and take care of yourself.

Thank God we have lending institutions and banks. The planes that fly through the sky, the phones we use every day, the cars we drive, the houses we live in, the entire economy is all funded by firms who borrow in return for interest.

This mess is our fault — corporations have no responsibility.

Capitalism is the best thing that ever happened to human beings. The welfare state sounds wonderful but it doesn't work.

Governments hand out more money than they have to support welfare and they land in debt.

Then they have to borrow money — and then there's interest on top of that.

That's bad business. And it has created a culture of entitlement.

When I was growing up my mother went to work. There was no welfare. If you worked, you made money.

If you didn't work, you had to figure it out — you'd go and wash dishes.

The new breed of 20-year-olds don't want to do those jobs.

So people from other countries come over and are thrilled to get the chance to wipe the floors.

Kiss are the only business-savvy band about and I make no apologies for that.

We outsell The Beatles and Elvis put together.

People say things like: "Oh, you make so much money. What do you need any more for?"

Well, actually, I never asked for your opinion. I'll let you know when I have enough money.

What About The 51% Who Pay No Taxes?

Disapproval Rate for Congress at Record 82% After Debt Talks

by Michael Cooper and Megan Thee-Brenan

The debate over raising the debt ceiling, which brought the nation to the brink of default, has sent disapproval of Congress to its highest level on record and left most Americans saying that creating jobs should now take priority over cutting spending, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977, and even more than after another political stalemate led to a shutdown of the federal government in 1995.

More than four out of five people surveyed said that the recent debt-ceiling debate was more about gaining political advantage than about doing what is best for the country. Nearly three-quarters said that the debate had harmed the image of the United States in the world.

Read More...

Raising the Debt Ceiling?

The Obama Legacy

Economic Freedom & Quality of Life

Who owns your money?

US Debt Clock

Click Here To Visit US Debt Clock

Click Here To Visit US Debt Clock

Paul Ryan: Our Generation's Defining Moment

Brother, Can You Spare A Trillion?

"This Budget Never, Ever, Ever Reduces the Debt?"

Rep. Woodall: "This Budget Never, Ever, Ever Reduces the Debt, Is That Right?"

Secretary of Treasury admits his budget is “unsustainable”

Final Tab for Pelosi’s Speakership: $5.34 Trillion in New Debt

Final Tab for Pelosi’s Speakership: $5.34 Trillion

in New Debt — or $3.66 Billion Per Day…

by Terence P. Jeffrey

In the 1,461 days that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House, the national debt increased by a total of $5.343 trillion ($5,343,452,800,321.37) or $3.66 billion per day ($3.657,394,113.84), according to official debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.

Pelosi was the 52nd speaker of the House. During her tenure, she amassed more debt than the first 49 speakers combined.

Read More...

Pelosi: “Deficit Reduction Has Been High Priority For Us"

Rand Paul, MD speaks to doctors about healthcare reform

Paul Ryan on Taxes - Its Actually Your Money!

46 Out of 50 States Nearing Bankruptcy

John Mulkey

While the precarious financial situation of California gets the majority of the press coverage, it is only one of many potential defaults making investors nervous. An article in the Financial Times reports growing signs that many regional deficits are beginning to resemble those of the eurozone countries.

Forty-six states have just begun fiscal year 2011 and for most the news isn’t just bad, it’s catastrophic. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, those states are “facing a Greek-like crisis.” And for all excluding Vermont, local statutes require a balanced budget. It’s not that the leaders haven’t made an effort to trim expenses; more than 230,000 state and local government jobs have been eliminated in the past two years, with thousands more occurring each month. Mark Zandi at Moody’s has estimated that states could come up short by almost $200 billion next year, resulting in the loss of almost a million more jobs. Others say the losses could be double that number.

Read More...

Bernanke: 4 or 5 years until unemployment returns to normal