US Politics / Biden thread
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that interest payments will total $892 billion in fiscal year 2024 and rise rapidly throughout the next decade — climbing from $1 trillion in 2025 to $1.7 trillion in 2034. In total, net interest payments will total $12.9 trillion over the next decade. Relative to the size of the economy, interest will rise from 3.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2025 to 4.1 percent in 2034. The previous high for interest relative to GDP in the post-World War II era was 3.2 percent in 1991 — that ratio would now be exceeded in 2025.
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A trillion dollars is a lot of money, for context.
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That's the same bloke being pointed at with the red arrow.
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He looks like well small in that image.
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OMG have you just discovered big numbers?
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
U.S. monthly interest rate on interest-bearing debt 2019-2024. As of July 2024, the United States government has a monthly interest rate of 3.33 percent on its debt, continuing an upward trend in interest rates that began at the beginning of 2022. In April 2024, U.S. debt reached 34.62 trillion U.S. dollars.
Again, a trillion dollars in interest payments. You can't just keep kicking the can.
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Do you fully grasp the situation though Terry?
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"The best hope is that Trump loses, Harris is helped not to fuck things up in the next term and in 4 years time both parties can find 2 proper candidates and things get normalised. I'm not confident of any of those things coming to pass tbh."
There should be the same limit on running for President as there is on terms served i.e. twice. That would have solved the mess of Trump running again.
The question of what if Trump loses has already been discussed by a lot of commentators. As per the Tory's and their lurch to the right, there is obviously the hope that there will be a return to more moderate centre right politics. Won't happen in the states, yes Trump will lose his grip but those backing him are firmly in charge of the GOP. They will just find another stooge to run again in 4 years time.
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Where's Surrey Commuter? He's half sensible.
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there're a lot of people in the usa who justifiably feel that 'the system' hasn't worked for them for a very long time - similar situation in the uk, france, germany, etc. etc.
for trump and his ilk, that's a huge base to be leveraged, they can just keep on blaming the 'elites' (ignoring the fact that trump, thiel, adelson, musk et al. et ad infinitum are that very elite), liberals, wokes, democrats, immigrants, atheists, muslims, jews, gays, media et al., not only for causing the problem, but also for stopping trump fixing it, which is why he can demand more power and more extreme measures to exact vengeance, and they cheer him on while the gop goes about it's work of rigging the electoral process in as many states as it can
harris and the democrats have no answer, they're not going to be able to make the massive changes needed, it'd take multiple terms and be painful in so many ways, they're left making minor tweaks and offering business as usual. rolling out pop stars, actors, trendies and east/west coast liberals to tell the masses who to vote for isn't effective, it's exactly the behaviour trump points at to make his case and which many are (rightly) fed up with
trump won't improve things, but he'll give them the satisfaction of revenge
even if harris wins, it's kicking the can down the road, trump's family and like-minded are entrenched in the gop, he'll be the kingmaker for while yet, whoever runs next time will surely be less deranged, but potentially more dangerous
my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny1 -
Who TF is Terry?
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
You are Terry, or do you prefer Tezza or just Tez? 😉
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I think this raises some interesting points and also leads to a major unknown. I think there is a distinct split between those who have been disenfranchised by the system and ask legitimate questions about the state of a country (whether that is USA, UK, France, Germany etc.) and those who use those questions in bad faith to attack others they don't like (usually minority groups). I think in the UK the latter types actually form quite a small number of the electorate, hence why Labour won as people were more concerned with voting in a party that could try and effect real change, rather than winning ideological bragging rights. I think the US, particularly amongst Trump supporters, has far more of the bad actors, who are really concerned more with ideological principles than improving US society. What will be interesting is, amongst true swing voters, how many will be disenfranchised and want genuine change, . Furthermore, amongst those who are, which way will they be persuaded to vote. I think these are the votes that are up for grabs and could ultimately decide the outcome.
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Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
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I also mentally capitalise the T.
I also think of you as RSJ Terry, because I think you'd like the idea of being a structural member.
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Exactly Aspect, if I maybe so bold as to call you Aspect. Terry got all flappy when I used his name.
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Are you Mr Zing723? It's an usual family name.
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Yes it is Jack.
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Fine. I get more tetchy if you use my First name.
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That would be an incorrect assumption. It's very much a lower case t. Not a Terry here or anywhere else. The S could be capitalised.
RSJ is one of those irritating archaic acronyms that has somehow stuck in people's heads. Current terminology is UB or UC.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
So you don't like to be called a member.
I can understand that.
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Have you considered a run at Cromer Pier?
If the letters were the other way around, that joke would almost work.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
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Unless you missed the S out at the end of Brian.😏
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That's not quite true is it? In the UK the electorate seemed more concerned with voting the Tories out. The Labour vote share remained at 33.7%. Only 1 in 3 were in favour of their policies.
They have a massive majority but are not that popular. Let's see what happens, especially as they seem to be able to unnecessarily shoot themselves in the foot only a few weeks in.
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Fair comment, but that's not really the point I was making. UK voters IMO are less likely to vote on ideological grounds than US voters. If they did then the Tory's would have won as they largely spent the last two years banging on about so called woke issues rather than meaningful policy. The fact they were voted out, as you say, would seem to back this up.
I am interested in the US election in that small group of swing voters and what will secure their vote. The ideological Trump voters are many, and I think this type of voter is more common in the states. What I don't know is the balance amongst swing voters, is ideology or policy going to sway them.
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Betfair says that Harris won the debate or that Taylor Swift's endorsement matters. She's slight favourite now.
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Trump's not gonna be happy. Shares in ketchup on the rise. I think Harris prodded him well - I suspect she's aware of how easily he gets rattled and he then derails himself. Whether it makes any difference to the campaign, I doubt it. NYT headline will be something like "Trump performs poorly in Presidential debate, and why that's a problem for Harris".
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