Posted by
Rajjpuut's Folly on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:19:28 PM
. . . roughly $402,000 in obligations for every American man woman and child
There was a strong effort to get the second bailout to be called Bad-Asset-Relief-Fund or BARF. Today’s taxpayers presumably feel that the acronym is personally apropos.
Adding up the Bills: Obamanomics
and Keynesian Logic Doom the Country
Special Treasury Department Inspector General to oversee the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) Neil M. Barofsky made himself very Unpopular in the Obama camp a few months ago^^ when he called a spade a spade. Barofsky, daring to tell the world there is NO FREE LUNCH calculated the government’s maximum exposure on the financial sector bailouts he was watch-dogging: could reach $24 Trillion. He has repeatedly attacked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the Treasury Department for repeatedly failing to adopt recommendations aimed at making the government financial rescue effort more accountable and transparent. Now lets’ put that $24 TRillion figure in perspective . . .
1. That’s just the first bailout the $819 Billion TARP he’s talking about, the one passed during the waning days of the Bush administration by bi-partisan efforts
2. That comes to a $78,076 obligation for every man, woman and child in this country. Most children, by the way, average a $3 allowance per week.
3. Obama’s personal stimulus plan of $1.34 Trillion passed almost exclusively by his Democratic majority in the House and Senate can be expected to have a similar effect on the economy. There was a strong effort to get the second bailout to be called Bad-Asset-Relief-Fund or BARF. Today’s taxpayers presumably feel that the acronym is personally apropos. The net downward drag on the economy from that one might well reach $45 or $50 TRillion (we can’t tell because there are no Barofsky’s watching over those funds for us) . . . but if it comes to $48 TRillion, which is easy to work with, then there’s another $156,000 obligation for each man, woman and child.
4. Obama has more than doubled the National debt to $11.8 Trillion which comes to $36, 874.73 cents for each man, woman and child.
5. Medicare is scheduled to run out in 2016 and right now has incurred contractual obligations of $37.8 TRillion. The reason that President Obama was in such an all-fired toot to pass his Obamacare initiatives is to cover-up the fact that Medicare is a huge GSB (government spending boondoggle) by replacing it with a new (and much worse) form of health care interference by the federal government to push the problem as far back in history as they possibly can so that citizen tax-payers never see or understand the real price of GSB** interference in their lives. In this case that $37.8 TRillion obligation from Medicare comes to $121,000 more for every person.
6. The other two great GSBs, Social Security and Medicaid are likewise going broke and have at various times been projected to end in bankruptcy with huge UN-MEETABLE obligations . . . but, surprise-surprise, each time the key “moment of truth” approached some sort of miraculous new GSB was created to push that Judgment Day back into the future. Social Security, for example is now supposedly OK till 2037. Social Security, was, of course the first great government spending boondoggle. It survived sort-of because the ratio throughout its history was roughly 3.3 workers putting in funds to every worker receiving assistance. Now with the Baby Boomer generation and through the foreseeable future to at least the year 2083, seven decades in the future, the ratio is expected to be roughly 2.2 workers for every benefits recipient but dipping slightly below 2.0 workers for every recipient by 2080. The key concern here is that while Social Security is a pittance compared to funding Medicare, right now a whole lot of workers (roughly 15.3% not the government’s official 9.7%) are out of work and NOT earning money to create payments into the Social Security Trust Fund. If this continues and the Social Security bite becomes $3.1 Trillion dollars in unfunded obligations than the taxpayers can be on the hook for another $10,000.
7. All told $10,000 + $121,000 + $37,000 + $156,000 + $78,000 . . . why, Rajjpuut, believes we’re talking BIG money here . . . roughly $402,000 in obligations for every man woman and child. NICE! That is the now not-so-hidden cost of government spending boondoggles (GSBs). Aren’t you glad you know? Wouldn’t that have helped us make better decisions way back when?
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
^^On July 20, his office released a report estimating the $700 billion effort to shore up the nation's wobbly banking system could end up costing taxpayers as much as $23.7 trillion, due to estimates for programs offered by the FDIC, federal money for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other institutions on top of $7.4 trillion in TARP and other Treasury aid. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department quickly called the numbers flawed, making this the latest in the back and forth between Barofsky's oversight office — which currently has 35 ongoing criminal and civil investigations of suspected accounting, securities and mortgage fraud — and the Treasury Department over the handling of TARP disbursements.
**As an aside, going back to Medicare: the “death panels” that Obama denies are part of his bill (but really are) are actually vital. If you look at the history of medical bills and drug costs for people over age 65, typically 47% of the total cost to take care of these factors is incurred during the last six months of life. The simple expedient of having an inhumane set of decision-makers decide upon resource allotment for these dying folk would do a lot to make Medicare approach fiscal-viability . . . however, whether it’s done by Democrats or Republicans it’s a political disaster as loyal readers can already see . . . Of course projections for creating a society akin to that of the “Logan’s Run” movie where no one above age 30 was allowed to live are, at present, a bit far-fetched LOL! Anyway the nature of GSBs is that they quickly multiply and spin all out of control because it’s always popular to appear to be “giving away something for nothing” (a.k.a. free lunch) and incumbents like to do popular things to keep getting re-elected. Who’s paying for all this? Right now a few American and a lot of foreigners.
Europe and China, Japan, Russia, India and the big holders of U.S. Debt have a choice they can get out of the dollar-investing club and come up with a new “world reserve currency” or they can continue to be the fall guys for Washington’s excesses and inanities and buy America out of its problems while dooming their own countries to bankruptcy . . . what will they decide? Rajjpuut’s got his money on them protecting their countries’ and their own power self-interests by ship-canning the American Dollar forever. Chances of a new world gold currency are very high.