How bad is it?
The President of the United States has been reduced to assuring us by saying:
We’re not Greece. We’re not Portugal.
Funny, didn’t Greece say it wasn’t Portugal? And didn’t Portugal say it wasn’t Greece?
I don’t like where this is heading.
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Comments
If he didn’t have straw men to argue he’d have no arguments at all.
Well, that’s not true. He could always argue from the heart for what he believes (Marxism), but that would get him booted from office and thus defeat the whole point of the exercise. (Sigh) Presidenting is hard.
Perhaps he meant “We’re not being greased.” Never can tell with this guy.
Cheers
He could say we aren’t a banana republic…but I guess that would get Krugman upset at him.
I think he meant to say, “We’re not Greece. We’re not Portugal. Yet. But give me time, I’m workin’ on it.”
That wasn’t the full quote
“We’re not Greece. We’re not Portugal … yet.”
Well, he’s right, but not in the way he means. Greece and Portugal can be bailed out by the EU, the IMF (which we fund 1/3 of), and the US.
When he succeeds in bankrupting the US, the rest of the planet won’t be capable of bailing us out, even if they wanted to.
He’s been operating as “The Commander of a Command Economy”. From around the time of his election I found the reference that was so appealing to FDR and what Obama had in mind in his “problems with the Constitution” when he was a “Guest Lecturer”. Here’s the FDR/Obama “Citizens Rights” – http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html#chap10
…It’s the Soviet 1936 Constitution by Stalin.
Why is he slamming Greece and Portugal? Didn’t he say that those nations believe in their exceptualism just as we do? Is that what he is trying to bring us? Greek exceptualism?
Perhaps it is time to move to Costa Rica.
We aren’t Greece or Portugal
Unfortunately, we left Greece and Portugal in the dust a long, long time ago.
Debt to GDP ratio:
Greece 143%
Italy 119%
Portugal 93%
US 97% (official, or lying weasel US debt)
That 97% ratio of US debt to GDP (US GDP = $14.6 trillion, 2010) is composed of $14.3 trillion in official US debt. Which is what the current fight is about.
However, unfunded liabilities (S/S, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare) amount to $61.6 trillion (a conservative low end estimate, CATO says $119.5 trillion).
Guarantees using the full faith and credit of the US (Freddie, Fannie, student loans, Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), The Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP), etc. amount to $16 trillion, an amount larger than the official US debt itself.
So 14.3 + 61.6 + 16 = $91.9 trillion or 642% of GDP
As I said we are in a league of our own.
And to make matters more difficult total obligations are rising much faster than GDP annually even without new official borrowing. Which means every year the situation gets much worse.
I dunno, it wasn’t very convincing of him to say, “Αμερική δεν είναι Ελλάδα. Nós não somos Portugal.”
No, no … I got it wrong …
“We’re not Greece. We’re not Portugal …… dammit.”
That’s quite the can of worms, Professor.
The progressive moral equivalency of progressives-
Natural order of progression, after “at least we’re N. Korea” is…”what’s wrong with N. Korea? At least they didn’t/aren’t (fill in George Bush atrocity here).
Re Bush: At least Norks say nucrear and not nu-cu-lar.