Balanced Budget Nonsense.

[kemah]

I am tired of people wanting a balanced budget. They claim that they themselves live on a balanced budget. But most corporations and families do not have a balanced budget. Large capital outlays are always done on borrowed money. How many families can afford to buy their homes or their new cars with cash? Very few. New cars are even advertised on TV with monthly payments. $239 per month with a $2500 down payment is the typical ad.

How do you expect for a country to run a balanced budget, when the families or corporation do not have to pay for defense, weapons of mass destruction, wars, transportation, etc.

[truth2power]

1. Yes...the lies that Rick Sanitarium and others promote

that an analogy can be drawn between family and government budgets are just nonsense.

I think economist Rick Wolff http://rdwolff.com discussed that somewhere, but I don't have time to look it up right now.

[think]

2. We had a balanced budget under Clinton and we should again. /nt

[obxhead]

3. A balanced budget and debt are two different animals.

Large purchases often are made using loans. You pay of those loans at a set payment schedule from your budget.

[Igel]

4. What nonsense?

Most people I know have a balanced budget.

My family has a balanced budget now. We have a certain amount of income. Every month we live within that income. In fact, we're paying down debt. Some debt was planned--our mortage, for instance. Other debt was unplanned, from we were both unemployed last summer and last fall when I was employed but we weren't making it on just my income.

Last summer and fall our balance was unbalanced. Every month we spent more than we took in. This wasn't for planned items--a car that we'd pay off over time, or a new tile floor. This was for food, utilities, moderate clothing purchases.

This is the difference.

Unbalanced federal budgets in times of emergency are fine. Otherwise, debt should be planned and able to be paid down. Our budget for the last 12 years hasn't been like that--we've been doing "strategic" planning that would be like deciding to take out a loan for the gallon of milk that we need today but not knowing when, exactly, we'd ever be able to pay off the debt. Even the surplus in the late '90s was a fluke--a combination of fiscal restraint and increased federal revenues that were, to be frank, largely the result of the bubble and "peace dividend."