$181 billion Deficit in July -- WHAT, ME WORRY?

This clown show is so completely absurd, you just have to roll on the floor and laugh:

Bailouts for financial firms and billions in tax revenue lost because of the recession drove the [fiscal year to date] deficit to a record $1.3 trillion in July, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  The federal deficit grew by another $181 billion in July.

Spending through July of 2009 has increased by $530 billion, which is 21 percent over the same period in 2008. The bailout money for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae accounted for almost half of the spending increase. Unemployment benefits have more than doubled, Medicaid spending has grown by a quarter and Medicare spending has increased by 11 percent.

Tax revenue for the first three quarters of 2009 has fallen by approximately $350 billion, or 17 percent compared to the same period last year, due mostly to the effects of the recession on payroll, income and corporate taxes. A third of the decline is due to tax breaks in the stimulus, including the middle-class tax cut that President Obama campaigned on during last year's election.

The independent budget scorekeeper has projected the deficit to reach $1.8 trillion by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. The deficit in 2008 reached $455 billion, which was a record at the time.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/deficit-grew-by-181-billion-in-july-...

That the bailout of Fannie and Freddie is costing hundreds of billions provides us with an object lesson. Let's recall that these were Congressionally-chartered, politically-managed companies.  Warnings were visible for years before the crisis erupted. The companies were operating with absurdly low capital, on the order of 1 to 2 percent of assets. An accounting scandal broke out five years ago, which required an army of 1,200 accountants at Fannie Mae alone to fix.

But KongressKlowns stood by and sucked their thumbs, until the smoking toaster in the kitchen burned the whole house down.

Based on its brilliant record of responsible financial management, Kongress wants to expand its mandate to a new sector of the economy:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stressed during a town-hall meeting in Colorado this week that the healthcare bill won't add to the deficit or restrict benefits and instead will increase access to care.

Ah ha ha ha ... AH HA HA HA!

In the SIxties, Medicare and Medicaid were sold on exactly this premise -- that they would be 'paid for' with a new payroll tax. That tax has been hiked several times. Yet the net present value of projected Medicare/Medicaid deficits is in the tens of trillions. It is so large that no one has any earthly idea of how to fix it. The gaping hole represents several YEARS worth of GDP.

And as The Hill reports, Medicaid spending grew by a quarter -- 25 percent -- this year alone. Much of this growth is permanent. Whoops, there goes several trillion more added to our negative net worth!

So -- the folks who saddled our kids with a quarter million apiece in debt are going to give us a shiny new benefit that 'won't add to the deficit'?

If you believe that, I've got $22 million in a blocked account in Nigeria. Kindly forward your bank account details, and I'll share 25 percent of it with you. Thanking you in advance, kind madam or sir ...