US Economy, Fiscal responsibility, Trade and Fiscal Responsability, USA

Americans say they put a high priority on strengthening the country and looking out for the next generation. Yet the federal government is on an irresponsible and unsustainable fiscal path, with spending programs growing more quickly than the economy can keep up with and tax revenues projected to chronically fall short of spending -- even in relatively good economic times. This leads to an ever-growing debt burden.

We believe, and our experience as an organization has shown, that when Americans are given non-partisan, straightforward information about the nation’s fiscal future, they understand the need to make budgetary tradeoffs and will push their representatives to make hard choices to set the nation on a sustainable fiscal path. That is why we work around the country educating, engaging and empowering citizens to take action.

Read more  Why we advocate for fiscal responsibility Home

Does the US have any business telling Europe how to fix its financial troubles?

Note to the United States from Germany: Mind your own business. Can't really blame them. President Obama, the owner of a $14 trillion national debt and $1 trillion plus annual deficits, scolded European leaders for letting the Greek debt crisis get out of hand.

Mr. Obama said that Europe's financial crisis is "scaring the world.. Germany's finance minister pushed back, saying "it's always much easier to give advice to others than to decide for yourself. I am well prepared to give advice to the U.S. government." Ouch.

But he's got a point. The United States hardly presents a picture of fiscal soundness. We're facing unsustainable $1 trillion plus annual deficits and a $14 trillion national debt. So far, no one in the government has been serious about doing anything meaningful about either one.For more:For moreL


Does the U.S. have any business telling Europe how to fix its financial troubles? – Cafferty File - CNN.com Blogs

Europe agrees sweeping new action on debt crisis

An emergency summit of leaders of the 17-nation currency area pledged on Thursday to conduct a second bailout of Greece with an extra 109 billion euros ($157 billion) of government money, plus a contribution by private sector bondholders estimated to total as much as 50 billion euros by mid-2014.

The leaders also made detailed provisions for limiting the damage if, as seems likely, credit rating agencies declare Greece to be in temporary default -- the first such event in the 12-year history of the euro.

The package pleased financial markets because it suggested that for the first time since the Greek debt crisis erupted early last year, the euro zone was taking a comprehensive, long-term approach to the problem, rather than simply lending Greece more money to avoid disaster in the near term.
For more: Europe agrees sweeping new action on debt crisis | Reuters: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room: U.S. couldn’t even join EU due to debt levels - by Michael O'Brien

For the complete report from The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room click on this link

U.S. couldn’t even join EU due to debt levels - by Michael O'Brien

The United States wouldn't even be eligible to enter the European Union if it wanted to because of its debt levels, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) claimed Thursday. "We won't even be able to get into the EU if we wanted to," Gregg said this morning on MSNBC, "because our government is so large and so huge." The European Union's Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) adopted in 1997 requires a budget deficit to be less than three percent, and requires a national debt beneath 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Note EU-Digest: The EU has always taken fiscal responsibility very seriously, because fiscal responsibility has been essential to creating a better, stronger, more prosperous EU. Unfortunately the US mind-set in general does not possess this fiscal responsibility. Consequently the so-called "free market "philosophy has gone completely out of control. Statistics show that the wages at the bottom of the pay scale are 30% bellow what they were thirty years ago. We seemed to think children would be better off than their parents, but the children of the bottom are worse off!

Noble Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote: "what happened is also that in the United States we have this myth what we call Horatio Algier, a myth that everybody from anywhere can become president, wealthy, etc. The so-called "American Dream". And there are examples of that, but the statistics are against you. Statistics today show that the likelihood, if you are at the bottom, is that your children will also be at the bottom. Horatio Algier is becoming less and less true. And actually less true in United States than in some European countries."