Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
You are correct, we have a ton of debt and no end to the debt and the deficit spending anywhere in site.
But those things don't really matter that much in an election. I have been hearing about how the national debt will cripple this country since I was a little kid yet we keep on moving forward. What people care about in an election is how they personally are doing. If people have a job, a decent place to live and things are looking personally good for them, they don't really worry about the debt because it is something that is out of their control and that they have been hearing about for 30 years.
If Obama wins a second term and at the end of it the unemployment rate is rate is at a reasonable level and Obamacare hasn't destroyed the healthcare system in this country most people will forgive him about the debt especially if he is putting forth budgets that look to slowly be working on shrinking it. He will be the guy who can say he made the hard choices that brought us back from the brink of economic collapse, saved the american auto industry, got Bin Laden, helped get Gadaffi out of power and brought the unemployment rate down from 10% to whatever it is as he leaves office and brought healthcare to millions that didn't have it and many people will love him for it.
People love Reagan because they see him as the guy who brought us out of recession and beat the Russians. They seem to forget that he raised taxes a dozen times and doubled the national debt. Obama could pull off a similar situation. Politics is all about perception not fact. So long as the debt doesn't collapse our system, Obama can walk away from it looking very good.
All that said, even if Obama is very popular after a second term it doesn't mean a democrat is a shoe in for the white house. The republicans will be pissed off and likely be organized and potentially could have better candidates than they have now and the people will be ready for a change.
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True, but DOUBLING the total debt in just four years may very well bring about that very collapse people have been warning about. We're on track to spend about 20% of total revenues just paying interest on the debt. As that number rises due to further borrowing, there is no money left for government services. As the CBO has warned, unemployment checks won't go out, government workers will have to be laid off, etc. as all of the revenue goes to debt service. See Greece. The ordinary voters will notice when 20% of them are laid off. Can you imagine any possible math that avoids that?
With borrowing at 20% and debt service at 10% this year, spending would have to be cut by a full 30% just to.stop making the situation worse. I can't imagine Obama cutting all government spending by at least 30%, so therefore it can only get worse until it eventually implodes.