Monday’s markets took a nosedive after ratings agency S&P downgraded the US for the first time in history. In addition, Monday the outlooks for all 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, and the issue level ratings for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHLB System, and the Farm Credit System are negative.
Locally, since Friday night, while North Carolina maintains a AAA rating, seven local governmental units have been told by Moody’s that their bond ratings would be reviewed immediately. State Treasurer Janet Cowell said those seven include the cities of Winston-Salem, and Greensboro, and the counties of Wake, Durham, Mecklenburg, Guilford, and New Hanover.
More local news to come from Monday night’s meetings throughout the week.
Welcome to the Tuesday Open Lines!
Below is something I was sent that makes some sense of the debt deal:
2011 Federal Budget Deal
Federal Budget: $3,820,000,000,000 (3.82 Trillion)
Income: $2,170,000,000,000 (2.17 Trillion)
New Debt: $1,650,000,000,000 (1.65 Trillion)
Amount Cut: $38,500,000,000 (38.5 Billion) – about 1% of the total budget.
Harry Reid is calling this a “historic amount“. The President said it is a “historic deal”. John Boehner simply said, “We’ve come to an agreement”.
Let’s Put This In Perspective. It helps me to think about these numbers in terms that I can relate to.
Let’s remove nine zeroes from those numbers and pretend this is a monthly household budget for the fictitious Jones family.
Amount of money the “Jones`s” family spent this month: $3,820
Total income for the “Jones`s” family this month: $2,170
Amount of new debt added to the credit card this month: $1,650
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $14,271 (This represents our national debt).
So last week, the “Jones’s” sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $38.50 from their monthly budget.
I suggest you send this to Washington; I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on a reply.
I don’t think anyone disagrees with you Mr. Mojo, the question is what to do about it
Cut spending. I would chop medicaid and welfare spending first. We have to stop folks from having more dependants so they can get a raise. Getting folks off the government payroll and on to one that pays them for the work they do will alleviate some of the fiscal strain and in turn build our societal values.
I absolutely agree with you, Mojo — no more paying people to have babies! No one talks about cutting out the Welfare, instead they try to make it appear that we want to cut out Medicare and Social Security. We don’t want to take from hard working people — we want to put lazy people to work and stop paying them to be lazy!
Mr. Mojo…post #4…”getting folks off the government payroll”
You’re right about that.
government is too big with too many departments and redundant agencies and services and too many government workers making more then in the private sector and with better benefits..courtesy of the taxpayers and borrowed money.
DC is not experiencing a recession like most of the country……it’s a boom town.
Welfare and medicaid is expensive and there should be more oversight on fraud and waste in Medicaid and Medicare..but there are other things that need to be looked at for cutting.
the list is long.
Ziggy you took only a portion of my comment and turned it in to something entirely different. I agree that government is too large and our spending must decrease thus some jobs in the public sector must go.However, we must address the medicaid/welfare dollars first. Not only will this provide a solid cut to get the ball rolling it will also have a major trickle down affect in our society. A positive and shocking trickle down affect. It will force citizens to think differently but more importantly, think for themsleves.
Our foodstamp program should be the next thing to be revamped. It bothers me that I have been in line at the grocery store four times in the last three months and had anywhere from 3-5 other customers in front of me and all of them paid with food stamps. Something is wrong here and it needs to be fixed.
More directly, everytime I am in line at the grocery store I can bet that at least one person in line with me is going to pay with foodstamps. There is just too much ‘assistance’ being abused by citizens in this area and our country. It really ticks me off when I watch people buy their groceries with my tax dollars and then drive off in a $50,000.00 (plus) car or SUV. It makes no sense!
Here’s a fact to chew on–17% or 1 household in 7 use food stamps. There was a time when it was an embarassment to be on food stamps–seems now it is considered to be a right!
To be specific: the fact refers to the United States!
I am interested to know what percentage of citizens in Vance County or the City of Henderson use food stamps. There is no shame in being forced to rely on them when one has to but it should not become a life long habit. In a America right now only 58% of our adults are working. This means that 42% of those 18 years old and above are not. This has to change. If a local politician votes to stay the course or increase the benefits that only weakens a person by allowing the unneeded handouts they will not get my vote. Anyone else agree?
Mr. Mojo Rison,
Try the ncdhhs.gov website–there were lots of tables for each county–I think your math acumen outshines mine–good hunting!
We agree Mojo.
And better yet, require people to take drug tests to receive and maintain receiving food stamps.
We have to take drug screens to apply for jobs, which we use to make money to buy food. Same thing.
Agree with all the above! It irks me about the nice cars and the food stamps! SUVs can cost as much as BMWs, etc.