"The fiscal cliff" explained.......

“Fiscal Cliff” put in a much better perspective.

Lesson # 1:

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts so far: $385

Got It ??.......OK now,
Lesson # 2:

Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:

Let's say, You come home from work and find
there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood....
and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do ......

Raise the ceilings, or remove the 5hit?

Wish I could claim this one, but put things into perspective for me

They talk about trillions of dollars..Do you know how long it would take to count to a trillion ? 31,688 years and 32 days

That's a scary perspective.

No money involved, just numbers on a computer.

Why are we where we are today? Two foriegn wars and wall street bankers that sold the American people down the river while thet got rich with the help of corrupt politicians of both parties. The founding fathers never meant for political office to be a lifetime career but service to our dear country! Boot all the &$5?!'s out!

Toad

Toad said:

Why are we where we are today?

Click to expand...

We took a stroll down a road paved with good intentions.

Snake Farm said:

What do you think you should do ......

Raise the ceilings, or remove the 5hit?

Click to expand...

Nope just build another story on the house and pretend the previous story never happened.

Toad said:

Why are we where we are today? Two foriegn wars and wall street bankers that sold the American people down the river while thet got rich with the help of corrupt politicians of both parties. The founding fathers never meant for political office to be a lifetime career but service to our dear country! Boot all the &$5?!'s out!

Toad

Click to expand...

'bout sums it up.Sad part is, those politicians get/got re-elected. At election time we the people bend over and yell " thank you sir, may I have another".

Even more simple: They over spend and keep borrowing.
Maybe the government needs to go on one of those intervention tv shows where they cut up their credit cards and make a budget for them! Would be fun to see some of them crying because they had to give up a limo or two or their private jets.[cl