Limbaugh Ashamed Of The United States, But Is The Debt Crisis Real?

Rush Limbaugh is ashamed of the United States. Limbaugh goes so far to say that the Fiscal Cliff, the Federal debt ceiling, and all the other budget conflicts in Congress are just one manufactured crisis after another. But what is the real financial status of the United States?

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Rush Limbaugh is ashamed of Americans, but he says this because people are buying into the claims of Obama and the Democrats:

“I’ve said the same things over and over for 25 years. It’s the same stuff, it’s the same threats, it’s the same arguments, over and over nothing ever changes.

“We just keep spending more money, we create more dependency, we get more and more irresponsible one crisis to the next, all of them manufactured. Except for the real crisis that nobody ever addresses and that is we can’t afford it.”

While it’s true that Congress has been letting their finances get out of control for a long time now, Limbaugh can’t say it’s solely the fault of Obama and the Democrats. While the Republican party of the 1990’s made a good attempt at balancing the Federal budget, they did an apparent about-face when the 2000’s hit and they were in control of the Presidency and both parts of Congress.

Part of the problem was an economic contraction that occurred from late 2000 to 2004. The slow in GDP growth meant that the Federal income dropped and thus the Federal deficit became a real problem. Republicans like to say that the War On Terror was largely responsible for the increased spending, but that’s only true to a certain extent. The Federal government grew mightily during this years as well, spending their way toward the debt crisis the nation is now facing.

Once Democrats gained both the House and Senate in 2007 the spending really got out of control. Combine this with the GDP slowdown that lasted from early 2008 to mid 2009 and the Federal deficit busted the $1 trillion mark. But the problem is that even after the GDP kept increasing by trillions these past several years the Federal deficit still stayed high, which is what brings us to the debt crisis now.

In short, the debt crisis is real, not manufactured, and both major political parties in the United States had a hand in creating the situation. Forget the Fiscal Cliff, the current situation could be called a Super Cliff if the US debt crisis is allowed to continue to the point where our credit rating is cut, the interest payments on our debt exceeds the cost of Social Security, and hyperinflation sets in. Hyperinflation essentially means that the value of your dollar drops so quickly that you need buckets of dollars just to purchase basic goods.

President Obama claims the job of debt reduction is nearly done. But how can anyone consider reducing the Federal deficit from $1.089 trillion in 2012 to a future 10 year goal of roughly $700 billion to be close to balanced by any measure? That means we’ll be exceeding $20 trillion in debt within several years and the debt interest payments alone will cost the nation trillions each year.

Here’s where we face a stark choice. I’ve already analyzed Federal government income and spending, so I won’t repeat that information here. Borrowing from others represents about 1/3 of the Federal budget, with income (taxes) being around 17 percent of GDP and spending about 24 percent of GDP. There are three options: cut spending, increase taxes greatly, or a combination of the two.

Taxing just the rich won’t work. If the IRS grabbed 100 percent of income over $1 million, the take would be just $616 billion and the 2012 Federal deficit was $1,086 billion. In order for revenue/tax increases to cover expenses we’re talking about taxing everyone–not just the rich–a lot more. So that leaves spending cuts and the thrust of the “Limbaugh ashamed” comments.

Rush Limbaugh is right to be ashamed. But this shame is shared by everyone, not just those who support Obama and the Democrats. We voted these people from both parties in and allowed them to trash the finances of the country, all the while pointing fingers at others instead of taking responsibility.

Now that you know the facts about the United States debt crisis, does your opinion of Limbaugh saying he’s ashamed of the country change in any way?