Congress can decide to spend $0.00 on national defense too.
"Exactly my point. Defense spending isn't a debt either.
If congress can decide not to pay, and if doing so doesn't violate any actual contract, and doesn't amount to a default on a debt obligation, than your not talking about debt or even something that closely resembles debt."
Name me ONE year in which defense expenditures have been $0.00. Just one. We live in a rough neighborhood and you know and I know it. Spending nothing is not an option, much as our liberalfriends would like to believe otherwise.
How likely is that?
"Very unlikely, also very irrelevant."
ANY argument that advances my case is irrelevant, it seems.
The real issue is not what you wish to make it - "Is a continuing stream of payments paying a debt and shouls that debt appear on a balance sheet?" It's more "Can we afford this debt (or semi-debt)?" In the case of defense, yes. In the case of SS and particularly Medicare and Medicare Part D, no. Not as they have developed, are developing,and apparently will continue to develop.
"2 - If you can't kill them at will, the proper answer is still "no". Likely, even near certain (or totally certain for that matter) future spending isn't current debt."
Then what is that payment stream paying off?
"Nothing. Its not paying off anything. Its current spending, like when you go to a restaurant or grocery store and pay cash."
Exactly. It costs you a certain amount just to stay alive. At te end of your life, we could subtract your net worth from your earnings and the remainder is the debt you made payments on.
If there were no debt, you wouldn't be making it, right?
"If I had no debt, I would still be spending money."
Yes. Payments on the debt you think you don't have. |
