Benghazi: the gift that keeps on giving

[GIThruster]

The trouble is, there is no sense of responsibility for the future. Most politicians are aware that they can generate a short term fix at the expense of the future, and don't expect to be around for the longer term consequences of their spending. They present themselves as heros because when the economy crashes, they will blame someone else rather than the spending.

What we need is a law that limits federal spending as a percent of GNP, and stay at that level. IIRC, we are at 28% and our healthiest economies in the past have only had this figure at 24%. To fix the troubles we've got, it needs to be reduced to 20% for a decade or more, until pay off our debt.

The really radical thing about the Tea Party is, that they're willing to both cut spending across the board, including military; as well as raise taxes to get this result. The Dems want both these things, but they want to then spend the money on other things, which is what has us in this trouble to begin with.

The only other form a fix could possibly come in, would be to suddenly inject the entire economy with some financial boon, such as cheap energy. Fission is not cheap. When you count the long term costs of storing waste, it ends up being much more expensive than almost any other form. OTOH, fusion combined with electric cars would generate fantastical wealth distributed across the board, so that is a workable solution so long as we can stop the politicians from spending the windfall.

[williatw]

Fission is not cheap. When you count the long term costs of storing waste, it ends up being much more expensive than almost any other form. OTOH, fusion combined with electric cars would generate fantastical wealth distributed across the board, so that is a workable solution so long as we can stop the politicians from spending the windfall.

My understanding is that something like polywell (or even fission reactors themselves) could be used to transmute long half-life isotope containing waste (the kind that require ridiculously long storage times) to much shorter half-life isotopes that would only need to be stored for a few 100 yrs at worst, not thousands of years. Jerry Pournelle used to talk about this. The long term waste disposable problem was created by I believe it was Jimmy Carter's decision to not pursue "reprocessing" of nuclear waste; the idea was that it would somehow lead to nuclear "proliferation". They simply continued storing in on site at the nuclear reactor facility. Although I think the French reprocess their spent fuel rods, prolonging their useful life and reducing the waste disposal issue.

[GIThruster]

Yeah. It's a mess. IIRC, there are more than 38,000 nuclear storage facilities in the US. These were to be combined into one facility at Yucca Mountain until Harry Reid won his battle against such. So now we have to provide security at 38,000+ sites around the country. That's were the real expense, and danger lies.

[williatw]

Yeah. It's a mess. IIRC, there are more than 38,000 nuclear storage facilities in the US. These were to be combined into one facility at Yucca Mountain until Harry Reid won his battle against such. So now we have to provide security at 38,000+ sites around the country. That's were the real expense, and danger lies.

Another gift from "D"'s fav ex-president Carter. However the future isn't altogether bleak by any means nuclear wise, even if polywell or some other fusion doesn't come along. The Chinese and the Indians are clearly going to go ape-shit building nuclear reactors (Uranium and probably eventually Thorium), the waste disposal/generation problem will of course happen to them as well. I am sure the Chinese and Indians both know about the concept of nuclear transmutation, basically burning up the long half-life nuclear isotopes in nuclear reactors leaving short half-life easier to deal with waste. When they start doing it as surely they must, it will forcibly reintroduce the issue to us. Once more our biased media buried the info about transmutation because they hate nuclear power, want it banned, by scaring the public into believing there is nothing that can be done about waste disposal.

[GIThruster]

There is more to it than just the media. The green arguments against fission from the 70's, 80's and 90's all noted appropriately, that sticking the stuff underground doesn't make it secure. Those containers need active monitoring so the whole notion of stick it in the ground and forget about it doesn't work, and that's what Yucca Mountain was predicated upon. This does not however relieve the requirement of active monitoring, and the solution we arrived at was merely political--Reid wanted what he wanted for essentially no good reasons at all. So after the expense of digging out the mountain, we still have waste stored all over and that makes it very costly to store. Moving it would also be costly, but in the longer term, far cheaper.

One has to wonder where all the money comes from and goes to guard all the waste. I'll bet someone is growing wealthy over it. Who that someone is, is a troublesome question to answer.

[hanelyp]

The really radical thing about the Tea Party is, that they're willing to both cut spending across the board, including military; as well as raise taxes to get this result.

THIS tea party supporter maintains that tax rates on actual tax payers are already past the futility rate, with the clear implication that that for revenue purposes the top marginal rates need to be cut.

In addition, means tested gooberment benefits have an effect of a large marginal tax rate on their recipients, discouraging them from employment that would get them off the benefits.

[hanelyp]

So the gov will continue to mindlessly print money in ever increasing amounts to cover its bills as the money starts to run dry....even though they know it will destroy the economy and ultimately them as well?

Wiemar Republic Germany and Zimbabwe both went down that road.

[GIThruster]

The really radical thing about the Tea Party is, that they're willing to both cut spending across the board, including military; as well as raise taxes to get this result.

THIS tea party supporter maintains that tax rates on actual tax payers are already past the futility rate. . .

Yes well, just bear in mind that the ORIGINAL platform of the Tea Party was just as I described, and included a great many Dems. It wasn't until they threw out so many in congress that the status quo Republicans decided to try to absorb their momentum and include them into the fold, by pretending that the Tea Party was against higher taxes when that was NOT their stated platform. I don't think there were any Tea Party representatives who espoused what you're suggesting, which is a no-compromise solution. No compromise solutions never work. Giving the GOP higher taxes and the Dems spending cuts was and is an ideal middle ground solution that we have every reason to believe would work. After all, the economy did not suffer under Clinton, so we know we can manage a little more tax, especially if we put it to balancing the budget.

[williatw]

So the gov will continue to mindlessly print money in ever increasing amounts to cover its bills as the money starts to run dry....even though they know it will destroy the economy and ultimately them as well?

Wiemar Republic Germany and Zimbabwe both went down that road.

That's only part of my statement you quoted, the answer was contained in the part you didn't quote:

With no credible outside force compelling them to do it whether they want to or not. Rather than say just keep increasing Medicare deductibles/copays/eligibility/payment lag times (already happening?). Rather than say raise SS retirement ages (already doing), delay eliminate COLA's (also already doing). Look at the current VA scandal, bills spike up, just throw them under the bus as far as taking care of them. Delay after delay in treatment, defacto death boards, etc.; in other words the gov will give our Vets (and ultimately us to) whatever benefits it decides to give, suck it up.

Weimar Germany was forced to continue making their war reparation payments by the Treaty of Versailles that forced them to. The outside force was the British/French that made them. When the Great Depression hit and their economy went south they had little choice except to print money to meet that obligation. Otherwise the French might have responded by occupying the German Ruhr like they did in the 1920's when the Germans were then unable to meet their reparation obligations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr

Conversely Britain and France owed us allot of money in loans after the first world war, after a few years they basically blew them off, that is they just stopped paying. A sovereign national government can do that, they didn't declare "bankruptcy" they just stopped paying. The only move we had then was confiscating British/French assets in the US.

[GIThruster]

http://allenbwest.com/2014/05/exclusive ... -benghazi/