Obama’s Budget Is a Ridiculous Charade: Doug Casey
Doug Casey loves controversy.
He is quick to spit out divisive statements like, “the ethical thing to do would be for the U.S. to declare bankruptcy,” “the next generation will be turned into indentured servants,” and “people who buy government debt deserve to be punished and taught a lesson.”
It can be difficult to determine just how sincere Casey's public declarations are.
In an interview with The Daily Ticker, Casey explains his provocative oratory style. “Look, this is an academic point that I’m making. I know that [the U.S. debt] is not going to be defaulted on tomorrow morning," he says. "I’m just putting the thought out there so people can think about these things in a new unit of time, and try to think about it rationally.”
Does Doug Casey believe what he says? Absolutely. Does he actually expect anyone to act on his beliefs? Not anytime soon. By making exaggerated and divisive statements, he wants to challenge common notions portrayed by the media and many others.
When asked him about President Obama’s newly released budget. Casey told The Daily Ticker that any budget, no matter what it stipulates, is ridiculous. “The thought of having a budget when you’re already bankrupt and digging the hole deeper at the rate of $1.5 trillion per year is a ridiculous charade," he says. "I don’t see why people pay attention to it."
Casey also believes the U.S. deficit is much larger than $16 trillion. “If you use accrual accounting the deficit would actually be $3 trillion to $4 trillion dollars a year…The acknowledged debt is $16 trillion but there’s actually much more, the numbers go up to $200 trillion if you account for all kinds of other liabilities like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and numerous other things,” he explains.
Meanwhile, the latest Fed report shows that the federal budget deficit is actually falling. For the first six months of FY 2013, receipts rose by 12% while outlays fell by 3% and some expect the deficit to come in below the CBO’s prediction of $845 billion. Greg Valliere of Potomac Research believes that deficit as a percentage of GDP could fall to below 3% by FY 2015.
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