"Try to find current graphs and projections of city/state/federal debt right now. I studied economics in college. It used to be trivially easy to find this data. Now most of it is out of date by 5 years, or 10."
This line alone inspired me to write an article on the topic. When I was an economics major, I could easily access hundreds of voting sheets from different states through a centralized data source. Now it's all gated or nonexistent.
It's very strange. It's not as if this information is unprocessed or secret. I also studied economics but that was 10 years ago so perhaps I'm referencing the wrong sources. Most graphs cut off ~2015-2019. Very strange.
I wonder if the situation were different (and the debt / GDP had stayed flat or shrunk), if this would be the case?
Brandon Johnson is clearly a criminal and a not very smart one. As to the national debt:
There’s a good way to go about government downsizing and a stupid way. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s effort headed by Elon Musk is using the second approach.
First, it’s okay to eliminate obviously unnecessary positions like those used to promote DEI. No harm, no foul, but after that is accomplished attempting to micromanage complex government programs is a fool’s game.
Each government agency should by now have scores of Trump appointees in charge of agency management down to the regional office level outside of Washington DC. The way to proceed with minimal disruption is to give each of these appointees a set budget reduction target (say 10% or 15%) and let those individuals working with the senior civil service employees they now manage determine how to meet the new targets with the least disruption to services provided to the American people. DOGE simply does not have the ability to do this job and the stupid mistakes they are making will completely and permanently tarnish their ability to reduce government spending. This NYT article highlights the kind of stupidity Musk is engaged in:
I was once in support of teachers unions, it will not surprise you to know. It’s honestly depressing how difficult it is to get data on government functions at any level. I will say that Dems were obsessed with the deficit during Obama, which led to the 2013 sequester. But clearly that did little.
I remember discourse in the Clinton era, and I believe you about Obama. I think our debt is doubled or tripled since then, though. It’s really become an acute problem in the past 5 years. I’m very worried that TRUMP won’t do much for the issue… but at least his supporters are discussing it. Is this a partisan thing? That tends to happen. When a Democrat is in the WH Republicans become budget hawks and vice versa.
I’m just shocked at how many people don’t seem to want to acknowledge the problem. What’s the longterm strategy here?
The bail reform issue is even weirder. People never seem to defend the policies on their merits. Mayors and DA’s effect the policies and then everyone just agrees to not speak about it, it seems. I’ve never even seen a contemporary poll on bail reform. It was a massive and radical re-imagining of our criminal justice system that somehow happened with little discussion, and persists.
I think this is related perhaps to how progressives aren’t willing to actually debate any of their pet causes, and politicians are unwilling to test what they are pressured by activists into doing and saying. You’re right, no one talks about it as though it wasn’t all over the internet just four years ago.
"Try to find current graphs and projections of city/state/federal debt right now. I studied economics in college. It used to be trivially easy to find this data. Now most of it is out of date by 5 years, or 10."
This line alone inspired me to write an article on the topic. When I was an economics major, I could easily access hundreds of voting sheets from different states through a centralized data source. Now it's all gated or nonexistent.
It's very strange. It's not as if this information is unprocessed or secret. I also studied economics but that was 10 years ago so perhaps I'm referencing the wrong sources. Most graphs cut off ~2015-2019. Very strange.
I wonder if the situation were different (and the debt / GDP had stayed flat or shrunk), if this would be the case?
Brandon Johnson is clearly a criminal and a not very smart one. As to the national debt:
There’s a good way to go about government downsizing and a stupid way. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s effort headed by Elon Musk is using the second approach.
First, it’s okay to eliminate obviously unnecessary positions like those used to promote DEI. No harm, no foul, but after that is accomplished attempting to micromanage complex government programs is a fool’s game.
Each government agency should by now have scores of Trump appointees in charge of agency management down to the regional office level outside of Washington DC. The way to proceed with minimal disruption is to give each of these appointees a set budget reduction target (say 10% or 15%) and let those individuals working with the senior civil service employees they now manage determine how to meet the new targets with the least disruption to services provided to the American people. DOGE simply does not have the ability to do this job and the stupid mistakes they are making will completely and permanently tarnish their ability to reduce government spending. This NYT article highlights the kind of stupidity Musk is engaged in:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/travel/national-park-service-firings.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zU4.auCr.xN44vnAIiMzg&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I was once in support of teachers unions, it will not surprise you to know. It’s honestly depressing how difficult it is to get data on government functions at any level. I will say that Dems were obsessed with the deficit during Obama, which led to the 2013 sequester. But clearly that did little.
I remember discourse in the Clinton era, and I believe you about Obama. I think our debt is doubled or tripled since then, though. It’s really become an acute problem in the past 5 years. I’m very worried that TRUMP won’t do much for the issue… but at least his supporters are discussing it. Is this a partisan thing? That tends to happen. When a Democrat is in the WH Republicans become budget hawks and vice versa.
I’m just shocked at how many people don’t seem to want to acknowledge the problem. What’s the longterm strategy here?
The bail reform issue is even weirder. People never seem to defend the policies on their merits. Mayors and DA’s effect the policies and then everyone just agrees to not speak about it, it seems. I’ve never even seen a contemporary poll on bail reform. It was a massive and radical re-imagining of our criminal justice system that somehow happened with little discussion, and persists.
I think this is related perhaps to how progressives aren’t willing to actually debate any of their pet causes, and politicians are unwilling to test what they are pressured by activists into doing and saying. You’re right, no one talks about it as though it wasn’t all over the internet just four years ago.
Not only is Brandon Johnson stupid but he is clearly a loser: