DescentBB

In an ironic twist, the projected US shortfall for 2005 is 427 BILLION dollars while the military budget is 419 BILLION dollars. Funny. Oh - that 419 BILLION dollars doesn't include the military's "stocking stuffer" of $80 BILLION that Dubya will request later in the year. So make that 500 BILLION.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4243807.stm

At the same time the USA is running record deficits, New Zealand is running record budget surpluses. FYI, a record surplus in New Zealand amounts to NZD 7 BILLION. That equates to about 5 BILLION USD - or slightly less than 1/3rd of NASA's budget for 2005! FYI: New Zealand has the highest interest rates of any OECD country, and inflation at under 2%.

Just for comparison, if the USA was producing surpluses at the same rate as New Zealand, 2005 would see the USA with a budget surplus of 375 BILLION USD. That's the thick end of a TRILLION dollars the wrong way.

FYI: The USA spends 5 BILLION dollars of other people's money --- every --- single --- day.

I'd prefer if the government spent less money too.

Whats your point? People have been complaining about our national budget for years, and most of those people have been Americans.

Your country is running a $7B surplus. Good for you, whoopity do. My STATE was running a $5B surplus a few years back and is projected to start running surpluses again soon.

Whoopity do.

Must be nice to live in the shire while the armies of men keep the trolls out.

woodchip wrote:Must be nice to live in the shire while the armies of men feep the trolls out.

haha, thats good Well, aside from your spelling mistake of "Keep".

There...I fixed it Mr. Fancy Pants...

That's super.

lol@Woodchip!
Mobius the nosey whining little hobbit. What's the matter, a bunch of nasty republican dwarves eat all your spice cakes or something?

I think hes just mad because even american liberals are less ultraliberal than him.

i don't even know what australia's defecit is. i think it's going down, i hear words like "more money to throw around now coz we saved" and stuff.

it'd sure be swell if we had a national surplus. just coz i personally don't like credit . mad props to NZ (you guys belong in europe)

Avder wrote:Your country is running a $7B surplus. Good for you, whoopity do. My STATE was running a $5B surplus a few years back and is projected to start running surpluses again soon. Whoopity do.

that's interesting.
so if i try to build a picture of what your state would look like as an independant nation, what would it look like? it would have no army yes? (i uh... i know that the army is a federal thing in USA, that's about it).

i imagine a look at individual states' surplus/defecits would be most interesting. maybe one of those red/blue states - raised/lowered 3D map things like you guys did for your election.

pubble dost

Actually if you wanna do that, roid, youd also need to look at the ratio of tax dollars sent to washington over the tax dollars brought home from washington.

Who doesn't want a defecit?

When it comes to government, we all would like to think of ourselves as "fiscal conservatives." But once the government begins to spend more money, it's hard to stop that extra spending because it inherits the negative tag of "budget cut." And then people complain anyway about the defecit.

New Zealand may have a surplus of NZD 7 Billion. But once people begin to spend it away, it will be hard to cut those programs, thus beginning the New Zealand budget deficit.

Maybe it's the accounting major talking here, but I would be very interested in seeing some financial statements (specifically a very detailed and less consolidated statement of cash flows, how they got money and where it came from), showing, line-by-line how they spent their money, organization by organization, made easily accessible to the public in a central location so the general public can view such statements. While it is true financial statements, produced by the government or other economic entities (including for-profit) are written for the "informed users," I think we will come much closer to understanding where this money is going.

it'd be hard to concentrate on such small figures when things like the god sized military budget loom over it.

Mobius wrote:In an ironic twist, the projected US shortfall for 2005 is 427 BILLION dollars while the military budget is 419 BILLION dollars. Funny. Oh - that 419 BILLION dollars doesn't include the military's "stocking stuffer" of $80 BILLION that Dubya will request later in the year. So make that 500 BILLION.

Its not easy playing world "Policeman"

woodchip wrote:Must be nice to live in the shire while the armies of men keep the trolls out.

Touche', chip.

BD

Mobius wrote: At the same time the USA is running record deficits, New Zealand is running record budget surpluses.

A budget surplus means that New Zealand taxpayers are being over-taxed. Think about it. Government is non-profit, it should "at best" break even on receipts and expenditures. So when you brag that you're government has a "surplus" then you are admitting how big a sucker you are for paying too much tax to your government in the first place! SUCKER ALERT! That means billions of NZD$'s are under the control of bureaucraps instead of the citizenry.

BTW, thank you. I was eating some fresh kiwi fruit over the weekend and the sticker said "Produce of the USA".

roid wrote: that's interesting. so if i try to build a picture of what your state would look like as an independant nation, what would it look like? it would have no army yes? (i uh... i know that the army is a federal thing in USA, that's about it).

i imagine a look at individual states' surplus/defecits would be most interesting. maybe one of those red/blue states - raised/lowered 3D map things like you guys did for your election.

The US Military units in the great state of Texas have the capability to conquer the entire world. I'm not joking, we really can. Having all the other states around makes it all the eisier. And yes, Texas used to be it's own country.

Texas is also a net contributor to the US federal budget. But the Texas state budget still wastes money on Socialist programs. I also read somewhere that Texas was admitted to the USA with arrangements to pay the Republic of Texas's debts by Union funds. Hardball, eh?

KlubMarcus wrote:The US Military units in the great state of Texas have the capability to conquer the entire world. I'm not joking, we really can. Having all the other states around makes it all the eisier. And yes, Texas used to be it's own country.

"US Military" units not Texas military units.

Put down the pipe man I admit you could take Oklahoma anytime but the world? What kind of blue water navy units you hiding there? Kinda hard to get that world beating army anywhere without ships to transport and protect them.

I am all about Texas as well, but man come off it. It is not quite the Utopia you think it is.

Couver_ wrote: What kind of blue water navy units you hiding there? Kinda hard to get that world beating army anywhere without ships to transport and protect them.

You should take a close look at TX ports. We've got plenty of cargo ships to get the firepower everywhere and we've got plenty of gas to fly them there even faster, too. Maybe we'll hide the Army in oil tankers and surprise them.

This Klubmarcus fellow is the exact reason I ruled out moving to Austin later this year. These kind of people frighten me, yack.

What's wrong with what Mobius said? We all make fun of his country and bash it but in reality, they do a better job managing money than we do. Why is a little podunk country better at handling finances? Because of the wars? No, even if we didn't have the war, we'd still be behind the eight ball quite readily. Got to get rid of the pork, that's what it takes. You know, I was thinking a lot this year as I did my taxes, I looked at what I've gotten previously before the tax cuts and I've made an extra 60 bucks a year roughly with these tax cuts. It's nice...I get an extra night at the bar on that tab.

Zuruck wrote:...You know, I was thinking a lot this year as I did my taxes, I looked at what I've gotten previously before the tax cuts and I've made an extra 60 bucks a year roughly with these tax cuts. It's nice...I get an extra night at the bar on that tab.

Better you than paying for Teddy Kennedy and friends' night out.

Zuruck, the Kiwis have so many sheep that they've built a wool cutain so you can't see in.