Andy, another informative article. I had no idea that the county supervisors could incur so much debt without taxpayer approval.
To your point about the national debt being out of control, if I might build on your comments, the current national debt to GDP ratio is 123.48%. Only 44 years ago, under Jimmy Carter's administration the national debt was $908 Billion and 26% of GDP. to put the current national debt of $34.5 trillion in context, it amounts to a debt of $266,500 for every federal taxpayer.
It is estimated by Statista.com that by 2034 the national debt will have increased to $54.386 trillion, increasing by approximately $2 trillion a year. By then, the debt to GDP ratio is likely to be right in the danger zone.
Gens XYZ are starting to wake up to that hoary rallying cry - taxation without representation. As should we all, when voters for the past two decades wittingly installed a Democrat super-majority in this state, which by fiat circumvents prior tax reform limitations.
Term-limits in fact have been the most corrosive internally inflicted budget-busting factor since no elected official now either faces nor suffers long-term consequences for this public spending profligacy. They just move on, or up and out.
For the past two decades, voters just kicked the can down the road despite all warnings this very predictable day would be faced. Voters share this blame, as much as those they kept electing. Voters approved this current one-party revolving door of elected officials, as they move through the turn-stile of "term limits" and on to some other elected or appointed position.
State senator Monique Limon moves from school board to assembly woman to state senator. State assembly person Gregg Hart moves from city council, to county board of supervisors to state assembly. Where along the way did they do anything to prevent what we are facing today? What did they do to ignore, or exacerbate it.
The "state" did not get us into this mess. We voters did. From "Taxin" Hannah-Beth Jackson(D) to Das Williams(D) to now Monique Limon(D) and Gregg Hart(D), we now reap what we have sown. We had choices who raised these alarm bells for years. But we threw cold water on them, and not on the raging four alarm fires we now face, as evidenced by the state budget short-falls and the grotesque distortion of tax payer value for return benefits received.
There is only one Constitutional movement who has standing and a cure for this cancer it is NewCaliforniaState.com for Santa Barbara County California state has not conducted any audits and they cant borrow money. Thats dead in the water for the state.
Democrats registered so many people, and republicans have a fraction of registered voters from this mess without cleaning the voter roles, election fraud will not change.
The current 22 million persons now working for the government, along with their families and friends, have created an autonomous, self-interested voting block that can no longer be ignored. Borrowing money and creating more government jobs is not "economic recovery". It is a partisan shell game.
The old adage of “spending money like a drunken sailor” should be updated to say: “spending money like a drunken sailor whose snorting crack, injecting heroin, and vaping pot like there’s no tomorrow!
You need to ask if only 6% of income taxes goes to fund the govt. where does the other 94% come from? and why would i ever want a loan to be repaid if the interest keeps growing?! this is the reason the national debt will never get repaid. IRS is not the problem
it’s over…back when I was taking college Econ classes in the 1980s, the professors were teaching that our nation’s debt would become unsustainable and nearly irreversible at the point when our debt-to-GDP ratio reached 70-80%…our current debt-to-GDP = about 130%…we were also taught that countries were considered as banana republics when debt reached 100% of GDP…
our banana republic is over the fiscal cliff, as evidenced by the rapidly diminishing dollar…given the current financial & political climates, might be a good time to consider protecting the homestead & nest eggs by purchasing metals…
One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.
The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country. The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.
More interesting is how the debt in Santa Barbara County is created without voter approval. 🙄.
You don't vote for it, but have to pay it. Does not seem very democratic or inclusive to me.
About Trump, Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, and the rest. They are all two sides of the same coin. Let's not pretend that there is a difference either morally, ethically, or fiduciary.
We have, and live in a Democratic Republic, which allows for the people to elect representatives who make and aprove decisions on running the government for us. So no, “we” don't vote for “it” as, our form of government isn't built this way and, never has been.
mixing democratic...democracy...which is socialism essentially with a Republic is like mixing oil (which we have plenty of) and vinegar. The Republic as outlined in the 1st constitution was subverted by the amendments and the 2nd constitution. so our revered leaders Ben Franklin and Lincoln led the downfall. But thats not taught in the history books. So alberto is right the only difference between a republican and a demoncrat is really not much. There all owned by the Federal Reserve and the IMF. The truth is that Trump will make good on his promise to being our nation back to a republic which would require paying off the national debt. Our problems as a nation is bigger than your local supervisors . They just illustrate or paint the picture of the bigger problem.
Benjamin Franklin died in 1790 and Abraham Lincoln was born 119 years later in 1809, making it rather difficult for the two of them to work together to subvert the Constitution of the United States.
The point here was that we vote on bonds to save ....... but somehow government "representatives" figured out a way to get, accumulate, or increase debt without people's vote.
It's been a while and not sure but are we a federal republic and not a democratic one?
Installing a super-majority allows our "elected representatives" to increase taxation without going to the people for the Prop 13 tax reform two thirds majority vote. Disguising new taxes as "fees" is another ploy.
But worst of all is spending available tax dollars for partisan (D) benefit only primarily by expanding the numbers and expenses of the large government employee work force along with their long-term perks and pensions, leaving the general public use infrastructure to go begging for additional debt to finance these fundamental state services.
Please separate out the pandemic cost including lost work from gross deficit. (And the continuing increase of uncontrolled social security and medicare should be evaluated)
if there werent 101 unintended uses for ss then it wouldnt be a problem. and if you were getting a 1 1/2% return on your investment youd be pretty upset. such is social security. Are you familiar with the rule of 72?
Two factors: the "covid" debacle that was inflicted in the last year of his term and Obamacare's most expensive provisions kicking in during the early part of his terms. Where were you on the "covid" spending spree? Where were you on the Obamacare spending spree.
It rings very hollow to only blame Trump at this point in time. Nor is it useful or productive. Only partisan in this 2024 election year. What are your belt-tightening suggestions since we are all in this together.
The need to increase the debt limit1 has focused attention on the size and trajectory of the federal debt. Long-term projections show2 that federal debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy is on a path to grow indefinitely, with increased noninterest spending due to demographic changes such as increasing life expectancy, declining fertility, and decreased immigration and rising health care costs permanently outstripping revenues under projections based on current law. House Republican leaders have used this fact to call for spending cuts,3 but it does not address the true cause of rising debt: Tax cuts initially enacted during Republican trifectas in the past 25 years slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. In fact, relative to earlier projections, spending is down, not up. But revenues are down significantly more. If not for the Bush tax cuts4 and their extensions5—as well as the Trump tax cuts6—revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely, and the debt ratio (debt as a percentage of the economy) would be declining. Instead, these tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt since their enactment and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase in the debt ratio since 2001, and more than 90 percent of the increase in the debt ratio if the one-time costs of bills responding to COVID-19 and the Great Recession are excluded. Eventually, the tax cuts are projected to grow to more than 100 percent of the increase.
No such thing as a "tax cut". Just the IRS Code as written and budgeted. It was never your money to start with, so it cannot be cut. History has shown your alleged "tax cuts" have been the most predictable way to boost the over all economy; while increased government spending is the most recessionary.
And who approves the IRS Code? a private entity called the FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD!!! Its called the fox guarding the henhouse. You dont stand a chance and wont ever until that changes. but its even much deeper that that im sorry to say!
Federal Reserve Board is similar to SCOTUS: Elections matter.
.gov: "Have A Question? Ask Us Who are the members of the Federal Reserve Board, and how are they selected?
The members of the Board of Governors are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. By law, the appointments must yield a "fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of the country," and no two Governors may come from the same Federal Reserve District.
The full term of a Governor is 14 years; appointments are staggered so that one term expires on January 31 of each even-numbered year. "
Terry lives in an alternate reality. It exists on TV, but no one living IRL knows where it is. ... where Leftists will stop spending when the tax rate reaches 100%.
... I'd go on, but the point is that his sort of Leftist thinking ...
... that some kind of world exists where the Left will stop spending when the money fairy taxes all the money others produce ...
Just won't go away.
Terry literally sounds like Leftists I recall from high school 50+ years ago. The only difference is blaming Trump, Bush, and Reagan ... instead of blaming Nixon and Hoover. He even used the same terms and language construction.
It's the same playbook they learned during indoctrination.
You write a perfect summary as to why and how we got to where we are today, which is the basis for this article that we are discussing.
Bush and Trump, through their legislation “limited” (cut) the amount of money available to the US Treasury and didn't bother to “limit” (cut) spending.
You're right J., but how the heck can we implement that kind of thinking with the Commie-Dems promising everybody everything in order to get and stay in office?
Im sorry you are misleading blaming Obamas and Bidens mismanagement on trump. Please correct. You were right about Trump not pulling us into war where only banks profit! And Lincoln didnt start a war to free the slaves. Slavery was on its way out. He started the war because the south had all the money and He needed it to save the new United States (corporate) government) and the international bankers and the Crown. You see even learned people do not know the truth!
It reminds me though: That like your abusive ex-spouse, our leadership not only does not care how much they spend, but they don't understand the consequences of what they do.
people need to return to there roots all the way back to the founding of this great country to understan how to cure the disease and not just the symptoms
Check your history Andy! The United States has been a debtor nation since 1782 and in bankruptcy since 1789. So America thanks to our fearless leaders have renewed the bankruptcy every 70 years since then. The reason we still are is becauseof the leaders like those in SB County who dont/cant say no because its the fees charged that keep them in their jobs. They have unlimited budgets....Us!!!
Andy, another informative article. I had no idea that the county supervisors could incur so much debt without taxpayer approval.
To your point about the national debt being out of control, if I might build on your comments, the current national debt to GDP ratio is 123.48%. Only 44 years ago, under Jimmy Carter's administration the national debt was $908 Billion and 26% of GDP. to put the current national debt of $34.5 trillion in context, it amounts to a debt of $266,500 for every federal taxpayer.
It is estimated by Statista.com that by 2034 the national debt will have increased to $54.386 trillion, increasing by approximately $2 trillion a year. By then, the debt to GDP ratio is likely to be right in the danger zone.
Gens XYZ are starting to wake up to that hoary rallying cry - taxation without representation. As should we all, when voters for the past two decades wittingly installed a Democrat super-majority in this state, which by fiat circumvents prior tax reform limitations.
Term-limits in fact have been the most corrosive internally inflicted budget-busting factor since no elected official now either faces nor suffers long-term consequences for this public spending profligacy. They just move on, or up and out.
For the past two decades, voters just kicked the can down the road despite all warnings this very predictable day would be faced. Voters share this blame, as much as those they kept electing. Voters approved this current one-party revolving door of elected officials, as they move through the turn-stile of "term limits" and on to some other elected or appointed position.
State senator Monique Limon moves from school board to assembly woman to state senator. State assembly person Gregg Hart moves from city council, to county board of supervisors to state assembly. Where along the way did they do anything to prevent what we are facing today? What did they do to ignore, or exacerbate it.
The "state" did not get us into this mess. We voters did. From "Taxin" Hannah-Beth Jackson(D) to Das Williams(D) to now Monique Limon(D) and Gregg Hart(D), we now reap what we have sown. We had choices who raised these alarm bells for years. But we threw cold water on them, and not on the raging four alarm fires we now face, as evidenced by the state budget short-falls and the grotesque distortion of tax payer value for return benefits received.
nothing you have said is incorrect but its a reiteration of the the symptom sand not the cure for the disease.
There is only one Constitutional movement who has standing and a cure for this cancer it is NewCaliforniaState.com for Santa Barbara County California state has not conducted any audits and they cant borrow money. Thats dead in the water for the state.
Thank you Andy for all that you do keep us all on our toes for transparency, honesty, truthful
Democrats registered so many people, and republicans have a fraction of registered voters from this mess without cleaning the voter roles, election fraud will not change.
Right on
The current 22 million persons now working for the government, along with their families and friends, have created an autonomous, self-interested voting block that can no longer be ignored. Borrowing money and creating more government jobs is not "economic recovery". It is a partisan shell game.
your right! healthcare and govt are largest and fastest growing sectors. Logic tells me it doe3snt take 1 of 5 jobs to be dedicated to govt.
The old adage of “spending money like a drunken sailor” should be updated to say: “spending money like a drunken sailor whose snorting crack, injecting heroin, and vaping pot like there’s no tomorrow!
Repeal 16th Amendment - that is the Beltway crack dealer.
You need to ask if only 6% of income taxes goes to fund the govt. where does the other 94% come from? and why would i ever want a loan to be repaid if the interest keeps growing?! this is the reason the national debt will never get repaid. IRS is not the problem
But what to replace/amend it with?
Why would you replace it?
dont need to. Just put americans back in charge
Wow! Excellent article.
it’s over…back when I was taking college Econ classes in the 1980s, the professors were teaching that our nation’s debt would become unsustainable and nearly irreversible at the point when our debt-to-GDP ratio reached 70-80%…our current debt-to-GDP = about 130%…we were also taught that countries were considered as banana republics when debt reached 100% of GDP…
our banana republic is over the fiscal cliff, as evidenced by the rapidly diminishing dollar…given the current financial & political climates, might be a good time to consider protecting the homestead & nest eggs by purchasing metals…
and those same professors kept votong for the idiots that helped put us here. gotta keep that tenure!
Keep voting for the Commie-Dems - our current $34T debt will look like chump change.
Thanks for the truth. Most people have no idea where their tax dollars go... or how much we owe.
One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.
The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country. The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.
More interesting is how the debt in Santa Barbara County is created without voter approval. 🙄.
You don't vote for it, but have to pay it. Does not seem very democratic or inclusive to me.
About Trump, Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, and the rest. They are all two sides of the same coin. Let's not pretend that there is a difference either morally, ethically, or fiduciary.
We have, and live in a Democratic Republic, which allows for the people to elect representatives who make and aprove decisions on running the government for us. So no, “we” don't vote for “it” as, our form of government isn't built this way and, never has been.
-
mixing democratic...democracy...which is socialism essentially with a Republic is like mixing oil (which we have plenty of) and vinegar. The Republic as outlined in the 1st constitution was subverted by the amendments and the 2nd constitution. so our revered leaders Ben Franklin and Lincoln led the downfall. But thats not taught in the history books. So alberto is right the only difference between a republican and a demoncrat is really not much. There all owned by the Federal Reserve and the IMF. The truth is that Trump will make good on his promise to being our nation back to a republic which would require paying off the national debt. Our problems as a nation is bigger than your local supervisors . They just illustrate or paint the picture of the bigger problem.
Benjamin Franklin died in 1790 and Abraham Lincoln was born 119 years later in 1809, making it rather difficult for the two of them to work together to subvert the Constitution of the United States.
1790 to 1809 = 119 years?
duh!!!
The point here was that we vote on bonds to save ....... but somehow government "representatives" figured out a way to get, accumulate, or increase debt without people's vote.
It's been a while and not sure but are we a federal republic and not a democratic one?
Installing a super-majority allows our "elected representatives" to increase taxation without going to the people for the Prop 13 tax reform two thirds majority vote. Disguising new taxes as "fees" is another ploy.
But worst of all is spending available tax dollars for partisan (D) benefit only primarily by expanding the numbers and expenses of the large government employee work force along with their long-term perks and pensions, leaving the general public use infrastructure to go begging for additional debt to finance these fundamental state services.
Weve not been operating as a federal republic since the first bankruptcy im afraid
Economically:
Please separate out the pandemic cost including lost work from gross deficit. (And the continuing increase of uncontrolled social security and medicare should be evaluated)
if there werent 101 unintended uses for ss then it wouldnt be a problem. and if you were getting a 1 1/2% return on your investment youd be pretty upset. such is social security. Are you familiar with the rule of 72?
Rule 72?
Two factors: the "covid" debacle that was inflicted in the last year of his term and Obamacare's most expensive provisions kicking in during the early part of his terms. Where were you on the "covid" spending spree? Where were you on the Obamacare spending spree.
It rings very hollow to only blame Trump at this point in time. Nor is it useful or productive. Only partisan in this 2024 election year. What are your belt-tightening suggestions since we are all in this together.
The media strategy and demoncrat for that matter is divide and conquer not all for one and one for all!
The need to increase the debt limit1 has focused attention on the size and trajectory of the federal debt. Long-term projections show2 that federal debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy is on a path to grow indefinitely, with increased noninterest spending due to demographic changes such as increasing life expectancy, declining fertility, and decreased immigration and rising health care costs permanently outstripping revenues under projections based on current law. House Republican leaders have used this fact to call for spending cuts,3 but it does not address the true cause of rising debt: Tax cuts initially enacted during Republican trifectas in the past 25 years slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. In fact, relative to earlier projections, spending is down, not up. But revenues are down significantly more. If not for the Bush tax cuts4 and their extensions5—as well as the Trump tax cuts6—revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely, and the debt ratio (debt as a percentage of the economy) would be declining. Instead, these tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt since their enactment and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase in the debt ratio since 2001, and more than 90 percent of the increase in the debt ratio if the one-time costs of bills responding to COVID-19 and the Great Recession are excluded. Eventually, the tax cuts are projected to grow to more than 100 percent of the increase.
No such thing as a "tax cut". Just the IRS Code as written and budgeted. It was never your money to start with, so it cannot be cut. History has shown your alleged "tax cuts" have been the most predictable way to boost the over all economy; while increased government spending is the most recessionary.
And technically a FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE is really a PROMISSORY NOTE. Chew on that
And who approves the IRS Code? a private entity called the FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD!!! Its called the fox guarding the henhouse. You dont stand a chance and wont ever until that changes. but its even much deeper that that im sorry to say!
Federal Reserve Board is similar to SCOTUS: Elections matter.
.gov: "Have A Question? Ask Us Who are the members of the Federal Reserve Board, and how are they selected?
The members of the Board of Governors are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. By law, the appointments must yield a "fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of the country," and no two Governors may come from the same Federal Reserve District.
The full term of a Governor is 14 years; appointments are staggered so that one term expires on January 31 of each even-numbered year. "
At least you made an effort to do a little research but dig a little deeper and i think you will be suprised.
as is written.. but theres more too it. At least you did some research without resorting to insults. thank you
Terry lives in an alternate reality. It exists on TV, but no one living IRL knows where it is. ... where Leftists will stop spending when the tax rate reaches 100%.
... I'd go on, but the point is that his sort of Leftist thinking ...
... that some kind of world exists where the Left will stop spending when the money fairy taxes all the money others produce ...
Just won't go away.
Terry literally sounds like Leftists I recall from high school 50+ years ago. The only difference is blaming Trump, Bush, and Reagan ... instead of blaming Nixon and Hoover. He even used the same terms and language construction.
It's the same playbook they learned during indoctrination.
You write a perfect summary as to why and how we got to where we are today, which is the basis for this article that we are discussing.
Bush and Trump, through their legislation “limited” (cut) the amount of money available to the US Treasury and didn't bother to “limit” (cut) spending.
Thank you.
spoken like a true Rino. Heres some research for you to do. When, where, and how is there a US TREASURY, Who governs it?
I have a new name for a RINO - RepubliCrat
Response to Terry Sparks
Politics follows culture. Money is the mother's milk of politics. We the people must return to thrift and prudence, but that would be preachy.
You're right J., but how the heck can we implement that kind of thinking with the Commie-Dems promising everybody everything in order to get and stay in office?
thrift and prudence is biblical but so is gods promised abundance and OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL. which we have not had since appx 1862 and certainly 1933.
Im sorry you are misleading blaming Obamas and Bidens mismanagement on trump. Please correct. You were right about Trump not pulling us into war where only banks profit! And Lincoln didnt start a war to free the slaves. Slavery was on its way out. He started the war because the south had all the money and He needed it to save the new United States (corporate) government) and the international bankers and the Crown. You see even learned people do not know the truth!
Your writing speaks for itself.
Excellent article. No surprise.
It reminds me though: That like your abusive ex-spouse, our leadership not only does not care how much they spend, but they don't understand the consequences of what they do.
Don’t know if this will appear
IMG_5471.jpg.
In order to cure the disease and not just the symptoms you need to go back to the founding of this great country and the missteps that have been made.
people need to return to there roots all the way back to the founding of this great country to understan how to cure the disease and not just the symptoms
Check your history Andy! The United States has been a debtor nation since 1782 and in bankruptcy since 1789. So America thanks to our fearless leaders have renewed the bankruptcy every 70 years since then. The reason we still are is becauseof the leaders like those in SB County who dont/cant say no because its the fees charged that keep them in their jobs. They have unlimited budgets....Us!!!
Andy, could you provide a source for the 'traffic fees'. I'm looking at the Goleta's fee program and can't find them easily.
Thomas, these are the COUNTY of SB fees in the unincorporated area of the county...not the City of Goleta's fees. See the link below
Very professional, Andy.
https://santabarbara.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12752656&GUID=AE89945C-5F50-4C12-A042-CF491EE760D1
Thank you for the link and clarification.
Govt is not in the habit of helping you find answers easily im afraid