Langone: 'Obama's Debt Solutions Are Generational Theft!'

Langone always delivers.  Runs 2 minutes.

'A major debt storm is on the way.  We're eating our grandchildrens' breakfast, lunch and dinner.'

Home Depot Founder Ken Langone on Squawk Box this morning.

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The nation's debt as a percentage of the economy is going to cause a fiscal storm, Home Depot Founder Kenneth Langone told CNBC on Tuesday.  President Barack Obama's roadmap to reduce the deficit and invest in the future is "generational theft of an enormous magnitude," Langone said in a "Squawk Box" interview.

"The fundamentals haven't changed ... And we don't know when the storm is going to hit.  It has to happen.  If you look at our debt to GDP, eventually you reach a point where there's no turning back."

He used an analogy to make his point. "If you had one meal left, and you had your grandchild with you, would you eat if or give it to your grandchild?"

He said all people would say "give it to my grandchild."

But pursuing the president's vision, he argued, "[Is] eating the grandchildren's breakfast, lunch and dinner right now. And the [grandchildren] haven't been born yet."

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Bonus clip:

Langone's Two Words: Simpson/Bowles

Comments

[usurykills]

"If you look at our debt to GDP, eventually you reach a point where there's no turning back."

Where is that point? That's the real question, isn't it? How much is too much?

Here's the thing -- governments lie. We really don't know how much our debt really is, nor can we accurately calculate GDP.

They say the national debt is about $16T now. Can we double that? I doubt it. $27T seems like an unreasonable number...

We added $1.5T per year between April 2009 and April 2012 according to http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

Currently, we're at $16.5T, but wait till you get a load of a real budget.

[L. Ron Hubbard]

I don't even see how it's legal for the US government to spend like crazy and saddle the debt onto future generations, onto people who would normally be out protesting this unfair financial burden except for the fact that THEY HAVEN'T BEEN BORN YET!!! Our government is creating a future humanitarian disaster. I hate to say it but the only thing that could drag us out of this predicament would be global war... maybe that's what we're banking on?

[TR]

The debt's not a problem since we don't have to pay interest. LMAO

"future humanitarian disaster." 7billion & growing. If everyone would commit suicide this world would be much nicer for me.
WTF

[mikael]

Hes absolutley righ on the issue about sustaiability.

This is a sucidal race to the bottom of the pitt, nobody know the exact date, but the numbers dont lie.

The payment on Intress alone by the gov. is growing exponentialy, and is already beyound sustaiablilty, and ita growng day by day because of wars, and when the prices soar ot heaven, this debth will follow.
Thats why its called a downward spirall.

Its already to late, thats his point and I fully agree.
If america dont stopp the wars, you are i9ndeed doomed, and its the truth.
For how long can a nation spand 50% of its income in wars, a long time, yes, but the wall is there.

peace

[S. Gompers]

Yes it is, but Americans have grown rather fond of it.

[Jolly Roger]

I see. Everything was fine as long as the owners of Home Depot were raking in the cash, but now that business has waned for them they're crying about economic policies. I hope their heads roll down the street.

[Sagebrush]

"I hate to say it but the only thing that could drag us out of this predicament would be global war... maybe that's what we're banking on?"

Unless we won, global war wouldn't pull us out of the grave we've dug for ourselves. The way China is rearming with ultra modern technology, unless it happens soon we will have lost our technological superiority and we know how that ends up. If he were alive Saddam Husein could tell us exactly what happens in that situation.

We don't need to go to war to cure our problems, we need to remove the parasitic malignant tumors in our government and our economy.

[Tom Noel]

What I find amazing about all of this is that they put the entire blame for the economy on this administration. How much of our output of funds is going to a war in Afghanistan that the previous administration put us in to. I know the amount, do you? This doesn't even account for the amount of unpaid funding that went in to the war on Iraq, which by the way was never paid by the Bush administration and was handed down to this administration. It's a ridiculous situation and the republicans refuse to play ball with this president in any way. It has been stated in the last 2 days that any kind of taxes are off the table. It was also stated by the house majority leader that when the plan for the sequester was put in to place that he was happy because he got 98% of what he wanted when that deal was made. Now he says that Obama caused this. What we have to remember is Obama is not the problem. Congress is and more specifically the House of Representatives. Spending is authorized by Congress and in order for it to be approved, it takes a bipartisan vote to make it happen. This is just another case of the right trying to make this President look bad so that they can try to take control of both the house and the senate at the next midterm election and the hope that they can make Obama look bad enough that they can gain the White House in 2016. It's a joke. More right wing tea party propaganda. Don't fall for it. The congress of this country has stonewalled anything that could make for forward progress for the past 2 years and the house is doing a great job of it so far since the election. America is smarter than this and I for one won't buy in to it.

[DailyBail]

Mikael

Even if we cut back on military spending, we are still doomed. The future numbers for medicare are off the charts. And wait until interest rates go back to normal and we have to pay the interest on $20 trillion in federal debt. At 5% it comes to $1 trillion per year, just to pay the interest on money we have already borrowed. And $1 trillion is about 40% of total tax revenues, so we are doomed, no matter what happens.

[kerdasi amaq]

War won't solve America's debt problem, since they are the designated loser.