A Study On The Current National Debt Essay

The growing national deficit is a looming problem in the United States now more than ever. The national debt is constantly increasing and government spending is out of control. If these issues are not solved then they could spell disaster for the nation’s economy when the infamous debt ceiling is finally reached. Currently the national policy on the debt is to continue raising the debt limit until a solution is found that is agreeable between both parties in Congress. The two main issues of over spending and the constant raising of the debts ceiling by Congress can both be resolved by government spending reform, balancing the federal budget and initiating pro-growth policies in order to increase the government’s tax revenue.

This growth in national debt has blunt consequences on inflation, interest rates and growing economy. Foreign control of large amounts of government debt means that the taxes will have to be raised to repay debt and percentage owned to overseas governments which is not acceptable. Assuming that trade deficiency also exists it will lead to depreciation of dollar which effect its position as a reserve currency, and if during this process any new currency emerge as a replacement of reserve currency, higher interest rates will be required to sell the debt to foreign countries (Inflation). Raised interest rates have a negative impact on the economy and high accumulation of debts leads to high interest rates (Spending). Hence the economy suffers. This means that the funds for government programs like Social Security and Medicare are not enough (Economic Progress Under Obama). Another consequence of high national debt is the reduced flexibility in fiscal policy (Spending).

The United States economy currently faces several problems affecting people throughout the country. These problems are ultimately affecting the growth of the United States. The growth of federal debt and deficit is seen as a major problem by the people of the United States especially when many people do not see the next president doing much more to improve it. The unbalanced labor market and immigration’s possible role in that has also been a discussion for many American citizens. It is important to also address the inequality regarding income. The deep-rooted trend of the rich getting richer and everyone else declining or remaining the same has created a lot of anger throughout the country. Lastly, the housing market has a huge affect on the economy considering housing is the biggest asset and one of the biggest drivers of wealth. Federal debt and deficit, immigration and the labor market, income inequality, and housing have all had negative effects on the United States economy today, while also affecting each other.

The U.S. national debt is currently $18 trillion dollars and it is rising fast. The national debt today is the highest the U.S. has ever seen. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he declared the U.S. should avoid going into debt. If the nation end up in a deficit, that the debtors were responsible for paying off the debt so that it doesn’t burden the future generations. Like the rest of this advice in his Farewell Address, the nation ignored it. The ideal goal right now should be to stop the debt from increasing anymore because it is impossible to stop the debt from increasing and expect to pay it off in this generation.

Currently, the United States owes approximately $19 trillion in National Debt. It is owed to Mutual funds, pension funds, foreign governments, foreign investors, American investors and many others. From the year 1959 to 2015, the United States debt has gone up by around 7554% from the debt in 1959 starting at $285 billion. The debt itself has increased by around 9 trillion since Barack Obama has taken the Presidential office in 2009. Everything has been done to increase national debt, but nothing has been made to reduce the national debt.

In 2009 the debt was amounted to about $12 trillion , or 83.4 percent of the country’s GDP (“Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2011” table 7.1). Since 2003, the debt has been increasing by more than $500 billion annually. The increase in 2009 was $1.9 trillion. According to the Congressional Budgeting Office, this debt will keep increasing at least for the next decade (“The Budget and Economic Outlook : Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020” 21).

The total United States national debt is now over 19 trillion dollars and our Congressional leadership shows no signs of accomplishing any significant changes to make the situation better. That 19 trillion equates to almost $59,000 for every citizen of the United Sates. Sound financial practice is to not spend more money than you earn and borrow only for emergencies. It appears our Congress is incapable of adhering to sound financial practices as in the last fifty years there have only been five years when the U.S. recorded a budget surplus. Between 2009 and 2012 the U.S. added 5.5 trillion dollars to its national debt.

In this article, Mark Trumbull, a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor, points out several different areas that the USA‘s National Debt crisis effects. Trumbull asks nine different questions about the debt crisis and then answer’s them as best as possible. His effort is to bring the words of this huge political battle from a high scope to the reading level of the normal American. In an attempt to educate the normal everyday American about the debt crisis, Trumbull raises nine different questions: 1) What is the debt ceiling, and why does it exist? 2) Are we close to hitting the limit? 3) Will

Ever since the 1970s, increased government spending has lead to a $17.6 trillion debt. The government can alter this debt by the use of fiscal policy. Politicians are given two ways to do this, either increase taxes or reduce government spending. The Hamilton project proposes 15 different ways to reduce the deficit, which are broken down into four sections; social safety nets, tax reform, new sources of revenue, and establishing a budget for a modern military.

With the United States only now beginning to recover from the throes of the Great Recession, the good American worker (armed with nightmarish memories of mass unemployment and bankruptcy) generally views large amounts of debt in a negative light, with television pundits regularly criticizing the federal government for the $18 trillion of national debt. Entire generations of Americans have been conditioned to view debtors as moochers and failures, unwilling to work hard in order to earn their own money. This negative opinion of debt is further compounded with the historic negative effects of debt: complete loss of assets, homelessness, and bankruptcy. However, contrary to public opinion, the national debt—and, in fact, all debts—will act

If there is one thing that is known about the national debt, it is that it goes hand in hand with Millennials. It is a shame to think that our country's debt will be forced onto the younger generation, and we will ultimately be the ones who have to fix the situation or deal with the consequences. To be clear, the term millennial usually refers to someone who is in the 18 to 34 age bracket. Millennials are also the first generation after the baby boomers. We are now facing a time when the national debt is growing faster than the American population, and this affects everyone.

Daily poll. For the week of November 20th, the confidence level for the American economy was registered as a +6 on the index of opinions on “rat[ing] current economic conditions and whether they feel the economy is improving or getting worse” (McCarthy). Conducting this poll, a telephone survey with a random number generator was used for the week of November 14th to the 20th, collecting a sample of 3,546 people, ages 18 years and older from all 50 states with cellphones and landlines. This poll meets normal, random, and independence requirements, with the sample size being greater than 30, the interviews being conducted randomly, and there being more than 35,460 people in the country. The results had a “margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level,” meaning that 95% of all samples of 3,546 people 18 years and older from the United States, will result in an interval that captures the population of American adults who believe that the economy has improved (McCarthy). Despite nationwide division over political opinions and concern over election results, these sampled Americans have confidence in the economy according to the Gallup U.S. Daily poll. These results, with 29% having an opinion of “excellent” or “good” and 23% saying “poor,” is seemingly negligible, but this is highest rating for Gallup in the last nine years (McCarthy). In conclusion, the economic confidence level for the Gallup U.S. Daily poll increased to +6, even with the turmoil, division, and disagreement with the election, leading one to believe that Americans still, and even more so, have confidence in their

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that interest payments on US debt will increase from 1.2% of GDP in 2009 to 3.9% in 2020, which could significantly dampen GDP growth. Mankiw projects that the current deficits have already reduced national income by 3 to 6 percent, which could conceivably increase in the years to come.

The National Debt consists of the total debt accrued by local, state and federal. Public debt is essentially the federal debt, thus compiling the staggering number that already exists. The debt deficit to me is astonishing. Currently, the total public debt in the United States, as of December 16, 2015, is $18,788,138,221,346.49. This includes $13,600,726,418,253.26 debt held by the public and $5,187,411,803,093.23 by intergovernmental holdings (usgovermentdebt, 2015). High GPD is not anything new to the United States. The all-time high was 121.70 percent ($18827323.00) in 1946 and a record low of 31.70 ($253400.00) percent in 1974 (United States Government Debt to GDP, 2015). The way we are spending, and the debt we are accruing, it would

In this article, the author describes how the United States' national debt has gotten large and what it is at the time. After that, the author discusses how it has affected the economy and how it has become a national crisis. The specific facts I want to use is about the increase of the national debt since the 1990's and how it is happening rapidly. These facts will give my paper logos. This article is more believable or interesting because it's timeliness is up to date since it brings up information as current as of 2016. It also includes how Obama's plan cause an increase in the national debt. This makes the article more credible.