Controversy on the US national debt

U.S. National Debt The U.S. national debt has reached an alarming proportion. As it steadily increases, it's effect may not be felt now, but it will be in the future. Paul Gregory and Roy ruffin, in their book entitled Economics, linked deficits with inflation in the long run (251). Demand-side inflation of this type fails to increase the GDP, but instead just increases prices.

Overspending is a pertinent problem facing the lawmakers in Congress. In 2012 discretionary spending reached $1.3 trillion and mandatory spending $2 trillion, while only bringing in $2.5 trillion in revenue. Since the turn of the century back in 2000, non-mandatory spending by the government has topped out a whopping $16.1 trillion just in the past 13 years (Boccia, Frasser & Goff 2013). This persistent overspending on programs and services that are not necessary to the functionality of the country is what is causing the deficit to rise year after year. To remedy this issue the government must either increase the revenue it brings in through taxes and trade or reduce the amount of money it spend or perhaps even both. In 2012 thirty-one cents of every dollar that Washington spent was borrowed (Boccia, Frasser & Goff 2013). Most of which went to large programs such as Social Security and Medicare and if these large, growing programs, or just the budget in general, do not undergo financial reform it could spell disaster for the economy and fiscal state of the nation.

Many believe the country's dramatic decent into debt began with a choice, not a crisis. In January of 2001, with the budget balanced, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast that the nation would have over a $2 trillion dollar surplus by 2010, enough money to pay off the entire national debt. In the years following 2001 political leaders chose to cut taxes, increase spending, and wage two wars solely with borrowed funds (Montgomery, 2011). Today the national debt is larger, as a percentage of the economy, than at any time in U.S. history except for the period shortly after World War II.

When World War II ended in 1949, the debt grew at a slow and steady pace for the next 20 years. When the Vietnam War began in the 1960's the debt accelerated sharply. Thanks to the growth of television and news media, growth of the deficit was widely publicized. For the first time, the American people were given access to what was going on with the nation's debt. When the Gulf War began the early 1990's, the national debt reached a trillion dollars for the first time. By the end of the Gulf War, the government decided to make amendments to fix the continuing problem with the deficit. Despite those promises to reduce spending, the debt is currently at it highest point ever.

Federal debt has been increasing for at least the past ten years. Currently, federal debt is $19,929,184,161,352.13 (Chantrill). The national debt has nearly doubled throughout Obama’s presidency and President elect Trump’s ideas do not look promising for change. It is estimated that Trump’s tax cuts will raise federal debt by $7.2 trillion within the next decade (Mauro). Many debt crises have occurred because of declines in growth. When

From the moment they become old enough to be aware that money is limited, young people today are taught to avoid getting into debt. Horror stories of payment defaults, exorbitant interest rates, and ruined credit are passed from generation to generation, and along with it, sentiments of disgust and panic toward the large and seemingly never-decreasing number that is the national debt of the United States of America. Yet, it cannot be said that all debt is bad; student loans taken as an investment in the future, or a mortgage on a house -- there are plenty of examples of how deficit spending can be a valuable practice, and the first Secretary of the Treasury was a strong proponent of that view when it came to government spending.

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.

Many Americans today are aware that the United States is in debt, however, some may not realize by how much. Currently, the United States National Debt is up to 18 trillion dollars and is steadily increasing. This is a serious problem for the U.S., especially for millennials, who are going to be the ones living and dealing with the debt left behind for them. Increased spending, borrowing from China, and interest on the money borrowed are setting up our economy for an eventual crash, one that the upcoming generation may not be prepared for. Every dollar that accumulates into the debt will have to be repaid with interest at some point, making it harder to pay back. To gain a better understanding of how the U.S. dug itself into such a deep hole, one should start at the beginning of where the debt started.

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).

So what is the National debt? It is when government spends more than it collects in taxes. Then the government has to borough the difference by selling interest baring IOU such as US bonds. For example a Us bank buys a one hundred dollar US bond it gets to loan out ten times that amount so the bank not only gets back the one hundred dollars plus interest from the federal government it gets to loan out another thousand dollars it doesn’t have and charge additional interest. Therefor banks get to make money out of nowhere. Plus if you think about it, that is one of the reasons that the biggest buildings in any cities are bank building. Debates about defense spending are arguments about our defensive strategies. What you spend depends on what you want to do militarily, which depends in what creates security. “A more modest strategy of restraint starts with the observation that power tempts the United States to meddle in foreign troubles that we should avoid” (Friedman). But what does restrain mean? It means fighting that temptation of minding someone else’s businesses. The Congressional Budget Office and the Office

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

National debt has always been a constantly occurring problem. This debt is a problem due to the fact that it limits economic growth. With low economic growth, there tends to be a lot of problems that occur. These struggles include high interest rates which leads to higher debt, low salaries for citizens, and fewer jobs are provided which connects to higher unemployment rates in America. However, America

The United States of America has carried some amount of federal debt every year since the country was founded. From this empirical evidence, it can be said that debt itself is not damaging to an economy. After all, the country has had periods of rapid growth and economic booms while carrying different amounts of debt. It is also plain to see that a very large amount a debt, an amount that could not ever be eliminated without unreasonably inflating the dollar, could have devastating effects. The US dollar is a fiat currency, which holds value only when holders of the currency have confidence in the issuing institution, in this case the US government. In the event the government could not repay its debts, the value of the currency would drop as people lose confidence. The effects on the US economy, households, businesses, trading partners and foreign governments would be disastrous and widespread.

The Federal budget deficit is the amount of spending by the Federal government that is in excess of how much money the government brings in annually. While the Federal budget deficit has steadily decreased overall during the past fifteen years, our Federal debt continues to grow at a drastic rate. A review of how the Federal deficit has evolved over the past fifteen years, the rate of growth of the Federal debt during that same period, and how the two are connected will better explain this phenomenon.

Throughout most of the country’s history, the United States’ federal government maintained a reasonable level of national debt. For example, the total national debt in 1981 was $998 billion. Since then, however, the government has generated significant budget deficits, and the level of debt has risen to $16.7 trillion in 2013 (Calleo, 39). Budget deficits are caused