Econ Group Behavior

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.

In 1917, the United States Congress applied the concept of a "debt ceiling". Prior to 1917, Congress had to directly authorize the amount of each borrowing. The debt ceiling was put in place to provide more flexibility to finance the US involvement in World War I. After the application of the debt ceiling, the United States Treasury could borrow any amount needed as long as it keeps the total at or below the authorized ceiling. I believe a debt ceiling is a very necessary component of American politics as long as it is used correctly; however, it has been abused by frequent increases, and should be monitored more effectively.

The recent clash between the president and congress about raising the debt ceiling made the front page on every newspaper throughout the country and generated controversy of unimaginable proportion among the citizens of the United States of America (College for Financial Planning). No macroeconomics issue is more controversial today than the impact of large public debt on the economy and on future generations, but, however, there appears to be a huge disconnect between professional, political leaders, and the ordinary public about the national debt and its impact on the current and future

Many United States' citizens are unaware of the country's current financial state. Many assume that one of the world's wealthiest countries could never be in debt. This is untrue however, and, in fact, the country with the greatest income per capita is in major debt. This study will examine possible solutions to reducing the United States' national budget deficit.

I agree that a solution to fix the issue of the national debt is to increase taxes by fifty-seven percent or cut all government spending by thirty-seven percent. Although I agree with it, I think there maybe a way to improve it without making things awkward. Increasing the tax percentage could fix our problem, I just wonder how the younger generations will handle this considering the financial situation they are dealing with now with high student debt and other economic factors. Cutting government spending is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you cut spending on vital programs like Medicare, the quality of products from the programs may not help us the way they were meant to

“Ten Trillion and Counting,” presented by Frontline provides quite a picture of America’s national debt as it surpasses the trillion dollar mark. They ponder the financial well being of current and future retirees while also exposing on how America got into this mess, and what the Obama administration plans to do during his term. America is able to close the gap year to year in its national budget by selling bonds and T-bills. Foreigner countries who continually purchase these obligations are beginning to grow. Much like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has started borrowing big with plans to cut the budget years down the road. It is clear for anyone to see that this borrowing and the future promises of cutting cannot go

Thank you for joining me here today in this joint session of congress. What I want to talk about today is the elephant in the room we have all been avoiding. This issue isn’t a win for the Democrats or the Republicans, it’s a win for the roughly 75 million Americans who aren’t even old enough to vote us into office, but who will suffer from our negligence (U.S. Census Bureau). As a government we cannot continue to act irresponsibly outside of our means with no intention to fix the problem. I come here today to urge us to take action by fixing the broken tax code for individuals and for businesses and to make government spending more responsible to take on the trillions of dollars gift we plan to pass down to our children, that’s right, the U.S. debt.

In the midst of the current economic downturn, dubbed the “Great Recession”, it is natural to look for one, singular entity or person to blame. Managers of large banks, professional investors and federal regulators have all been named as potential creators of the recession, with varying degrees of guilt. No matter who is to blame, the fallout from the mistakes that were made that led to the current crisis is clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate is 9.7%, with 9.3 million Americans out of work (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Compared to a normal economic rate of two or three percent, it is clear that the decisions of one group of people have had a profound affect on the lives of millions of

Audience: The audience of this paper is for two people. One, for the people of the United States that deal with the consequences of a large federal deficit, and two for the lawmakers in Congress that have the ability to change the situation.

In 2007, the U.S. economy experienced one of the greatest downturns since the Depression era, and furthered by the collapse on a global scale. The bubble burst on the housing market and the house of cards called the mortgage industry tumbled down, no longer able to sustain charade of success. This caused the collapse of some of the largest financial institutions, once thought to be immortal. This rippled into a massive tightening of the belts of many companies, as they found themselves without lines of credit, lack of business, and the daisy-chain collapse of their support networks. Who paid the final price? Companies cut costs through pay cuts, layoffs, and closings. While this may have saved jobs for many, the feeling of loss and

Everybody in the United Stated was affected by the recession that began in December of 2007 and spanned all the way to June 2009. Even though the recession is over, many people are still being affected by it and have still not been able to recover from the great recession. “The recent recession features the largest decline in output, consumption, and investment, and the largest increase in unemployment, of any post-war recession”. Many people lost their jobs due to the recession and some of them are still having a hard time finding jobs and getting back on their feet. Businesses

Hello, Kel. To answer your, let me begin by saying I believe not raising the debt ceiling along with a balanced budget amendment would not only lead to control of government spending, but it would also control the rate at which the government grows. To be honest many of the government programs and employees today serve only as a drain on taxpayers. If you go to https://www.tedcruz.org/five-for-freedom/ he lays out how he would reign in spending by abolishing useless bureaucracies. I believe if we gradually institute a balanced budget amendment then there won’t be chaos, and down the long run we won’t be in the same mess as Greece.

America's debt is currently approximately $19 trillion. Through a lack of discipline and mismanagement, the federal government is basically giving every household a million dollar bill. There is no quick or easy fix to this problem we have created. The fix would have to be a long term solution. We did not get into this much debt over night and we can not get out of this much debt overnight. The numbers simply don’t add up and it’s time to start thinking differently about how the U.S funds the federal government. Congress has been in gridlock on this issue for years. The U.S must focus on developing a long-range plan to pay this outrageous debt.

The United States continues to incur incredibly high yearly deficits leading to a debt level that is getting out of control. In nominal terms, the recent debt and deficit levels are by far the highest the U.S. has ever experienced. In terms of percentage of GDP, debt and deficit levels are higher than they have ever been in a time of relative peace in U.S. history. With the U.S. not currently involved in a major war or crisis, it is economically unsustainable to continue running these deficit levels. This is the most important fiscal policy issue that needs to be addressed.

America's current fiscal policy is regarded as unsustainable because borrowing has both explicit and implicit costs associated with it. The explicit costs are the interest payments we make on the national debt. According to The Moment of Truth: Report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, we will pay $226 billion in net interest and projects that to rise to $938 billion by 2020. Also, if you add the interest payments over the next ten years, it amounts to a staggering $5.76 trillion dollars (2010). That is more than one-third of the present-day GDP and threatens to keep getting larger. This brings us to the implicit costs of uncontrolled borrowing to pay for our growing deficits. The $5.76 trillion we are projected to spend on debt interest is empty spending. It provides nothing to the nation's future and eliminates other possibilities that could have resulted in a positive return, such as: education, energy and technology. To make matters worse, more than 50% of the debt is not owned by Americans but by foreign lenders (Murphy, 2010). In other words, less than half of the interest payments are to American lenders who are likely to spend their gains domestically and strengthen the economy, another implicit cost.