How To Reduce The National Debt

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.

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.

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

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.

Since the nation’s very beginning, it has carried a debt from the American Revolution. Only once in the entire U.S. history has been the debt zero, during President Andrew Jackson’s administration in the 1830’s. President Jackson set a budget like the other future and past presidents, but actually stayed within its parameters. However, the debt kept growing after his presidency and reached $18 trillion dollars today. The world has changed a lot since the 1830’s, the methods used during that period can no longer be the solution in 2015 because there are just too many factors that must be considered. The size and the population of the country have changed dramatically, foreign relationships are far more complicated and broader, and people’s expectations of the government are different.

The federal budget is known as the notorious economic tank from which money is distributed to various programs. The money used every fiscal year, which begins October 1st and ends September 30th the next year, belongs to the people. The government raises this money through taxes and they spend it on national defense, Medicare, and social security. The federal budget is an exercise in making choices, and those options will certainly affect individuals living in the U.S. These choices cause debt to pile up on the government, who is struggling to make it disappear. The deficit and debt of a government gauges how well it is being run and how well it has been run in the past. According to The Economist the national debt is the total

The United States national debt is large. The U.S. Debt-to-GDP ratio has grown to over 60 percent in recent years. We are more than $15 trillion in debt. In this paper I will address the federal budget, the United States debt, and the resulting impacts on society in several sectors.

Debt.” 21). In other words, at least one-fifth of tax money did not bring US citizens any benefits. Besides, less capital is available for the federal government to invest in the

Liberals and conservatives currently have opposing views on how to decrease the Federal debt. Over all, Democrats believe that the way to reduce the debt is to heavily tax the rich. Senate Democrats developed a debt reduction plan that would cut 4 trillion dollars from the projected borrowing over the next decade, without touching the expensive health, retirement and social programs. Within the plan, sharp cuts will happen at the Pentagon and other

With all this debt, it begs to question. To who and what does the United States owe all this money? According to the “National Priorities Project”, 34 percent of the debt is owned by foreign countries, like China and Japan, 28 percent by federal accounts, and the remaining 38 percent is owned by other investors or local governments. Ever since the United States was founded, it owed money to the foreign investors and it has only continued to pile up.

The Obama Administration alone has added billions in new federal spending and though their aim was to improve the economy, their recessionary spending has done nothing but add to the deficit. In addition to cutting administration spending and enacting spending caps, programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which are responsible for a large dent in the deficit, need to be reformed. While still offering all of these programs, the government needs to find new ways to offer them without putting the country into even more debt on an annual basis; controlling entitlement programs would have a positive effect on the national deficit. Lastly, cutting military expenses and getting troops out of other countries.

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

Debt is nothing new to the United States government. Ever since 1790 when Alexander Hamilton successfully convinced the congress to assume state debt the US has had a constant record of debt. This type of budget issue has been a constant leadership challenge to every US President. The Obama administration continues this trend of deficit and debt which has created the highest total federal debt in US history. . There are unique challenges and decisions every US President has had to make in regards to the budget and the economic success of the United States. Whether you agree or disagree with decisions made by President Obama there is a particular pressure that comes with trying to work across party lines to get support from those who disagree with his priorities. When President Obama entered office he took over a historically high debt and deficit during a time of an economic disaster. The new President inherited the challenge of balancing the budget and reducing debt while still spending to increase future economic growth. Though there are many aspects of concern regarding the federal budget, Obama’s main efforts coming into the White House were to increase tax revenue, by closing loopholes for the wealthy and adjusting previous tax measures, while reducing income inequality, increasing educational spending and providing universal health care.

Republicans and Democrats have different policy agendas, thereby different approaches to stabilizing the U.S. debt. Conservative Republicans tend to favor large budget cuts and larger budget deficits whereas Democrats tend to favor a more disciplined budget structure.

The national debt is an ongoing issue in the United States today. National debt is the money we borrow from other countries to pay for things that we cannot afford without borrowing. Can you guess what the national debt is right now? Well right now, the national debt is about 20.1 trillion dollars. This is an outrageous number and something needs to be done. Do we spend more or do we plan to save more to keep the national debt from going out of control? We need to make sure we are spending money in the right places and helping the economy out as a whole. National debt can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending how we spend the money and we also need to make sure we keep society equally happy as well. Another thing is, should we be spending money that we do not have and must borrow to increase our nation’s debt. The question that comes to mind is, is it good or bad for the economy? Well, it can be good if we use it for the right things, and it can be bad as it causes us to pay more debt back and we may not be using it on the necessities to help our economy thrive. A budget surplus is when we do not exceed the revenue we have made for the given year. Some may it is a good thing and some may say it is not a good thing. As we may not be spending enough on our nation and the other side may say now we have more control over how we spend our money. The question that comes to my mind is, should we be increasing our overall debt as a nation or no?