Macro Research Paper

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.

            According to the article Congressional Budget Office in The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020, the reason for this overwhelming increase in debt is because of three factors : the obvious difference between federal revenues and spending done even before the impact of recession caused this

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.

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.

“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

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.

Any person struggling through difficult times will seek out other means of financial support including borrowing money that may be harder to pay back in the future. The United States will often follow a similar path and spend more money than it earns. Deficit spending in the United States comes with some advantages, disadvantages, and strong criticism. Some feel deficit spending is good for getting the economy back in motion while others contend it does nothing for the economy. The effects of deficit spending are carefully examined to determine if the United States is improving or degrading the future of the economy.

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.

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 U.S. government borrows large sums of money in times of national emergency, such as times of war. The U.S. entered many wars that greatly contributed to the national debt. The government also engaged in multiple social programs that increased the debt, such as the bailouts during the housing crisis in 2008-2009. To keep the economy from collapsing, the government borrowed enormous amounts of money. Half way through this housing crisis the deficit exceeded one trillion dollars. The deficit decreased to under $500 billion after the massive spending cuts deal in 2011.

The United States has adopted a persona of uncontrollable spending policies, and short term solutions. As the spending trajectory continues in a downward spiral, fueled by unsustainable policies, and current tax revenues, the national debt continues to grow. For many years, the United States has implemented policies that failed to address mandatory spending costs, which, unfortunately continue to outpace the national economy. Furthermore, Congress has created a habit of introducing short term solutions in order to confront a long term issue of national debt. Although, there are many driving forces behind the U.S. fiscal problem, mandatory spending

If the government spends a dollar on bread and then a baker uses part of that dollar to buy flour. The flour distributor uses part of that to pay the truckers. Then the original dollar of the government spending becomes in effect more than a dollar. In practice the multiplier for government spending is not very large [1]. With each dollar of government spending the GDP increases by only 1.4 dollars [1]. Government spending and taxes are not separate issues. The government can only pay off its debt and expenditures by increasing the taxes. A study [2] suggests that "an exogenous tax increase of one percent of GDP lowers real GDP by roughly three percent", a phenomenon likely caused by the fact that "investment falls sharply in response to exogenous tax increases" [2]. Thus, what seems to be a course out of recession may actually be a road into another one.

I found it an interesting article called Cost of War. According to this article, “the important impact of federal spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been to raise the nation’s indebtedness.” Moreover, the increased military spending following September 11 was financed almost entirely by borrowing. Rising deficits have resulted in higher debt, a higher debt-to-GDP ratio, and higher interest rates. Moreover, this article claims, “A good indicator of the sustainability of government spending is the ratio of federal debt held by the public to national income, or gross domestic product (GDP). This ratio increased by almost 37 percentage points between 2001 and 2011.” Finally this article make a comparison between the war

Today, the U.S. National Debt stands at nearly $20 trillion dollars. That equals $165,000 of debt per taxpayer (Chantrill). Ever since the National Debt started to get tracked in 1790 it has fluctuated. However, it has steadily grown since The Great Recession of 2008 (Phillips). This paper will provide background information in terms of the debt. It will also provide an overview of the National Debt, who/what has caused the Debt to be as high as it is, effects of the Debt, and possible solutions that could decrease the Debt.

In the American nation and all around the world, the spending is increasing and the revenues of the households are falling (Truth, 2010). It was noticed in the year 2010 that the spending was about 24 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) hence this has made the federal budget to increase drastically from 33 percent to 62 percent in the year 2010. Therefore, another reason for the “debt crisis” is because of the federal spending which is projected to increase at a father rather than the rate at which the revenues are generated. Hence it was stated by The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that if the deficits keep on increasing at this pace, they are projected to be increased to about 90 percent in the year 2020. If this occurs, it will be a major setback for America and for the whole world.