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The American National Debt Crisis

Decent Essays

Introduction
In brief, citizens and companies will get a loan from a bank but when the US Government needs a loan it issues debt by selling Treasury financial instruments to other federal government agencies, people, companies, state- and local-governments, as well as to such equivalents abroad (Bureau of the Fiscal Service, 2013). The deficit is the ratio of spending and revenues in one year, but the national debt or federal debt is the sum of all previous deficits, less whatever sum the federal government has subsequently repaid. Hence, every annual government deficit due to borrowing is added to the national (federal) debt. A government surplus can reduce some of the national debt. Annually, the national debt incurs interest to be paid by the government which is linked to overall government spending (National Priorities Project, 2016).
This paper will present and discuss the American national debt situation, propose two possible solutions and finally will endeavor to steer a conclusion as to which solution to follow.
Current national debt policy and issue
The United States (US) has a rising national or government debt (Nanto, 2011, p. 4), which in 2010 for example stood at $13.6 trillion (The Heritage Foundation et al., 2010) and in mid-2015 stood at $18.153 trillion (National Priorities Project, 2016). Combined with its future forecast (i.e. at $22.4 trillion by the end of this year of 2016, Chantrill, 2016) the national debt is unsustainable and the US is confronted

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