The Pros And Cons Of Deficit Spending

Deficit spending refers to government spending that exceeds federal income and taxes over a period of time. The government can increase borrowing to obtain money from taxes or from foreign governments. The money that is borrowed is then put back into the economy through government spending. While deficit spending will increase government debt, it is believed to stimulate the economy to end a recession. Deficit spending has several advantages and disadvantages to government borrowing.

A fiscal deficit is when a government's total expenditures exceed the tax revenues that it generates. A budget deficit can be cut by either reducing public expenditure or raising taxes. In this essay, I am going to analyse the benefits and costs of increasing tax rates to reduce fiscal deficits instead of cutting government expenditure.

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.

An economic downturn automatically paves way to a decline in taxation and an increase in government spending. This causes deficit. Nevertheless, if the government tries to reverse the situation by increasing tax rates, it would further result in a deflated economy leading to more unemployment and lower economic growth. A negative multiplier effect may give rise to an increase in deficit. Thus, deficit increases AD in a recession (Carbaugh, 2011).

Many contend that deficit reduction is imperative to our prosperity and economic recovery. The deficit is blamed for a variety of economic ills including high interest rates, unemployment, the trade deficit, the low rate of national saving and low productivity growth (Shaviro, 1997).

This creates a budget deficit because there is more being spent than what’s being brought it.

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 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

In our textbook, “Principles of Macroeconomics,” the relationship between debt and deficit is described. A deficit is a shortfall in revenue for a particular year’s budget. Whereas, a debt is the total of all accumulated and unpaid deficits. An outlay is an amount of money spent on something. The federal government outlays are divided into government outlays and mandatory outlays. Government outlays are the part of the government budget that includes both spending and transfer payments. Mandatory outlays constitute government spending that is determined by ongoing long term obligations. Of the two, mandatory outlays is the largest portion of the federal budget. Lastly, Discretionary outlays compromise government spending that can be altered when the government is setting its annual budget. A budget surplus occurs when revenue exceeds outlays. A budget deficit occurs when government outlays exceed revenue.

The United States deficit, surplus, and debt will always have an impact on taxpayers. In the state of high deficit the government seeks ways to cut and save money for debt payment. The government does this by pulling funding from programs that have little government impact. Increasing taxes also supplies the government with extra income. In addition to the reduction or elimination of certain tax credits, the government analyzes school funding for cost effectiveness. Each step the government takes has a trickling effect on taxpayer’s dollar.

As long as the deficit is in proportion to GDP or Gross Domestic Product, the sum of a country’s goods and services, there is no significant fiscal risk to the economy. However there is a counter-argument that government deficits do matter. The argument is that if interest rates were to go up even a quarter point then that would lead to the need to take out even more debt to pay off previous interest payments. This would lead to the need to decide whether to decrease current spending on other programs such as healthcare or infrastructure to compensate for the new interest payments, or to maintain current spending and simply borrow more debt without attempting to curtail spending.Following the first would hurt economic growth and increase inequality, but following the latter would lead to the debt climbing higher at an increasingly fast rate that would risk causing massive inflation. Both sides make valid points.

Deficit spending in an economy has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of deficit spending are as follows:

Increased spending on investment adds to aggregate demand and helps to restore normal levels of production and employment.Fiscal policy, on the other hand, can provide an additional tool to combat recessions and is particularly useful when the tools of monetary policy lose their effectiveness. When the government cuts taxes, it increases households’ disposable income, which encourages them to increase spending on consumption. When the government buys goods and services, it adds directly to aggregate demand. Moreover, these fiscal actions can have multiplier effects: Higher aggregate demand leads to higher incomes, which in turn induces additional consumer spending and further increases in aggregate demand.Traditional Keynesian analysis indicates that increases in government purchases are a more potent tool than decreases in taxes. When the government gives a dollar in tax cuts to a household, part of that dollar may be saved rather than spent. The part of the dollar that is saved does not contribute to the aggregate demand for goods and services. By contrast, when the government spends a dollar buying a good or service, that dollar immediately and fully adds to aggregate demand.

Fiscal deficit - When there is huge development expenditure by the government, demand of domestic goods as well as demand of imported goods increases and causes deficit.6 So by reducing the fiscal deficit, CAD can be improved. They have a positive relation. For instance in the following graph, as the fiscal account deficit is increasing in the US, it has led to a current account deficit.7

As discussed above a deficit occurs when expense is more than income. In case of government, a government deficit occurs when government has spent more than the revenue collected in particular financial year, in other words its also knows as government budget deficit. These revenues consist of the money that government collects from its public in form of income tax, excise duties, and social insurance contribution, along with different other non-tax revenues such as foreign aid. On the other hand