Tag: National Debt

Being In Debt

A couple of points that are missing from the campaign trail.

We all know that the country works on debt….we constantly spend more than we take in….and yet no one wants to fix this problem because it might piss off a corporation or two.

Our national debt has a record high ….

It’s a record no one is happy about: The gross national debt in the US went above $35 trillion Monday, a first. The number (which, specifically, was $35,001,278,179,208.67) was noted in the Treasury Department’s daily report on America’s debt, the New York Times reports. Debt is accumulating at a quick clip, with the $34 trillion mark just having been passed for the first time in January, and the $33 trillion mark last September, Fox Business reports. Last month, the Congressional Budget Office said the national debt is on track to pass $56 trillion in the next decade.

he Times notes that given how little Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have said about the topic while campaigning for November’s presidential election, the problem will likely “only worsen in the coming years.” Social Security and Medicare largely drive the national debt, and there is resistance across the board to implementing cuts to those programs. Plus, interest rates are high, and some federal programs have proven more expensive than their original estimates. Meanwhile, federal budget deficits are also on the rise; the latest estimate for this year’s deficit is $1.9 trillion, which would be the third-largest in the country’s history and $200 billion more than last year’s.

Since neither candidate has said much about this problem it must not be important.

We could fix this problem, yes it would take time, by making the lay-about corporations pay their flippin’ taxes….

The country is not the only debt problem…..individual debt has also hit a record amount.

Americans owe more money than ever on their credit cards: $1.14 trillion. That’s after consumers added $27 billion to their tab in the second quarter, a 5.8% jump from the year before, a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says. Credit card delinquency rates increased, as well, CNBC reports. Borrowers ages 18 to 29 and 30 to 39 had the biggest delinquency increases; the New York Fed said those groups probably were heavily affected by COVID-19. They “may have overextended during the pandemic,” researchers said.

Americans used some of their pandemic-related federal stimulus money to pay down their credit card debt in 2020, said Ted Rossman of Bankrate in a statement. But balances shot up again starting in 2021, he said, per CBS News, “fueled by a post-pandemic boom in services spending as well as high inflation and high interest rates.” About 9.1% of credit card balances went into delinquency in the past year, the New York Fed found. The Urban Institute reported in May that more consumers are using credit cards to stay afloat, with 60% of them paying for their groceries that way. Overall, Rossman said, “More people are carrying more debt for longer periods of time.”

Credit cards are keeping some families afloat in this time of extreme prices…..

This will come back to bite us in the butt.

To paraphrase Marx….Credit is the opiate of the masses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Debt Ceiling–Right On Cue

A new Congress with Repubs in charge in the House and right on cue these people are fixated on the debt ceiling and will not vote to up it unless some of their demands are met.

We will hear from the lard ass, big mouths in the House go on and on about the debt and will spread crap on what it means to us mere peasants.

To help the average person understand this I found an interesting bit that could explain this complex issue…..

Republicans in Congress are threatening once again to force the US to default because they lack the votes to enact their preferred fiscal vision.

Yes, it’s debt ceiling season once again. For those not following along at home, US law imposes an arbitrary limit on the amount of money the government is allowed to borrow. Historically, this was intended to make borrowing easier. Today, it is a tool for brinksmanship, with Republicans threatening to block paying the bills they already voted to incur unless GOPdemands for unspecific spending cuts are met.

…

The last time a real debt ceiling face-off happened in 2011, the US had its sovereign debt rating downgraded and incurred more than a billion dollars in economic losses. So let’s set aside the hypocrisy and political posturing and ask a simpler question: Is there a debt crisis that would justify holding the economy hostage?

And the answer is no. Markets are not worried about the US paying its debts, and there are no bond vigilantes appearing out of the woodwork.

…

Absent the specter of the European debt crisis or a Republican party united on fiscal issues, the politics of debt reduction sit differently. Some Republican politicians, like Trump and Senate leader Mitch McConnell, are already warning that the cuts for popular but expensive programs such as Social Security and Medicare implied by a debt default aren’t going to help the party gain power in the next election. Republican member of Congresthoughts on the debt issues Nancy Mace told NBC over the weekend spending must be cut but couldn’t name a single target for reductions. Instead of cuts, conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is pushing to lift the limit on taxable Social Security wages.

https://qz.com/there-is-no-us-debt-crisis-1850013109

I am sure there is a troll in weeds waiting for his/her opportunity to offer up their spurious thoughts on the debt issue.

One question….how will the debt ceiling effect you?  (I do not want to hear what some politician thinks….I want your belief).

What about the proposal to eliminate the IRS and income tax?

Stay tuned for I shall cover this issue soon.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Our National Debt

The big news yesterday was that our national debt hit a whopping $31 trillion….that is right that is trillion with a “T”…..

The gross US national debt, which topped $30 trillion for the first time earlier this year, has now risen to more than $31 trillion, according to a Treasury Department report released Tuesday. The disclosure comes at what the New York Times calls an “inopportune time”—interest rates are rising, make it more expensive to borrow money and raising the cost of servicing the debt, which has ballooned to its current level from around $23 trillion at the end of 2019, just before the pandemic hit. “Too many people were complacent about our debt path in part because rates were so low,” says Michael A. Peterson at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which promotes debt reduction.

In May, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that interest payments and other debt costs would cost the federal government around $8.1 trillion over the next decade. The Peterson foundation estimates higher rates will add at least another $1 trillion. The Office of Management and Budget said in August that the federal budget deficit will drop by a record $1.7 trillion this year, though analysts warn that the underlying “addiction” to debt remains, the AP reports. “When you increase government spending and money supply, you will pay the price later,” says Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University. He predicts that high inflation will continue for the foreseeable future.

Our Congress has done what they always do….pass a Continuing Resolution to keep our government in business for the next few months.

This should be a gimme but instead the GOP and the Dems have to have a political theater around this necessity.

They even added money debt to the bill by promising more millions possibility billions to Ukraine for their conflict with Russia.

To the tune of $16 billion.

Now my question is why is there NOT some opposition to this blatant waste of taxpayer cash…..I mean they have plenty of opposition to social programs that would benefit the poor and needy….but have nothing to say about cash flowing into Ukraine on a daily basis.

Why?

Someone just please tell me the bottom line for Ukraine.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–20Aug19

Economics

How many of you, my readers, believe that China is holding our debt?

Let me correct this erroneous thinking….

It is NOT China but Japan that owns the most Treasury notes……that craps on so many talking points.

Japan surpassed China as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities in June.

Japan has added about $21 billion since May, making its holdings the largest since October, 2016. Japan now holds $1.12 trillion Treasurys, and China has $1.11 trillion, a $2 billion increase from the month earlier, according to U.S. Treasury department data.

China has been a less aggressive buyer of the U.S. sovereign debt, and market players have speculated that one action it could take in the trade war with the U.S. is to lighten up on its U.S. holdings. But there are no signs that is happening, according to traders.

The U.K. is the third-largest holder with $342.3 billion, up from $323.1 billion a month earlier.

(CNBC)

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

Debt And Deficit: Who Knew?

When the news broke that the Dems would take back the House I wrote then that with that bit of news we would see a return of the GOP of caring about the national debt and the deficit…….and viola!……I am hearing the rumblings of such a switch.

May I see a show of hands if any of this makes any sense to you?

First, the debt and the deficit are two different problems…..this video can help understand the economics…….

https://youtu.be/3sUCSGVYzI0

The news has broken that the national debt for the US is $22 trillion…yep that is Trillion with a “T”…….most of us cannot wrap our heads around that many zeros….it is difficult to understand and as usual I want to help you understand…..

https://youtu.be/3ugDU2qNcyg

Hopefully those two short videos helped you understand the economics at work here….

Congress does not care about the deficit or the debt (at least for now but that can change over night)…..

Congress has stared into the abyss of debt, and the abyss has stared back. The national debt just topped $22 trillion for the first time ever, yet barely a peep was heard in the halls of the Capitol. The debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled in less than 20 years, rising from 33 percent in 2000 to 78 percent today. Within 10 years, it will reach 93 percent, the highest level since just after World War II.

 

While currently the federal budget deficit is around $900 billion, beginning in 2022, it will exceed $1 trillion per year, every year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over the next decade, deficits are projected to fluctuate between 4.1 percent and 4.7 percent of GDP, well above the average over the past 50 years.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ignoring-americas-abyss-of-debt/

Hopefully this will help when the yelling and the chest thumping begins again…..the GOP needs something they can champion to turn the conversation away from their cowardice in confronting the corruption of the Trump administration.

Closing Thought–20Feb19

With another government shutdown looming on the horizon it was all the MSM could talk about for this week…..but some other disturbing news was reported quietly and with without fan fare…the National Debt has reached $22 Trillion….trillion with a “T”….

The national debt is the total of the annual budget deficits. The Congressional Budget Office projects that this year’s deficit will be $897 billion — a 15.1 percent increase over last year’s imbalance of $779 billion. In the coming years, the CBO forecasts that the deficit will keep rising, top $1 trillion annually beginning in 2022 and never drop below $1 trillion through 2029. Much of the increase will come from mounting costs to fund Social Security and Medicare as the vast generation of baby boomers continue to retire.

The national debt has passed a new milestone, topping $22 trillion for the first time.

The Treasury Department’s daily statement showed Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion. It stood at $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.

The debt figure has been accelerating since the passage of Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut in December 2017 and action by Congress last year to increase spending on domestic and military programs.

Despite the rising levels of federal debt, many economists say they think the risks remain slight and point to current interest rates, which remain unusually low by historical standards. Still, some budget experts warn that ever-rising federal debt poses substantial risks for the government because it could make it harder to respond to a financial crisis through tax cuts or spending increases.

(AP)

Scary number, right?

Not to worry….now that the Dems control the House the GOP will once again focus on the National Debt…..not so important when they are in control but let them lose that control and they go batcrap crazy over the DEBT!

Closing Thought–04Oct18

I remember when conservatives, Republicans, use to harp and rant about the debt and fiscal policies….those days are gone just recently the new tax cuts will explode the deficit and expand the debt that the GOP use to guard heavily.  According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the bill will add more than $1 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. The annual deficit for fiscal 2017 was $666 billion, or 3.5 percent of the overall U.S. economy. That share, because of the tax bill, will now increase, though by how much is a matter contentious debate.

The news about the state of the debt was released…….

The US spends far more on its military than any other nation on Earth, but very soon, it will not be the top expenditure of the US government. Rather, rising interest rates and years of mounting debts mean that soon, interest on the debt will overtake that.

Interest costs will be $390 billion next year, and more than $900 billion within a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. At present, US military budgets are in the $700 billion range, and themselves constantly growing.

Somewhere, these two growing lines will intersect, and the runaway military spending is a big reason why. There simply is no way for US to keep pouring substantial portions of a trillion dollars down the well annually for the military without borrowing, and that debt is just growing.

The US debt is huge, and that is in no small part because of decades of runaway military spending, and trillions dumped into nuclear weapons. Lawmakers largely are not interested in this matter right now, likely reflecting their unwillingness to cut military spending to try to get the debt back in line.

(antiwar.com)

And the Trump GOP wants another round of tax cuts…..are these toads serious?

Yes they are!

With the nation’s attention rightly transfixed by the Senate GOP’s monstrous efforts to ram through a Supreme Court nominee who has been credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault, House Republicans on Friday voted overwhelmingly to approve another $3 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans just weeks before the November midterms.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/28/nation-transfixed-kavanaugh-monstrosity-house-gop-votes-give-rich-another-3-trillion

If the last round of cuts exploded the debt then what will another round do?

If you did not know about this end run by the GOP then you can thank your local media for the lack of coverage.

But if you are such a slow learner that you think the GOP tax cuts are a good thing…..then you are a moron or a wealthy person that is making out like a bandit….but for the wider picture of the cuts…..

Tax Day has come and gone. How are those cuts working out?

Spoiler alert: They’re not. Republicans sold their rush-job bill as a way to boost an already strong economy; my colleague Holden Miller boasted they would be jet fuel for growth and touted the year-end bonuses and wage growth so many got.

I argued that most people weren’t seeing increased paychecks, that the bonuses were one-time and heavily concentrated in a couple industries, and that they weren’t lifting up the economy as promised. Actually, in the long term, they’re putting an already strong economy at risk.

Every month we get more fresh evidence of that.

https://www.debt.com/americas-voice-on-debt/far-trumps-tax-cuts-failing/

Peace Out!

Here Comes The “Shutdown” Again

September is quickly approaching and if you know you government then you will realize the the debt conversation is looming….and while it does so the whole subject of a “Shutdown” awaits this years debate.

Every year there is a back and forth over the debt and every year there is the rumblings of a governmental shutdown.  And every year it is Right versus Left in these deliberations.

Since the installing of this Trump person there seems to be some clear skies in DC…..some …wait for it…..bi-partisanship…..something that has been missing for decades.

A bipartisan group of House members is working on a proposal to address the most urgent issue facing Congress when it returns in September: how to keep the government open and avoid the first-ever default on the nation’s debt.

Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus are drafting proposals to present to the entire 43-member caucus when Congress returns after Labor Day, said caucus co-chairman Tom Reed, R-N.Y.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has warned congressional leaders that the government will run out of money to pay its bills by Sept. 29 unless lawmakers vote to raise the debt limit. Funding to keep the government open is set to expire two days later, on Oct. 1, unless Congress can agree on a spending deal during the approximately three weeks it will be in session in September.

Source: Bipartisan group of House members drafting proposal to avert shutdown, default

Is this the beginning of the return to bi-partisanship….the beginning of the Congress working together to solve out problems….or is it just a fluke?

Me? I believe that any bi-partisanship will be temporary….soon it will be beack to the “trench warfare” of American politics.

America is not broke | The Great Debate

The country is broke!  We have heard for years now that the country has a spending problem….it is true and it has the same problem since the very beginning of the country……

I enjoy a good debate….the problem is there are so few of them…..normally it boils down to one liners and innuendos….and even fantastic lies…….

A prettu good op-ed…makes some good points and leaves some questions unanswered……check it out and let me know what you think…..

 

America is not broke | The Great Debate.