National Debt Of America Ty Walls Statistics of National Debt The current debt trend as it is has the United States gaining about $1 trillion in debt yearly (http://useconomy.about.com/od/monetarypolicy/f/Who-Owns-US-National-Debt.htm ). America’s GDP as of 2010 to the present is $17.914 trillion yearly. The current total national debt as of 2015 is estimated at $18 trillion, with the majority being held by foreign countries at $6.013 trillion. The second largest holders of total national debt are Social Services and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund at $2.783 trillion. Another cause of the increase of national debt is spending deficits, at $439 billion over Federal yearly receipt; this number is projected to exceed …show more content…
Another cause of national debt is spending deficits, at $439 billion over Federal yearly receipt; this number is projected to exceed $1 trillion within a decade. As previously stated, costs caused by several social services such as Obamacare contributes $2.783 trillion to the total national debt. Public debt is defined as how much a country owes to lenders other than itself. These include corporations, people, and sometimes other governments. Services such as these go to the retirement and healthcare of America’s citizens. These services plan to pay this debt when “baby boomers” retire in the next few …show more content…
Some examples being: slow economic growth, slow response to outside threats, and increased future financial crises. National debt currently is at around 110% GDP, this means that the debt is more than what the country makes in a year. Federal spending to pay off interest on this debt to other countries will become a major problem. Our debt is seen as a “safe haven” by other countries, to be called upon in a financial crisis (http://useconomy.about.com/od/usdebtanddeficit/p/US-Debt-Default.htm). Even though the situation looks dire, the threat of a default is relatively low. Reasons being, the Federal government manages to keep interest low, and the u.s. dollar is powerful, and has remained so during many
This deficit has to do with having responsible leader who are willing to increase awareness and make beneficial changes in the nation. In my opinion, the federal debt is a serious threat to the US that must be politically address whenever possible. I believe that the candidates of the 2016 presidential election should make this issue one of the top priorities to discuss and to dictate a considerable amount of work to fix it. That is because the worse the federal debt is, the worse the future would be to the nation. Also, voters must be well educated about this issue in order to shape their decision in voting for the candidate that seems most powerful and confident about this problem. Solving this problem may be difficult and would take time and so much effort. Therefore, the changes and solution must be on both a national and individual levels as
In general, an increase in government spending and decrease in the collection of government taxes and other receipts, increases the debt held by the local government. Government taxes and receipts fluctuate annually, and are frequently less than government spending. In the past, the U.S. public debt has increased for the duration of wars and recessions. When the government consumes more than what it accumulates in taxes, there is a budget deficit and the government then borrows from the private sector or from foreign governments to protect their spending. The compilation of historical borrowing is what materializes the government debt.
For decades, one of the many externalities that the government is trying to solve is the rising costs of healthcare. "Rising healthcare costs have hurt American competitiveness, forced too many families into bankruptcy to get their families the care they need, and driven up our nation's long-term deficit" ("Deficit-Reducing Healthcare Reform," 2014). The United States national government plays a major role in organizing, overseeing, financing, and more so than ever delivering health care (Jaffe, 2009). Though the government does not provide healthcare directly, it serves as a financing agent for publicly funded healthcare programs through the taxation of citizens. The total share of the national publicly funded health spending by various governments amounts to 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, GDP (Jaffe, 2009). By 2019, government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to rise to 6 percent and 12 percent by 2050 (Jaffe, 2009). The percentages, documented from the Health Policy Brief (2009) by Jaffe, are from Medicare and Medicaid alone. The rapid rates are not due to increase of enrollment but growth in per capita costs for providing healthcare, especially via Medicare.
However the interest we pay on our nation 's debt is very small compared to the overall budget. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities only 7% of the total budget is spent on interest which is relatively low compared to things like social security which took up 24% of the budget in 2014 (Policy Basics). As long as the United States can continue to keep the interest rates low the debt will continue to be a begin threat. If the creditors of the U.S. were to spike their interest rates, America would be in trouble, however America has fairly good credit, and it should remain that way unless there is another scare like the government shutdown in 2011 (Riley). Overall the threat of the nation debt is a very minute problem in the grand scheme of things. According to The Richest, only five nations in the entire world are completely debt free, which is astounding when you consider that there are about 195 countries in the entire world (Mathers; How Many). These figures show how extremely difficult it is for a country to run without having a certain amount of debt, and America having debt should not be a concern. America is not even in the top ten countries whose debt make up the majority of their GDP (Country List). Which means that at the moment American’s should not be overly
The US has been in and out of debt countless times throughout history, going as far back as the Civil War. However, debt did not become a truly relevant problem until much later, in the 1980s (Budget Deficits). Up to that point, large budget deficits were generally only allowed during wartime, but this pattern ended after the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal meant that the government spent much more than it previously did, even after the economy improved (Budget De...
The U.S budget deficit over the years has been a problem but lately the deficit has shrunk. However, what made the U.S budget deficit get to where it is today and what will it be like in the years to come. Throughout the past the U.S has operated under a deficit. This means that the U.S Spent more money than it was taking in. The cause of the excess in spending was different depending on which year. Some of the causes were war, increase in spending , and economic downturns. There were different acts passed to try and control the deficit problem. The deficit at the present time is declining. This decline is due to the improving economy, sequester, and a tax increase on high-income households. The big factor that went into the decline in the deficit for 2013 was the payment that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made. The deficit decline in the present time may make some think the U.S could get out of debt but it has been projected that the U.S deficit will start to increase once again.
All but four countries in the world has external debt (“Country Comparison: Debt External”). Having a debt is almost as common as having a mortgage. Since its establishment, The United States has always been in debt (“Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual”). The US national debt has had five sharp increases previously in its history. The reasons include civil car and the two World W...
Alexander Hamilton once said, “a national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.” The debt of the United States of America is by far excessive. As of April 27th 2014, at 7:45PM GMT, the estimated apparent debt is $17, 444, 8555, 980, 176.09; which makes each of the 318, 108, 108 citizens owe a portion of $54, 839.39 and demonstrates the daily increase in debt of $2.40 billion. Evidently, such a crisis did not arise over night. Numbers have steadily soared with the occasional dip and fluctuation. As for the deficit, the U.S. continues to spend more than it receives in revenue, adding to the cumulative debt. If the government continues expenditures in such increased amounts, the country will never eliminate its trillions upon trillions of debt.
One thing that I have learned about college is that you have to sometimes talk about things that make you uncomfortable or scared in order to learn. I do not think I am alone in saying that the United States’ current debt situation is terrifying. Ten trillion dollars alone is an expansive and unimaginable amount of money, and since PBS produced Ten Trillion and Counting in 2009, the national debt has grown to twenty-one trillion. As stated, the documentary was produced during the first months of former President Barack Obama’s first term and focused on former President George W. Bush’s relationship with national debt during his eight year tenure. Ten Trillion and Counting explains some of the questionable decisions that former President Bush made, especially regarding fiscal policy.
Is the us national debt out of control, That is the question here yes it is we shouldn't have a debt so large when we are practically the biggest and worst state of all 50 of them so why is the debt so large it's because we borrow things such as money and guns and ammo anything that costs money we borrow. Why act sooner than later? If we act now we could make better things. we could save the money and put it to stopping homelessness or find cures to diseases. Or fund some of the schools and build new and upgrade schools. The background is the fact the US spends money like it’s water or air thinking they have plenty which the cold hard truth is money runs out but happiness does not. So we need to pay back all people and live without money for a while till we save and get more so we don't have. Is our debt out of control Yes or No?
Something that may come to everyone’s mind now days and the number one thing that is looked at after a presidential election and every New Year is stock. Stocks determine the health of the economy, the money people are willing to invest, take risks on and win back or lose, but because of the crash, it discouraged people from investing in stocks and instead a huge amount of withdrawals happened leading to the economic collapse that occurred. The U.S government began to worry it would run out of gold because everyone began to turn the couple dollars they still had into gold so the Federal Reserve decided to increase the value of the dollar. Banks began to fail and lose savings; people had to withdrawal the money they had left, leaving banks no other choice but to shut down.
The current national debt is estimated to be $20.4 trillion, or to put it in perspective, the earnings of an average worker over 450 million years. If the U.S. ever hits the debt ceiling, it would have to default--in other words, pay back-- its debt. According to The Balance, this would cause interest rates to increase, the value of the U.S. dollar would drop, and the U.S. would be unable to pay Social Security, Medicaid, student loans, and tax
National debt is the total outstanding amount that the central government has borrowed from national creditors (internal debt) and foreign creditors (external debt). Whenever the government spends more than it receives in taxes, it adds on to the debt. There has been a lot of debate on whether the government should raise taxes or cut spending. Either way slows economic growth, both can cause consumers to spend less. Raising taxes mean goods are more expensive and consumers are unwilling to pay, cutting spending means that goods that were once free of charge may
America’s debt crisis is nothing new, but the amount of debt accumulated is a different story. As of February of 2014, the debt ceiling is 17.2 trillion dollars. An economic threat pushes the nation over the fiscal cliff and the debt crisis causes our country to lose its status as a superpower – tax hikes, spending cuts, and soon later, the debt limit. Most Americans believe we are a superpower, but it is only our military that is a superpower. Our economy is second or third world class due to the increasing debt growth. The fact that we import more than we export is harming the United States financially and further leading our economy into a deeper hole in our debt crisis. This has happened time and time again with countries. For example, Great Britain was once the dominant power in the world. The Suez Canal was one of the most important marine ways in international trade. But with Britain trying to regain Western control and years of unsustainable finances and economic decline all that changed. “Over the last several decades, the U.S. foreign economic policy has been the implementation worldwide of a package of deregulation, liberalization, privatization, new property right and new limits on government policy space, often dubbed the Washington Consensus or the neoliberal agenda” (Wallach).
Veldhuis, Neil. “Beyond our means: Government debt tops $1.2-trillion and spending is still rising.” Financial Post. National Post, 16 May 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.