us debt....

[recycled sixtie]

I am just wondering from the economists out there what the net result will be in the US with the federal debt? If the politicians dont want to increase taxes, then how will the national debt ever be paid off? Will the govt. just keep printing money? That just leads to more inflation does it not? What are the solutions here?
Do you think that another big depression will occur if the US defaults on its debt?
The US still has a big impact on the rest of the world. Greece is minor compared to the US. Your thoughts?
Guy

[fred cook]

Fairly simple solution, quit/reduce spending. Hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted every day in this country. Some serious fiscal responsibility is what is needed. Also, the fact that about 45% of the households in the US don't pay ANY income tax is not helping the situation. The top 1% of US taxpayers already pay about 70% of the tax revenues collected each year! Just how much are they supposed to "contribute"?

[s_wilwerding]

Paying off the current debt, while it is a large amount, is quite manageable. If the government stopped running deficits today, paying off the $10 trillion (or whatever it is now) is fully within the capabilities of the budget (functionally, we are doing it right now). It is the continual upping of the debt that is causing the issue. As we continue to rack up debt, the share of our budget going to service the debt continues to rise, and we either need to pay for that with higher taxes or reduced spending somewhere else.

[kach22i]

How about no more wars?

Cost of War to the United States | COSTOFWAR.COM

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by kach22i

How about no more wars?

Cost of War to the United States | COSTOFWAR.COM

That's a great idea. Now all you have to do is to get the various trouble makers around the world to behave themselves in a civilized manner. No more Jihad, no more terrorist attacks, no more genocide, etc. Think you can handle that?

[1990C4S]

This is quickly going to head to PARF. I could comment on the 'war' issue but I won't.

There are fiscally responsible countries in the world, there are fiscally irresponsible countries (Greece, Italy). The USA is somewhere inbetween. Most people (I suspect) ignore the issue and assume that they won't be affected. They are wrong. It's not 'if', it's 'when'.

The solution is belt tightening. From afar it seems that the political will is missing in your country and the repurcussions too severe for anyone to be elected on a realistic fiscal platform. Although in the long run that would be best for the country.

[LakeCleElum]

*** PARF *** material

[lukeh]

I don't expect the debt to be paid off in any of our lifetimes.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

I am just wondering from the economists out there what the net result will be in the US with the federal debt? If the politicians dont want to increase taxes, then how will the national debt ever be paid off? Will the govt. just keep printing money? That just leads to more inflation does it not? What are the solutions here?
Do you think that another big depression will occur if the US defaults on its debt?
The US still has a big impact on the rest of the world. Greece is minor compared to the US. Your thoughts?
Guy

The US has 15T in debt on the books and another 85T in UNFUNDED LIABILTIES..mainly SS and the big one Medicare...Then there is Private Debt which is about 55T or so..add it up. All on a 14T income

If interest rates should GO UP..then a larger amount of US Tax Revenues will have to be commited to paying the INTEREST.

If push comes to shove the Fed and Treasury is going to PRINT MONEY..your USD will become worth Toillette paper...and your wages will not be able to match that increase, and your Investments will be toast. .

NET AFFECT..Your living standard WILL DECLINE before you die...for your Children and Grandchildren (dependent upon your age and theirs) SLAVERY will look like a GOOD career choice.

Think of the wonderful life style you can have on making FIVE USD AN HOUR...

Welcome to mid century America....

[tabs]

Originally Posted by kach22i

How about no more wars?

Cost of War to the United States | COSTOFWAR.COM

Yeah and LBJ (Big D) was the guy who raided the SS Trust Fund back in 68 to fund his Great Society and the Viet War...Every Prez since then has compounded the situation.

The problem is that the US thought it could have it all with GUNS & BUTTER..however AMEIRCANS and that menas YOU Kachi only have been paying for one and not the other. The rest has been put on the national CC. THAT BILL IS NOW COMING DUE.

America will be able to afford neither WAR nor Social Programs... WE IS DONE BROKE and are living off the future value of the USD..just think of it as the REPO man has come to collect on your Porsche and Big Screen and Kids Toys....and more importantly their Education and future earning capacity.

Net affect KACHI you are barking up the wrong tree. U should be thinking about how you can get rid of the guy in office who STILL wants Equality of Outcome..and that outcome means FIVE USD an HOUR for everybody..

[s_wilwerding]

Look up military spending as a percentage of the budget - it's around 18-20%. I spend 18% of my monthly income on entertainment. If I were to go broke, it wouldn't be because of my entertainment bill, it would be because my house/cars/boat are too expensive.

In this example, the house/cars/boat are social programs.

[DaveE]

How about spending more while making a conscious decision to make less (tax reductions)?

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by s_wilwerding

Look up military spending as a percentage of the budget - it's around 18-20%. I spend 18% of my monthly income on entertainment. If I were to go broke, it wouldn't be because of my entertainment bill, it would be because my house/cars/boat are too expensive.

In this example, the house/cars/boat are social programs.

Military budget of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2010 for about 19% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures and 28% of estimated tax revenues. Including non-DOD expenditures, defense spending was approximately 28–38% of budgeted expenditures and 42–57% of estimated tax revenues.[citation needed] According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000–2009.[25]

.....................Because of constitutional limitations, military funding is appropriated in a discretionary spending account.

...........................Military spending's share of discretionary spending was 50.5% in 2003, and has risen steadily ever since.[27]

Doing a little math, 1/2 of discretionary spending is about 10%, which gets added to the 20% for a total of 30%.

So about 1/3 of the the budget is military spending, that's a lot. The interest is even more, because we cannot pay for those wars of choice.

Military budget of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Christien]

Originally Posted by s_wilwerding

Look up military spending as a percentage of the budget - it's around 18-20%. I spend 18% of my monthly income on entertainment. If I were to go broke, it wouldn't be because of my entertainment bill, it would be because my house/cars/boat are too expensive.

In this example, the house/cars/boat are social programs.

But if you were heading down the path of being broke, the first thing to go would be your entertainment spending. You may sell the boat and one of the cars, but you'd keep the house and 1 or 2 cars, and cut the entertainment spending. It's not the complete solution, but it *is* the obvious first step.

[DaveE]

You don't continue trying to take in less while trying to get your debt situation in order. Some people look for extra income.

[fintstone]

Military spending (DoD) as a percentage of GDP is near all time lows...you are barking up the wrong tree. The big expense that is rising at an alarming rate (as a percentage of GDP) is social welfare (entitlements).

[tabs]

Originally Posted by fintstone

Military spending (DoD) as a percentage of GDP is near all time lows...you are barking up the wrong tree. The big expense that is rising at an alarming rate (as a percentage of GDP) is social welfare (entitlements).

Let me clue ya, EVERYTHING is going to be CUT, CUT, CUT....

The USA is no longer going to be able to maintain the role of providing Global Security. As GB was forced to pair back after WW2 so will the USA. The world will have to start fending for itself, and have to spend the dinero for its own defense.

Further the SS Trust Fund was ROBBED for 40 years so that we could have Security and Butter...Now the piper has to be paid..

AND U mean Post WW2 lows...

[wdfifteen]

The solution is to get the economy growing again. Sitting around arguing about how to divide the pie we've got isn't going to solve the problem. Making the pie bigger will.

[fintstone]

Well Tabs... Obviously we wouldn't use comparisons of pre WW2 as we considered that the only way we could be attacked is by a sea landing... Which could easily be repelled due to the long logistical lines necessary. The prevailing logic has been that we would rather fight our wars in other people's back yard instead of our own after seeing the devastation in Europe in two world wars. Now even the smallest of countries...and even terrorists have the ability to deliver an attack on the mainland. If the preference is to battle on Main Steet USA...then so be it...but don't expect that to save any money in the long run. The enormous pricetag of 9/11 should tell you that...and "let me clue you in"...the military cuts in personnel that have
already been made already... have destroyed a great deal of our capability. Funny how the liberals have made such fools of conservatives once again. After decades of trying to destroy the military might of the US without success and getting beat up about it. They have finally managed to trick small minded conservatives to do it for them and accept the blame. At least, these conservatives can gleefully claim success as fiscal hawks although they are really just small men...attacking organizations and people that they were never man enough to be a part of. I guess that makes them little different than the liberals...who are at least honest about their intentions.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

The solution is to get the economy growing again. Sitting around arguing about how to divide the pie we've got isn't going to solve the problem. Making the pie bigger will.

The problem is that the "pie" you're talking about isn't the economy, it's tax revenue. The solution here most certainly is NOT to make that bigger, it's to starve the greedy socialist agendas that keep demanding more and larger slices of it.

Want to fix the economy? I can do it with one stroke of the pen. Grant a 100% tax exemption for every man, woman and child in this country until 2013. Businesses too. Then over the next five years phase in restoration to current tax levels at 20% per year. In the same five year period, federal spending (including entitlements) get cut by 10% per year.

At the end of five years (2018) we'd have 50% the annual expenditures as today, with >100% of today's tax revenue since the economy would be strong. We could easily absorb the deficit we'd run getting to that point.

I'd like to see the tax code simplified too, with both rich (>$1M/year) AND poor ("exempt" individuals in particular) paying more. A flat tax coupled with a consumption tax that gets us to today's current total revenue amount would be acceptable to me.

Nobody will go for bold ideas like these because there are too many sponging off the (broken) status quo and politicians will be loathe to give up the power to punish opponents and reward friends/campaign contributors with the present mess of a tax code we have.