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National debt up 1 trillion in six months

2K views 38 replies 19 participants last post by  MO_cows 
#1 ·
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i...p-another-trillion-dollars-of-debt-2018-03-20

"While a trillion-dollar increase over roughly six months isn’t unprecedented — there was one in 2009, during the Great Recession, and another in 2010 — it’s certainly fast.

The national debt exceeded $20 trillion in September 2017, after taking 20 months to add a trillion dollars. A debt limit that had been in place since March 2015 was raised in March 2017, and again on Sept. 8, 2017."
 
#3 ·
It should be obvious to everyone, we need to cut spending and shrink Leviathan.
 
#7 ·
An employer hires an employee to make his life easier. If an applicant went into every interview telling his potential bosses that if he got the job they would have to live on less and work harder, but in the long run their companies would be better off, he'd be in the soup line. Knowing the best way to execute a plan is the easy part, having the courage to do so is the hard part.
 
#8 ·
Starve the Government?
So funny to hear that these days again...
Infrastructure needs more money in this country...not less...
And that money does not come out of a printer...
It is just that this country spends the money on the far worst spot possible...
The Armed forces...not that they deserve good payment and so on...but having such a huge budget instead of shrinking it and feed the kids, get colleges back to a price tag where kids don't leave with a lifetime loan, restore infrastructure to not fall further behind as we are already are compared to the rest of the western civilized world, subsidize if needed the things that bring us into a better future and not coal or nuclear power...
With all the money that this country makes with its great people...we should be driving on glas like street and not on pott holes...we should have power lines in ground and not like telegraph posts from the founding times, we should be ahead of all with education and not making education a luxury item because it costs a fortune to get our kids lead to a better future...
 
#11 ·
Of course just about everything you listed is not the responsibility of the Federal Government. That is the problem, we have let them sink their teeth into areas they were never meant to be. The one exception, the military, can stand a budgetary hair cut. We don't need our Federal government to wield that much fire power.
 
#10 ·
Thx for this great Picture...it totally supports my saying...3% for education? 1% for Energy/Environment? 1% for Science?
In other words, we invest 5% into our future and 16% into building bigger sticks to beat others better...
Last time i saw such a misplaced investment with the cave men...and i think they went extinct...
And the 27 % for Medicare?Health system are just out of the roof because this system is made to make money and not to heal people
 
#12 ·
We are already bankrupt. We owe somewhere between 120-200 trillion dollars when you consider the national debt and all the unfunded liabilities like Medicare, Social Security and federal pensions. It WILL NOT be changed until it implodes.
Why? People want the government to do and provide these things. People want the government to leave the debt for someone else to pay. People feel, like a previous poster, that it is the federal governments job to pay for college and food and healthcare and roads when in fact, none of those things are the federal governments job based on the Constitution. People here, on a homesteading board, want these things and actually have no knowledge that: it's not in the Feds constitutional authority and that we can't afford any of it.
We borrow 40% of what we spend now and a HUGE number of Americans want MORE! They don't even CARE that we are leaving that debt to the next 50 generations and that their standard of living will suck. It's all about them. They don't even realize that money actually DOES come "out of a printer", it's called a printing press and that is the biggest part of the problem, we own the one the world uses.
For decades the federal government has just kept printing more money when they need it. The speed they do this with has increased exponentially recently. Every time they print more dollars, a dollar buys a little less. People that understand call it the "hidden tax" and realize it is the biggest, most oppressive, most destructive tax we pay in this country.
The government fools the ignorant by saying "hey, inflation only went up 1.2% last year". What they don't say is that those numbers don't include food or energy or the loss of purchasing power for our fiat currency due to the government printing more money. You want to know what the real inflation numbers are? Go here: http://www.chapwoodindex.com/
"The Chapwood Index reflects the true cost-of-living increase in America. Updated and released twice a year, it reports the un-adjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation."
We are screwed because Americans will NEVER give up their handouts and politicians will NEVER take them away. We are dead men walking. It will be over when it ends and not before, then the long suffering will begin.
But hey, don't despair. Just look at it like 80% of Americans do now. They figure they'll be dead and don't even care that it will be their descendants that get to clean up the mess.
 
#13 ·
We are already bankrupt. We owe somewhere between 120-200 trillion dollars when you consider the national debt and all the unfunded liabilities like Medicare, Social Security and federal pensions. It WILL NOT be changed until it implodes.
Why? People want the government to do and provide these things. People want the government to leave the debt for someone else to pay. People feel, like a previous poster, that it is the federal governments job to pay for college and food and healthcare and roads when in fact, none of those things are the federal governments job based on the Constitution. People here, on a homesteading board, want these things and actually have no knowledge that: it's not in the Feds constitutional authority and that we can't afford any of it.
We borrow 40% of what we spend now and a HUGE number of Americans want MORE! They don't even CARE that we are leaving that debt to the next 50 generations and that their standard of living will suck. It's all about them. They don't even realize that money actually DOES come "out of a printer", it's called a printing press and that is the biggest part of the problem, we own the one the world uses.
For decades the federal government has just kept printing more money when they need it. The speed they do this with has increased exponentially recently. Every time they print more dollars, a dollar buys a little less. People that understand call it the "hidden tax" and realize it is the biggest, most oppressive, most destructive tax we pay in this country.
The government fools the ignorant by saying "hey, inflation only went up 1.2% last year". What they don't say is that those numbers don't include food or energy or the loss of purchasing power for our fiat currency due to the government printing more money. You want to know what the real inflation numbers are? Go here: http://www.chapwoodindex.com/
"The Chapwood Index reflects the true cost-of-living increase in America. Updated and released twice a year, it reports the un-adjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation."
We are screwed because Americans will NEVER give up their handouts and politicians will NEVER take them away. We are dead men walking. It will be over when it ends and not before, then the long suffering will begin.
But hey, don't despair. Just look at it like 80% of Americans do now. They figure they'll be dead and don't even care that it will be their descendants that get to clean up the mess.
I wish I could like this a billion times. Spot on!!
 
#16 ·
The thing about democracy, its like herding cats. You have to open multiple cans of salmon to get them all moving in same direction. And that salmon isnt cheap.
 
#17 · (Edited)
This really proves my point and its from today. This was negotiated by the same Politicians that do nothing but talk about how the other party spends too much. Obama said Bush was spending money like a drunken sailor and then he gets in office and spends money like a SHIPLOAD of drunken sailors.
The Republicans that are voting for this, including the Repub leadership, are the very same ones that have broken what, 3 or 4 "contracts with America now"? You remember those? They all said they were going to reign in spending and balance the budget.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...1-3-trillion-2232-page-omnibus-spending-bill/

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that our national debt has skyrocketed in recent years to untenable levels.
“This year, we’re looking at a deficit of $750 to $1 trillion. Next year, the estimate is $1 trillion or more. I have to wonder if there is any way that we can avoid a national insolvency or bankruptcy.”
 
#19 ·
Can you see the puzzled look on the faces of 80% of Americans after reading your words? I can. You are of course, 100% correct.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Lets look at the other side cause I like being the Devils Advocate sometimes.
If we were to balance the budget, all the money flowing into the economy from the Feds would stop. What would be the result:
Businesses making less money.
Businesses laying off people.
People that are laid off going on unemployment and eventually Welfare.
Government and Private buildings sitting vacant due to layoffs.
Infrastructure not getting maintained (even less than it is now).
More people using government programs just to get by.
People having less purchasing power thus More businesses laying people off.

Basically, you'd have another Great Depression but this one I doubt would be as civilized.
Not saying it shouldn't happen, just that it ain't gonna be pretty if it does.
 
#25 ·
The interesting part it the USA has not been issuing long term bonds like it did back in the day instead favoring shorter term paper. That's great in a falling interest rate environment, not so great in a rising interest rate environment (which is where we are now). Currently the average interest rate on the the debt is 2.347%, historically the interest rate has been 5.7%. If interest rates return to historical norms, the interest on the debt will consume all the money paid in person income taxes - again, just to cover the interest.

BTW: The fed has just raised interest rates, and has suggested that it will do so again, perhaps 2 more times this year.
 
#29 ·
We should cut the government's size and mission to about a quarter of its current size. The government should be removed from the housing, medical care, insurance, mortgage and education business and many more.
The feds should be returned to their Constitutional mission: national defense, foreign relations and trade, federal courts including the SCOTUS and that is about it. EVERY other function is for states or individuals to handle.
If they federal government was limited to it's original mission, it could go back to getting most of its revenue from tariffs.

We should lower the tax rate some more so there's less money to pay they bills.

You guys already told me the debt isn't a problem, remember ?
 
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#35 ·
Getting rid of the department of education would put us going in the right direction. The epa wastes a lot of money to. The goverment can’t even deliver mail with out running out of money. 99% of things the goverment touch they destroy and it happens because there hasn’t been accountability in goverment for a very long time
 
#36 ·
We should cut the government's size and mission to about a quarter of its current size. The government should be removed from the housing, medical care, insurance, mortgage and education business and many more.
The feds should be returned to their Constitutional mission: national defense, foreign relations and trade, federal courts including the SCOTUS and that is about it. EVERY other function is for states or individuals to handle.
If they federal government was limited to it's original mission, it could go back to getting most of its revenue from tariffs.
We should also get congress to do their jobs and maintain our money rather than paying the interest to foreign bankers. That would be a huge step in the right direction. But... Oh wait, money must be gold or silver, heck.... what happened there?
 
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#38 ·
Wedgie... no -wait.... Super wedgie. nope, still does not feel right... gotta figure out how to do a wedgie with a curtain connected to some sort of lifting mechanism.....

Please stand by... Our Operators are feverishly working your issues...
 
#39 ·
Wait until interest rises and the cost goes up to service the national debt.
That is a very scary thought. Look at that piece of "pie" on the chart and imagine it doubled in size.

And the whole thing is so stupid it just makes my head hurt. There are so many things that could be cut in the budget, for the most part painlessly, and the pets of both parties need to be on the chopping block. I bet if a few of us took an itemized printout, a highlighter and a weekend, we could put one heck of a dent in the deficit. It isn't that hard, just get your priorities in order and use some backbone. Like most families don't spend themselves into bankruptcy because they can't say no to their kids. Same principle on a much larger scale.
 
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