National debt near $7.4 trillion ceiling

Globe Newspaper Company ^ | October 5, 2004 | Leigh Strope, Associated Press

[Ed Current]

The government is poised to hit the national debt's $7.4 trillion ceiling this month, and yesterday the Bush administration told Congress again that it should raise the limit.

That would be a politically sticky move just weeks from the Nov. 2 elections.

Rob Nichols, Treasury Department spokesman, said the government is on track to reach the limit early this month. He said that the forecast is made "on a day-to-day basis" and that Congress would be notified.

The government can juggle accounts to stay under the limit through mid-November to avoid default, as it has in the past.

[Moonman62]

The government can juggle accounts to stay under the limit through mid-November to avoid default, as it has in the past.

And when Enron or Worldcom do such a thing, it's a crime.

[dufekin]

Something tells me that your plan makes too much sense; therefore, Congress never will pass it. We do need to dig ourselves out of a huge hole. We need to stop incurring debt. How about terminating Medicare?

[Ed Current]

American Conservative Union Foundation

conservatives are appalled at the increase in non-defense spending under President George W. Bush.

[NJ_gent]

"I love trolls who come on here whining about GOP spending when they know DAMN well that Democrats have purposed TWICE and much spending."

Spending extreme amounts of money that we don't have on things like prescription drugs and the Dept of Education suddenly become ok if it's our guys doing it? Constructive criticism of mistakes is both healthy and productive if it's heeded.

[rudypoot]

Not the GDP, but I think I had read recently that the total economy of the US is 45 trillion dollars. National debt is 16.4%.

GDP is around $11 trillion. Total US wealth (Private and public, assets, roada, buildinga, etc) is about $45 trillion.

[FesterUSMC]

How about terminating Medicare?

NO! you can NOT terminate Medicare, and sell out "the greatest generation" that would not be right!

[groanup]

bump

[fuzzycat]

How about the government give me back all the money I have paid in and I will never claim a Damn penny from said gov't ?

[Ed Current]

You think the WSJ and REPUBLICAN Congressman Walter B. Jones are trolls?

How to Get Federal Spending Under Control

If they are serious about controlling spending, lawmakers should take the following five steps:

1. Stop digging. Federal spending is growing at its fastest rate since the 1960s, but many of the same lawmakers that are calling for spending restraint also support legislation to expand highway spending by 72 percent, increase special education spending by 151 percent, and once again extend unemployment benefits. Each of these spending increases will dig the United States deeper into its financial hole and necessitate even more difficult choices later. Lawmakers should cut spending now.
2. Balance the budget by 2014 without raising taxes. Budget deficits are merely a symptom of two larger problems: a sluggish economy and runaway spending. Restoring economic growth requires low tax rates, and runaway spending is the most dangerous threat to pro-growth tax relief. Balancing the budget with spending cuts will improve the country's ability to deal with the massive Social Security and Medicare liabilities that will come due when the baby boomers retire.
3. Freeze discretionary spending in 2005. Discretionary spending leaped 39 percent between 2001 and 2004. Even after excluding defense and costs related to September 11, discretionary spending is rising 7 percent annually. Do these agencies need yet another spending increase this year? Congress and the President should do what millions of families do: set priorities and balance each high-priority spending increase with a low-priority spending cut.
4. Reform entitlements. Spending cannot be restrained without reforming entitlements, which comprise two-thirds of all federal spending and threaten the country's long-term finances. (See Chart 2.) These programs are projected to grow by 6 percent annually for the next decade. Table 1, which displays the spending restraint needed to balance the budget by 2014, shows that all scenarios to balance the budget by 2014 require reducing the 6 percent annual growth rate of mandatory spending. Lawmakers seeking to rein in spending should put all entitlement spending on the table, including the 2003 Medicare drug bill and the 2002 farm bill.
5. Fix the budget process. Lawmakers still cling to a budget process created in 1974. Over the past 30 years, successive Congresses have punched this process full of holes, and federal spending has correspondingly tripled. The current budget process provides no workable tools to limit spending, no restrictions on passing massive costs onto future generations, and no incentive to bring all parties to the table early in the budget process to set a framework. The Family Budget Protection Act, authored by Representatives Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chris Chocola (R-IN), and Christopher Cox (R-CA), provides a comprehensive proposal for creating a budget process that reflects America's budget priorities and should be closely examined by anyone interested in budget reform.

[listenhillary]

Hmm.. My debt to net income this year is 92%. AAAHH!!! We're DOOMED!

I'd like to see just a freeze in government spending at current levels current dollars. No adjustment for inflation, no baseline budgeting.
Want a new program? Need to pay out SS benefits? Natural disaster? Sorry, better find some cuts.
We would pay down the budget as long as the cap was not lifted and they didn't screw with the money suppy. Once annual spending is below 5% of GDP, increases are OK as long as spending doesn't exceed 5% of GDP.

[groanup]

B,b,b,b,but I though we had a surplus during the Clinton years.

The Debt To the Penny

Current Amount

10/04/2004 $7,414,024,541,823.04

Current

Month

10/01/2004 $7,409,510,200,267.47

Prior

Months

Prior Fiscal

Years

09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32

09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62

09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16

09/28/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06

09/29/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86

09/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,615.43

09/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,897.62

09/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397.34

09/30/1996 $5,224,810,939,135.73

09/29/1995 $4,973,982,900,709.39

09/30/1994 $4,692,749,910,013.32

09/30/1993 $4,411,488,883,139.38

09/30/1992 $4,064,620,655,521.66

09/30/1991 $3,665,303,351,697.03

09/28/1990 $3,233,313,451,777.25

09/29/1989 $2,857,430,960,187.32

09/30/1988 $2,602,337,712,041.16

09/30/1987 $2,350,276,890,953.00

SOURCE: BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT

[listenhillary]

NO! you can NOT terminate Medicare, and sell out "the greatest generation" that would not be right!

Welcome to Free Republic! Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah!

[dufekin]

The government already gave back all the money that you payed into the system--largely in the form of statues to ancient gods, a giant pit in Boston, subsidies to mohair producers (critical for national security!), higher salaries for distinguished members of Congress, a rain forest in an Iowa town, and miscellaneous appropriations without which the terrorists will have won.

[Ed Current]

Read what FreeRepublic is about!

Free Republic

A return to a strictly Constitutional form of federal government will automatically repeal and abolish all unconstitutional federal involvement in states issues such as: crime, health, education, welfare and the environment. The Tenth Amendment will again be in effect, which will bar all federal attempts at legislating social issues. This will also require that social programs such as Social Security, welfare and Medicare be repealed. So too, will most federal subsidies.

[FesterUSMC]

Welcome to Free Republic! Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah!

If the above statement applies to my grandfather who fought in the Philippines during World War II I want NO part of it, he is a good man, albeit a poor man.

[Ed Current]

See posts 32 & 34

[maestro]

UR# 31.....

National debt near $7.4 trillion ceiling ......?

and the ......World's debt is....?

[muleskinner]

If the above statement applies to my grandfather who fought in the Philippines during World War II I want NO part of it,...

Opus Alert?

[listenhillary]

He is family is he not? He is a veteran is he not? Did we discuss cutting benefits to veterans and I miss it?

I doubt there would be an abrupt cut off. Rather a transition back to a market based healthcare system.

[Ed Current]

$20,000 per Household: The Highest Level of Federal Spending Since ...

The 2003 fiscal year mercifully concluded on September 30. Reckless spending by Congress and the President made it a year in which:

• Government spending exceeded $20,000 per household for the first time since World War II,
• The federal budget expanded by $353 billion over its 1998 level,
• Defense and the attacks on September 11, 2001, accounted for less than half of all new spending since 2001,
• Mandatory spending reached its highest level in history, and
• Spending increased despite net interest costs plummeting by $110 billion.1

This paper examines the colossal expansion of the federal government since 1998. That year, a temporary tax revenue boom brought the first budget surplus in over a quarter-century. Abolishing the budget deficit also eliminated one of the most effective arguments for spending restraint, and the spending floodgates swung wide open. By 2001, the budget surplus was quickly evaporating because tax revenues, back to their historical levels, could no longer keep pace with runaway spending. The 9/11 terrorist attacks then necessitated new spending on national security. But by that point fiscal responsibility was a distant memory, and lawmakers steadfastly refused to balance these new high-priority security costs with savings elsewhere in the budget. As 2003 closes, the nation finds itself burdened by runaway federal spending and massive looming structural budget deficits.1