Posted on 08/12/2016 4:41:01 AM PDT by Kevin C
Donald Trump appeared to change his stance on the federal debt Thursday, saying that, with interest rates low, the U.S. should borrow money to spend on infrastructure rather than lowering the $14 trillion federal debt.
"This is the time to borrow," the Republican candidate said in an interview on CNBC Thursday morning.
"Normally, you would say you want to reduce your debt, and I would like to reduce debt too," Trump said, before explaining that "the problem is you have a military problem, you have an infrastructure problem — a tremendous infrastructure problem, and you have other problems. And also, the asset is your rates are so low."
Trump's campaign has previously stated implausibly ambitious goals for reducing or outright eliminating the federal debt. Trump has also, however, muddied the waters with ambiguous statements about refinancing or renegotiating the debt.
On Thursday, he struck a much less hawkish tone on federal deficits and spending, suggesting that the U.S. needed to spend more than $500 billion on new infrastructure.
Congressional Republicans have sought to move the government in the other direction, proposing budgets to balance the budget within 10 years and begin reducing the federal debt.
You aren't talking about your house or car. This is government debt. So how would your refinance work?
Another Porkulous?
Just great.
“My inclination would be to ‘refinance’ the debt at a better interest rate.”
It’s at near zero now.
If you can't beat 'em ... join 'em.
I guess it would be like what Obama’s Fed did for the first 6 years - issue $85 billion/MONTH in debt, half in T-bills and half in Mortgage Backed Securities. While the money wasn’t used to pay off existing debt, it is the same principle. The government just used half of the borrowing (T-Bills) to legitimize NEW debt (that $1T/year extra spending) and the other half to buy off the stock market and keep it fed so the whole mess didn’t blow up with the lies.
The entire current $20 T debt is not at zero interest rates. Only the new debt I guess. The old T-bills still have to get some kind of interest payout to the purchasers.
So Trump goes Keynesian.
Wow, that leaves me speechless and as a Trump supporter, confused.
This is quite a flip on a very basic economic principle, and now this election doesn’t matter as much to me.
This is purely strategic in my view.
The Dems were getting ready to go after him as Mr. Moneybags from the Monopoly board. This is going to cut the legs right out from under that strategy.
I hate to be the one to say it, but the number of people who believe in traditional supply-side economics in this country is now a minority. Too small to win elections by themselves. Trump is trying to lure some blue-collar Dems to his side, and those folks want the government to tip the playing field in their direction.
We have a long, hard 20 year slog re-educating the public ahead of us if we want to reverse this.
Donald Trump appeared to change his stance on the federal debt Thursday, saying that, with interest rates low, the U.S. should borrow money to spend on infrastructure rather than lowering the $14 trillion federal debt.
“This is the time to borrow,” the Republican candidate said in an interview on CNBC Thursday morning.
...
IIRC he said the same thing months ago.
I listened to the CNBC interview, and he was talking about government debt, also saying hopefully joined by private.
AUDIT, AUDIT AND FIX THE FRAUD AND WASTE. Build or provide ONLY what the MILITARY wants/needs, not what PORK some congress critter can bring home. In fact NO PORK projects allowed. PIG BOOK OF PORK http://www.cagw.org/reporting/2015-pig-book
Military Waste and Fraud Continue In the Middle of the Government Shutdown
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/wasted-military.html
Express Scripts Fraud
https://www.express-scripts.com/TRICARE/fwa/
Express Scripts facing antitrust, contract complaint
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/health-care/2015/01/express-scripts-facing-antitrust-contract.html
$60 BILLION MEDICARE FRAUD http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/medicare-funds-totaling-60-billion-improperly-paid-report/story?id=32604330
PORK NIH Funds $2.6 Million Study to Get Prostitutes in China to Drink Less
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/14/nih-funds-million-study-prostitutes-china-drink/
Get the people who write the PIG BOOK to help you identify waste, duplication, and stop funding welfare for illegals and refugees. GO to Workfare, reduce what food stamps can buy to no junk food allowed, prepared meals, energy drinks or cash back.
If your new debt has a lower rate of return than the old debt then won't you have to pay a premium for it?
The Federal Reserve does not issue mortgage backed securities. That would be Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It doesn’t matter. The money used was air money.....semantics. The result is the same and you know it.
They didn’t ISSUE them; they BOUGHT them, BTW.
I think Donald would carry though. At this point a few trillion more added to the debt will not hurt us anymore since we already cannot possibly pay off the debt we already have. The damage has already been done. If we in fact did rejuvenate our infrastructure then we would come out stronger. One of the most important would be to build an EMP proof electrical grid that becomes far less vulnerable to attacks. Also rebuild our military strength back up. It is a dangerous world out there and getting more dangerous by the minute.
Finance at the government level never makes sense, frankly.
And when rates go up?
The scary thing is most federal debt is financed with short
term bonds.
Debt service costs will go through the roof when rates go up.
Now ISN’T the time to borrow.
The government must shrink and quit spending so much money.
The income from the bonds duh. You can’t do private infrastructure because the government mafia wants to own and featherbed. They talk about this plan on Varney every single day.
“So Trump goes Keynesian.
Wow, that leaves me speechless and as a Trump supporter, confused.”
And Reagan came in and rejected Keynes policies. And the economy boomed.
I remember my 400 level college econ professors screaming at the time; how stupid Reagan was.
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