Posted on 02/20/2019 4:28:54 PM PST by jazusamo
Yes, Congress is aware the national debt recently surpassed $22 trillion for the first time in U.S. history.
No, members don’t think they’ll do anything to seriously address it anytime soon.
“I don’t see anybody prioritizing it, and sadly folks often prioritize things when crisis hits. I don’t want a debt spiral crisis to hit,” said Rep. Rob Woodall, Georgia Republican. “I hear lots of conversations about how to spend a whole lot more.”
With the spending process for 2019 now wrapped up, lawmakers are turning their attention to exactly how they plan to avoid $126 billion in cuts set to kick in this October because of Obama-era budget caps.
“I don’t see at this point a lot of appetite for cutting spending,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, Kentucky Democrat.
President Trump likewise has ruled out major cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security — the key drivers of the debt — as he has overseen an increase of about $2 trillion since taking office two years ago.
Mr. Trump has “always been concerned” about the level of debt, said Larry Kudlow, one of the president’s top economic advisers.
But Mr. Kudlow said there shouldn’t be too many practical consequences to the escalating red ink as long as the economy keeps humming.
“As the growth continues, we believe 3 percent growth, I think you’ll see deficits as a share of GDP keep falling,” he said. “I don’t think that’s an issue, a problem. We’re sticking with 3 percent growth. This economy’s very strong.”
(Excerpt) Read more at outline.com ...
It would take both... But it needs to go further. It needs to be the effort of every individual to make a few slight sacrifices. Everyone wants it to be everyone but themselves.
It sure is...
Nothing changes till the cashflow stops.
I saw it in business. Worked with businesses warning them for many years to change. One day the bank said no more advances. Things changed quickly but it was the bankers fault.
The cashflow stopped in the USSR, a major world power, an example in our lifetime. We woke up, read it in the newspapers and life went on.
It will happen here, but we don’t know the when and the how.
Well...every super power in history met it’s demise by going in unaffordable debt. Why should we change history? But wait I heard, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it”.
>>>Well...every super power in history met it’s demise by going in unaffordable debt
But at the moment, folks are willing to lend to the US government for 10 years at 2.65%.
It is a very very simple concept. We are all being played, manipulated, and exploited. And we are letting them do it. Through division, religion, patriotism, socialism. In the whole it is leading us ALL to the abyss because we do not take the time to think for ourselves and question the direction and trie cause and effect... We just follow without question. History has proven this to be major fallacy in the character of men yet we have learned absolutely nothing from it.
Why? you ask. They have 53 members of Congress, more than any other state by dozens. That’s why.
Also, SS will be following that up in 2 years after that. Oh, btw, by that time, $1trillion will be needed to service the interest of our "grains of sand on the beach" (Which takes money out of the economy, duh) and don't forget Petro hostages that would gladly leave the US' system in favor of more rising economies that bring competition to the mix.
CBO states that 25% or so beanies need to be cut from SS across the board, just for starters. Imagine what that will do to the economy and the voters.
Also, one bad recession between those years and the Treasury is screwed based on the gift that the Fed Reserve is providing. Rates capped at 4.2% is guaranteed to cause funny money (Ignoring downgraded bonds) to become a “solution” if that occurs.
Uncontrolled debt doesn't matter (US DOES have uncontrolled debt due to CBO projections), BS, that is the second biggest Pied Piper deceit of all time next to "You will not surely die".
Trick is no one holds that bond for 10 years, except maybe a central bank. The profit is made selling these bonds to a central bank. The whole negative interest rate thing going on in Japan and Europe was bizzaro world for me when very smart people were buying them like crazy. Then read a paper where it showed an example of buying a 40 year Japanese bond in Jan, and then selling it to the Bank of Japan in June and making a 40% profit. Then it finally got through my skull, who cares about interest rates when a central bank announces they’ll be buying these bonds at any price to target an interest rate.
When the interest reaches $1 trillion annual, selling new bonds will be too difficult. Not enuf buyers.
Keeping taxes low will be a daily battle.
Socialists by definition do not reduce their spending habits.
Where werethese pieces when Barry more than doubled the debt from 8 trillion to over 18-19 trillion? In just 8 years?
Where did it all go? How about investigations on this?
A start to lowering the debt would be to cut off funding illegal aliens.
It’s not my debt and I can’t do a thing about it.
We “NEED TERM LIMITS”! NEED!
A $22 trillion debt. Do you know what that equates to? It means that US is spending $1 billion a day on interest alone.
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