Christopher Botros Eco 102-05 Professor Epstein 4/14/2015 Erasing the United States Public Debt The United States debt has been fluctuating for years and years. In the past sixty nine years the United States government has ran a deficit fifty seven times. This means that the United States has had a surplus only twelve times in the past sixty nine years with the most recent one coming in 2001. The longest stretch of surpluses without any interruptions came between the years of 1920 and 1930 and the longest period of time without any interruptions of a deficit came in the years between 1970 and 1997. With the U.S. government struggling to post a surplus and the most recent surplus was in 2001, it is not impossible that this current streak …show more content…
By taxing it will create more revenue for the government to counter its spending. But who better to tax than people who have the most money? In a recent article, published by the National Center for Policy Analysis, it talks about how the president is planning to raise taxes, particularly in the area of capital gains. The author then goes on to say that people were begin to save their assets as opposed to selling them leading to less government revenue (Raising Taxes on the Wealthy Would Hurt the Economy.” Although the author’s opinion is valid, there is research to prove that raising taxes on high-income Americans will not harm the economy. First raising taxes will not hurt investment. The Congressional Research Service reported that if they were to reduce the tax, it would have a small and even negative impact on investment. In another publishing by the CRS, it stated “Capital Gains tax rate increases appear to increase public saving and may have little or no effect on private saving. Consequently, capital gains tax increases likely have a positive overall impact on national saving and investment.” Chye-Ching Huang, the author of “Households Would Not Harm The Economy: Policy Should Be Included In Balanced Deficit-Reduction Effort,” states people who are against raising taxes on the wealthy will claim that higher taxes on the healthy will lead to the high-income taxpayers reporting less income to the IRS. He then continues to propose that policy makers can enforce tax avoidance laws to counter act the wealthy tax payers avoiding their taxes. The final reason why raising taxes on High-Income American will be beneficial to beating the deficit is that it will encourage the upper class to work more. With the rich getting taxed more, it hurts their morale to continue working hard and making money if they are just going to get taxed more. Although some may think like this,
This deficit has to do with having responsible leader who are willing to increase awareness and make beneficial changes in the nation. In my opinion, the federal debt is a serious threat to the US that must be politically address whenever possible. I believe that the candidates of the 2016 presidential election should make this issue one of the top priorities to discuss and to dictate a considerable amount of work to fix it. That is because the worse the federal debt is, the worse the future would be to the nation. Also, voters must be well educated about this issue in order to shape their decision in voting for the candidate that seems most powerful and confident about this problem. Solving this problem may be difficult and would take time and so much effort. Therefore, the changes and solution must be on both a national and individual levels as
One thing that I have learned about college is that you have to sometimes talk about things that make you uncomfortable or scared in order to learn. I do not think I am alone in saying that the United States’ current debt situation is terrifying. Ten trillion dollars alone is an expansive and unimaginable amount of money, and since PBS produced Ten Trillion and Counting in 2009, the national debt has grown to twenty-one trillion. As stated, the documentary was produced during the first months of former President Barack Obama’s first term and focused on former President George W. Bush’s relationship with national debt during his eight year tenure. Ten Trillion and Counting explains some of the questionable decisions that former President Bush made, especially regarding fiscal policy.
When you get to the point where debt becomes too much you begin to search for a way out. There are many different options to get rid of their debt; one option is the debt snowball. This debt relief option sounds more unusual than it really is.
As of today America’s national debt is 18 trillion dollars and approximately 5 trillion of that is held by foreign countries including China and Japan. In the last few years we seem to hear more about balancing the country’s budget and politicians raising the debt ceiling so we can pay on this debt. How have we gotten into such an overwhelming and complicated problem with our nation’s money? Ironically the same can be said for our individual household debt as well as making the same mistakes and trying to find creative ways to be accountable to our financial responsibilities. Teaching the basics of personal finance n our schools can culturally change our financial practices, leading to a more financially literate public and a stronger, more stable, America. If the younger generations can become more financially savvy, then there is an opportunity for our nation as a whole to become less dependent on debt to survive.
The US has been in and out of debt countless times throughout history, going as far back as the Civil War. However, debt did not become a truly relevant problem until much later, in the 1980s (Budget Deficits). Up to that point, large budget deficits were generally only allowed during wartime, but this pattern ended after the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal meant that the government spent much more than it previously did, even after the economy improved (Budget De...
The national debt is usually a frightening topic citizens of any country, however, in the United States, twenty trillion dollars of national debt is one of the major fears of the economy. Along with this fear comes every politician claiming to be the person to lower this astronomical debt to ease concerns in the modern American economy. In Hamilton’s Blessing, John Steele Gordon tries to alleviate these concerns by showing a plethora of benefits and good the debt has been able to do throughout the history of the United States. The central premise of the book and the main guideline for John Steele Gordon’s thinking is that the debt was used to save the Union in the 1860’s, the American economy in the 1930’s, and the wellbeing of mankind during
In general, an increase in government spending and decrease in the collection of government taxes and other receipts, increases the debt held by the local government. Government taxes and receipts fluctuate annually, and are frequently less than government spending. In the past, the U.S. public debt has increased for the duration of wars and recessions. When the government consumes more than what it accumulates in taxes, there is a budget deficit and the government then borrows from the private sector or from foreign governments to protect their spending. The compilation of historical borrowing is what materializes the government debt.
When coming to college your whole money situation changes, suddenly you're bombarded with housing costs and student loans that you have to pay back or you will spiral into debt. Your whole life changes you don't have your parents paying for your voluptuous wants and needs, you’re on your own. The move from high school understudy to college undergrad is a standout amongst the most upsetting and essential times in an adolescent's life. Not only is your day to day life going to change but your spending habits have to change. The school years are a period where a high school student leaves their support team behind,
One person may see that the increase taxation on the poor and the decrease taxes on the wealthy is not an issue because the wealthy pay a lot of taxes already. However, many people don’t realize the fact that, yes, the wealthy are paying a lot of taxes because they make more money, but they can afford to pay more. Recently, in a CNN article, more than forty millionaires want their taxes to increase, which proves the fact that the wealthy have plenty of money to give back to the community. In addition, their just going to keep getting wealthier and wealthier by the
Throughout the years the U.S has had more budget deficits than it has had surpluses. This is due to the excess in spending and not enough revenues to pay for it. Many have debated over the U.S budget deficit problem. However to fix the problem one has to research the past to figure out how the U.S budget deficit got to where it is now. Hopefully by figuring out this, one could project what the U.S budget deficit will look like in years to come.
All but four countries in the world has external debt (“Country Comparison: Debt External”). Having a debt is almost as common as having a mortgage. Since its establishment, The United States has always been in debt (“Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual”). The US national debt has had five sharp increases previously in its history. The reasons include civil car and the two World W...
...ronted with an increasing deficit that should not be continued for an indefinite period. The deficit carried by the United States has been scrutinized by global leaders who are pushing for the dollar to be replaced as the world reserve currency. No matter what policy changes are made, any change will have a negative impact on the United States economy. The United States has no lived within its means for several decades, which is the direct cause of the large deficit. Instead of continuing to ignore the deficit it is time the United States takes responsibility for their actions and faces the consequences. The first step would be for the United States to stop using stimulus packages and bailouts to intervene with economic cycles. The citizens of the United States do not want to experience another Great Depression, but this may be the best option at this time.
NERSISYAN, Yeva and L. Randall Wray (2010). Deficit Hysteria Redux? Why We Should Stop Worrying About U.S. Government Deficits. Nova York: The Levy Economics Institute, Public Policy Brief, Nº. 111. http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/ppb_111.pdf.
Tax cuts are only benefiting the richest people, and will widen the inequality gap between the rich and the poor. A recent report from the Congressional Research Service states, “as the top tax rates a...
Global debt crisis is essentially widespread globally. There are different issues that can cause debt crises. Currently, different countries around the world are facing debt crises, and definitely that is because of an error in the banking system. We’ll see below what are the main causes briefly and what are really the objectives that lead to a collapse in the banking system or so financial crisis.