As of close of business on July 31, 2014, our debt has risen to $17,618,599,653,160.19. That crippling level of debt is itself astonishing but what is equally astonishing is that $7 trillion of that debt has been added in just the five and a half years of the Obama Administration. That $7 trillion is more than the debt accumulated from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined.
I remain in disbelief over the continued spending of Congress and the White House — I was also critical of George W. Bush who was not a fiscal conservative and the wars launched under his leadership contributed to these costs. Despite this mounting debt, neither the Congress nor the White House hesitated to send hundreds of millions more to Israel to pay for part of its defense or billions to places like Afghanistan and Iraq despite the loss of over $4 trillion in those wars.
I readily admit that I am more conservative on spending and taxes than many on this blog. However, I am not fanatically against debt as a concept. I just object to the cavalier attitude toward spending and more importantly the lack of priority. The greatest national security threats in this country are not Afghanistan or Iraq but our crumbling public education system, underfunded science and environmental programs, and such growing menaces as pandemics like Ebola.
As recent report showed that the level of waste in rebuilding Afghanistan alone is far greater than previously thought. John Sopko, the inspector general charged with monitoring aid sent by the U.S. to Afghanistan, found billions of dollars more wasted in Afghanistan. One small example are two $40.5 million C-130 transport planes that the U.S. government gave the Afghan Air Force even though it cannot use the planes. Such moronic forms of waste result in a shocking finding that of $10.6 billion in funding review, nearly $7 billion was potentially wasted. Yet, the money continues to pour in and no one is held accountable for the waste or stupidity. No one accept the American people who will pass this debt on to our children.
Here is the actual debt numbers from the government: Treasury
And I suggest anyone that wants to shut down debate because of inconvenient opinions should seek blogs that are more accommodating to their desire for conformity.
“crippling level of debt”
In what way is this level of debt “crippling”? I’d suggest the only “crippling” aspect of this level of debt is that it gives ammunition to fiscal conservatives who continue to sabotage our economy with their adherence to politically faith based economic ideals that are constantly disproved by actual outcomes yet never abandoned.
I suggest Turley stick to matters of law, his area of expertise, rather than comment on economics where he has nothing to add except the big scary numbers which is certainly counter productive to the creation of the economic growth necessary to reduce that number.
” it gives ammunition to fiscal conservatives who continue to sabotage our economy with their adherence to politically faith based economic ideals that are constantly disproved by actual outcomes yet never abandoned.”
I think you have to wonder why the debt-fear mongers claim the debt is a problem and then try to roll cuts in social services into tax cuts for the wealthy.
If the debt was such a threat why wouldn’t they call for an increase in taxes – at least for a few years – till the debt was paid down.
One typical reply to the question – why not raise taxes – is that higher taxes will throttle the economy. But we know that since WWII the economy has been vibrant with much higher taxes.
It seems that the debt is not really much of a concern to them. Their real goal seem to be to use fear of the debt as a cudgel to bash the social safety net and government that they hate.
The fact is that the debt is not a problem now. Over the next 50 years or so we doe have a looming debt problem. That problem can be managed if we choose to. Management of the long term debt problem could include cutting social programs, but that is not the only way and it is not a desirable way to manage the debt. There is absolutely no emergency now. There is absolutely no necessity to cut social programs now – or ever if we do the right thing.
bfm – debt is something that we can keep kicking down the road, but we were never in a vibrant economy with higher taxes. You are wrong there.
” but we were never in a vibrant economy with higher taxes.”
1945 till the early 1970’s and the Clinton years to name two.
bfm – 1946 was a recession year.
RWW- Were you being sarcastic or serious? Surely you don’t think ‘stimulus spending’ does anything more than redistribute your tax dollars to an unneedful corporation!
Nick, Thanks. Like I’ve stated before, there are just some things I will never understand. One is why the “Teach a man to fish” concept doesn’t ring true for everyone.
” One is why the “Teach a man to fish” concept doesn’t ring true for everyone.”
I would argue that my remarks, pointing out that it is in all our interest to assure that children get the education, nutrition and diapers they require to grow to be productive citizens, are exactly on point to ‘teaching a man to fish’.
In regard to personal responsibility, I would argue there is no reason why children should become dependent when we assure they have what they need. They could become dependent. But there is no reason that they have to. You should remember, whether it is from parents of from the government, well cared for children are given what they need and only gradually learn to exercise responsibility.
If we give children the care and nurture they need now we might be able to greatly reduce the number of adults who start families that need our care in the future.
It is in all our interest to assure that children are well cared for precisely because that is the way we ‘teach them to fish’. It is a long term project. It is an expensive project. The only thing I can think of that is more expensive is failing to carry out that important task.
When we fail to give children the nurture they need we pay for it with an additional generation of young adults who start families that need social services, citizens without the skills for jobs, increased rates of crime and substance abuse – I am sure I could go on.
Even if you cut back social services you pay for it in a smaller less efficient economy because citizen who could have been productive do not have the skills they need. You pay for it with additional LE, courts and prisons.
You can pay the expense for wasted human resources or you can invest in human capital and make things better for all of us.
It seems to me that a person who espouses ‘teaching a man to fish’ ought to understand the importance and the efficiency of investing in human capital.
As a society we are going to pay one way or another. When I pay I like to get something good for my money. How about the rest of you?
Jim22 – the “teach a man to fish” analogy falls apart when you realize that some people refuse to learn. You can take a student to knowledge, but you can’t make him learn – old teacher’s proverb.
Jim, Good comment. Personal responsibility is on the endangered list.
bigfatmike – “Nobody is in favor of inefficient government. But how about we all make sure government has the resources to do the things that need to be done.
Are you worried about a screwed up world. Resources used to assure education, nutrition and yes diapers for children are not inefficient waste.
These are investment in human capital that assure that our future will be better than it would have been without that investment.
What screws things up is ignoring that in some areas we do know how to make things better. We have the resources to make things better. We have every incentive to make things better.
But some are so obsessed with tax rates that they cannot think clearly about what constitutes waste and what is vital investment in our future.
If you care about the future then take care of children today. You want to see a screwed up world then just leave kids hungry without the education they need. We will all pay the price for a pound foolish policy that cuts back programs in education, food stamps, TANF, WIC.”
bfm, No, stealing property from others to buy diapers for other peoples personal choices is inefficient waste. Where does it stop? Why not a car, house, braces, clothes for everyone? Where in the constitution does is it written that it is the Feds responsibility to put diapers on kids?
We should be obsessed with tax rates since we have the right to own our own property. We are supposed to tell the govt. how much they can spend. It’s not supposed to be that the govt. tells us how much we are allowed to keep.
I would say making people dependent on the nanny state is not taking care of them. If we really cared we would kick the able in the but and tell them the world is not fair and its hard but the system we have allows you the potential pursue your own happiness. Yes this makes me sound non PC and heartless but you aren’t doing anyone a favor by coddling them. My parents had eight kids and they never went running to the govt. for anything. We did a lot of things for ourselves like growing our own food, beekeeping, making our own maple syrup, repairing an old farm house, etc. We didn’t have a lot but we had what we needed. Dad would not buy us the newest gadget out there, but if we wanted to use the shop to make something fun, he would support us. I thank him for that since we really had to want something if we were willing to invest the time.
I am ignorant of fiscal issues so am way out of my depth here however it seems this is being put on the president and while congress is being (mostly) ignored. As long as they continue to pay for things that are not needed, big money for projects that the military for instance has said are not necessary, as long as unlike the rest of us, when contracts are not fulfilled or items poorly built more money is thrown at it instead of forcing contractors, etc to fix what their contract requires of them we lose the money that should be going to infrastructure, etc. as well as not spending as much.
The congress being beholden to lobbyists and big business is a big part of where the money is being squandered.
Abolish the Fed. Go on a gold standard. No debt (or way less), no problem, no more trillion dollar stealing. Then money is worth what it produces with no kickback to the leaches who produce nothing.
Darren, Stop w/ the common sense. It doesn’t compute for cultists.
In any organization, whether it be a family household or a nation, when their debt becomes unserviceable by a lack of sufficient income to service the debt a default or disruption occurs.
Too many rely on the phrase “It’s not a problem yet.” Which certainly conveys that it will be a problem at some point in the future. If the trend is reversed and we begin having budget surpluses that are consequently redirected to debt retirement we can see the debt reduce more quickly. If we have a neutral situation where no additional government bonds and T-bills are issued and none are called the length the nation will have a debt will be the date of which the last bond matures. That would be thirty years past when the government stops floating debt securities. Now, given the financial restraint and discipline politicians demonstrate is there ever going to happen?
It almost seems our federal politicians want us to fail.
It’s amazing how many otherwise intelligent well-read people have no idea how money is created in our system. The fact is our money supply is created as DEBT, it is lent into existence by private banks through the process of Fractional Reserve Banking. When you understand how money is created, there is no mystery why everyone: consumers, businesses, students, local and national governments are operating on massive leveraged debt.
The reality is the only way to have new money to pay the old debt PLUS INTEREST and have some more to enable real productive economic growth (not enough left over at this point) is for SOMEONE TO GO INTO MORE DEBT TO CREATE MORE MONEY. If the government stops going into debt, the money supply collapses and the whole house of cards of leveraged debt crashes down.
The IMF has long been a promoter of this insane corrupt system, but even they realize it is unsustainable and approaching the breaking point like any Ponzi scheme, and so in 2012 issued the report “Chicago Plan Revisited”. It explores how a rational democratic system of creating money would transform the global economy from one of instability and endless debt to one of prosperity and stability.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2012/wp12202.pdf
Unfortunately it’s like the experts telling the farmer not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg (our fantastic unprecedented technological productive potential). The greed is overwhelming as they continue to fight for and expand this debt-based scam with an anything goes unregulated casino shadow market in derivatives that is now estimated at 6 times the whole planet’s combined GDP.
It’s going to be interesting, with the BRIC countries preparing to abandon the dollar, how the house of cards will finally fall. The good news is that history is full of episodes of massive debt forgiveness and monetary restructuring and civilization survived. But for me it is surreal living a day to day existence that is pretty blissful, knowing that the future is so completely uncertain.
http://youtu.be/iIhOXCgSunc
Income inequality, oh those poor poor rich.
Takeaways from the House Financial Services Committee on why debt matters: (my favorite is how Detroit has 78,000 vacant buildings).
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/25/why-does-the-u-s-national-debt-matter/
Laser – unless you are Catholic, Canon Law is not really applicable here.
Also, “countries only go bankrupt when they want to”???????? Sorry, I had to smack myself in the forehead.
You know when you buy a government bond? That is called “debt.” Does the government not have to pay you back? Will you be just fine if you invested in government bonds, but the government couldn’t pay you back because it went too heavily into debt? Will there be no repercussions? That is just one example.
Debt does actually matter. I realize this is extremely difficult for non-fiscal-conservatives to grasp this concept. If we just print more money, then each dollars is worth less (because it’s less rare.)
I’m curious, if you want to attribute the debt problem to the current inhabitant of the White House. Wouldn’t you also have to give him credit for this: http://aattp.org/breaking-fed-runs-114-billion-surplus-in-april-thanks-obama/
Gary – so true. It’s so easy to spend other people’s money. The rich pay the freight in this country, and yet they’re STILL hated for not paying their share. Those who’ve never paid taxes in their life resent those who support them for not paying even more.
There will be consequences for this tax and spend philosophy. And any government who thinks that skyrocketing debt will never matter is in for a rude surprise. When we fail to make fiscally conservative decisions, extremely unpopular austerity measures have to be enacted out of desperation when a crisis hits.
It sure caught up with Greece and France . . .
I am a fiscal conservative, and am greatly opposed to wasteful and pork spending by any party.
Obama has created more debt than any other president, COMBINED. If nothing else, this should illustrate we are addicted to spending. There will be only one result of spending on this scale – financial collapse.
After breaking a record like that, wonder how long Obama will keep blaming Bush instead of himself?
bigfatmike – “Government debt, sovereign debt, is not like debt owed by families and businesses. Governments have alternatives that are not available to any family or business. As a first consideration it is important to note that government expenditures affect economic activity and tax revenues……”
bfm, One constant in your reply is the the word government. How about the govt. just stay out of trying to fix anything? Every time they come in and “fix” a problem they screw it up. How about less taxes and less govt spending? It will never happen because govt. spending of stolen property is their power and they aren’t going to give that up. The more they steal from us, the more they own us.
Nobody is in favor of inefficient government. But how about we all make sure government has the resources to do the things that need to be done.
Are you worried about a screwed up world. Resources used to assure education, nutrition and yes diapers for children are not inefficient waste.
These are investment in human capital that assure that our future will be better than it would have been without that investment.
What screws things up is ignoring that in some areas we do know how to make things better. We have the resources to make things better. We have every incentive to make things better.
But some are so obsessed with tax rates that they cannot think clearly about what constitutes waste and what is vital investment in our future.
If you care about the future then take care of children today. You want to see a screwed up world then just leave kids hungry without the education they need. We will all pay the price for a pound foolish policy that cuts back programs in education, food stamps, TANF, WIC.
RATES RISE, THE DOLLAR DIES.
Farewell. Not wel fare. Farewell. This party’s over.
America fought the war on poverty and poverty won.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him forever.
Welfare removes incentive and motivation.
Well intentioned people generate destructive, unintended consequences.
Turns out it’s true, there really are winners and losers. Too bad. So sad.
Nature knows best.