We have previously discussed the soaring debt in the country as both Democrats and Republicans plunge this nation into shocking debt levels. This week we passed another milestone in our debt surpassing $22 trillion for the first time in history. That is a jump of $30 million in just the last month alone. In the meantime, members of Congress and the White House continue to demand more massive levels of spending.
Our debt is rising to a record level and at a faster rate. Yet, there is no response from the public as our leaders send us down the road of destructive debt that will saddle the country for decades.
The combination of spending and the $1.5 trillion tax cut has resulted in adding a trillion dollars in the last 11 months.
We now have an utter lack of responsibility and leadership. Both parties are satisfied that their respective bases simply care more about partisan fights than budgetary policies. It is dangerous not simply because we are selling off the future of our children but that there is little concern over this new record level of debt in terms of its damage to our economy or even any threat to political interests.
How much is too much debt? Nobody knows? Press on!
Related subject. Chapo’s money confiscated and used for the Wall. Not a bad idea but is it legal to take it? Ever hear of RICO Racketeer Influenced Corruption and it’s long long long term success? The taking goes with out saying it should be taken. Every centavo every penny.
However the use of it is something else. Depends on the jurisdiction level. Probably at the federal level it would go the General Fund and then tied up in knots to support other criminal ventures. The illegal since 1909 socialist revolution to name one.
Or at State level funding a pay raise for politicians who drove their state into debt.
Or at the county or city level funding some thing that is against some law at another probably higher level.
Including donations to poltiicans campaign funds.
Don’t quote me, but I think Obama spent such monies on leftist organizations.
Do you also feel what is art? Do you tell people what art is? What is beauty in your world? Do you tell people that they have their right sock on their left foot?
“Yet, there is no response from the public as our leaders send us down the road of destructive debt that will saddle the country for decades……We now have an utter lack of responsibility and leadership.”
Why are you surprised? Professor Turley, I admire your intellect when it comes to legal matters, but your lack of authentic and objective analysis of our culture are reflective of the pathology all around us.
The federal expenses for 2015 provide a story:
US 2015 Budget
Source: OMB
1. Mandatory Spending: $2.45 Trillion
– Medicare $986 Billion
– Social Security $895 Billion
– Food Assistance $104 Billion
– Unemployment $36 Billion
2. Discretionary Spending: $1.11 Trillion
– Military $598 Billion
– Education $70 Billion
– Housing $63 Billion
– International Affairs $41 Billion
– Energy & Environment $39 Billion
– Transportation $26 Billion
3. Interest on Debt $229 Billion
(6% of spending)
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/
We are a society dependent on our enablers, the Federal Govt. Members of Congress are giving the people what they want: a complacent life. Sloth, gluttony, wrath, pride, greed, envy, lust….we are pathetic slaves to our insatiable appetites. We are a miserable people, a very sick society. This forum is but one data point.
If the Feds were to cut these expenses, Americans would have to fend for themselves.
The world would be better off with a flood, an ice age, or a massive meteor hitting the planet, forcing an acceleration of evolution: the weak to perish and allowing only the fittest to survive. With 2/3 of Americans having a BMI > 25, few if any would survive. Then there are the sedentary with all ranges of BMI
Bring it. End the slow death and lets begin anew.
A while back we had some chump contending military expenditure was responsible. Now we have you claiming welfare expenditure is responsible. I have news for you both: Treasury issues are Treasury issues and dollars are dollars. Neither one of you bothered to complain about a third source of the problem: people who bitc* about their tax bills but have no idea in their addled heads about how to cut the budget (other than ‘screw the other guy’).
https://ycharts.com/indicators/6_month_treasury_bill_rate
Estovir,
One of the concerns is the rising cost of servicing that huge $22 Trillion debt; i.e., interest rates.
The interest shown in your display shows $229 Billion in interest expense.
I think that has climbed to the $350-400 Billion range for the current F. year.
Rates on short-term T-bills were near zero at the low point several years ago. Now they are at around 2.4% .
The increased debt, but especially the rising intetest rates has ended that near “free ride” of carrying the debt at absurdly low rates.
Great chart.
“I think that has climbed to the $350-400 Billion range for the current F. year.”
It has always struck me as outrageous that Americans are told to eliminate their debt and avoid schemes with high interest, and yet our Fed Govt acts like theyre in lala land…they get preferential treatment
All Members of Congress should be sent home indefinitely as we have enough laws on the books, and the Fed Govt should close for 25 years. Whoever is left standing gets to build the country from scratch. If you cant sustain yourself then that onus is on you and your circle of those who love you….assuming you have any….insert Charles Darwin here, as well as Liberals “dont shove your morality on me”
Federal debt is fundamentally different from personal or corporate debt. There is no requirement that federal debt **ever** has to be paid back. No mandatory schedule for paying it back. The only issue is servicing the interest on it.
Jay S.,
That issue of servicing the debt will, by itself, become a bigger and bigger factor in taking a slice of the budget pie.
Especially that small slice not mandatory for entitlement programs, defense, etc.
But the debt also has to be “recycled”, rolled over as Treasury issues mature.
I hope that a high percentage of U.S. debt has been locked in in the form of longer term a T- Bonds sold, rather than the short term T-Bills and T-Notes.
I haven”t been able to find the maturity schedule, the % of long term v. short term Treasury debt sold.
I’m guessing that a high percentage of it was sold as T-Bills, and that a relatively low percentage was locked in a these recent c.10 year historically low interest rates.
That’s just a guess based on the surprisingly low recent cost of servicing the debt, which could have been done when shorter term Treasuries were near Zero % yield.
The yield curve has recently flattened, and that huge gap between the short term and long term bond rates is now gone.
So far, we’ve managed that “recycling”/ or rolling over of T- debt OK. The Fed helped by expanding its balance sheet from under $ One Trillion 10 years ago to over $4 Trillion recently.
They “soaked up” Treasury and other givernment debt and “competed” with outside buyers, “normal” investors, to keep rates extremely low.
And the classic economic theories that massive quantitative easy by the Fed would result in high inflation and other economic headaches has not materialized, at least not yet, as a result of years of extreme Fed intervention in the form of Q. easing.
Now that the Fed is starting to unwind that massive build-up in its balance sheet, it remains to be seen how smoothly that goes….the issue of the quadruplingly + of that Fed balance sheet and the recent attempts to reverse that are not widely covered in the news or followed, but this appears to be the really tricky part for the Fed to pull off without causing some major problems for the economy.
They’ll be watched… “The Fed Watch” will continue, whether its widely reported or not.
I think they’ll need to pull a rabbit out if the hat to pull this off without major glitches, but we’ll see.
This is all on “the monetary side”. Fortunately, on the fiscal side, we have a stable genius in the White House and many, many of those geniuses in Congress to manage that part of it well.😊
IIRC, the Fed’s last round of QE was in 2012. Paying interest on reserves appears to have been quite effective in reducing the money multiplier, which in turn restrained inflation.
You have previously cited scripture passages you obtained from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops–i.e.–USCCB. Maybe you should read some of the other posts they publish besides the books of the Bible. They don’t agree with your opinions or rhetoric.
Natacha, no one has to rely on the Conference of Catholic Bishops for quotations of scripture. (And, while were at it, the Conference staff have no teaching authority).
the Scripture passages are um from Scripture.
You obviously need to get to know them.
Get back to us once you have had several metanoias and only then
Falling off your high horse and blinded would be a great start.
Just saying
“The world would be better off with a flood, an ice age, or a massive meteor hitting the planet, forcing an acceleration of evolution: the weak to perish and allowing only the fittest to survive. With 2/3 of Americans having a BMI > 25, few if any would survive. Then there are the sedentary with all ranges of BMI
Bring it. End the slow death and lets begin anew.”
You misunderstand nature. Environmental shocks usually leave only the rats and cockroaches surviving. The tigers and other high specimens of evolved beauty tend to vanish.
We would certainly not be better off if only few survived. By definition that would be worse off. If there is any “we” at all.
This kind of “worse is better” thinking is often projected by people who think things are worse off now already than they are. Things are not quite so bad that we should wish for the apocalypse.
Apocalypse is the end. Im advocating for a do-over. 😉