U.S. Debt Hits $40 Trillion

OG Goat Holder

Heisman
Sep 30, 2022
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One of the biggest issues is people living longer. Social Security and healthcare are destroying our budget, Around 48 to 53 percent goes to those two. Our healthcare system is one of the worse among high income nations. We basically spend the most to get the worse.
Morbid, but that likely takes care of itself over the next 10 years.

Boomers buying out will likely hurt the real estate market but it'll be a big drain off of services.
 
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Podgy

All-Conference
Oct 1, 2022
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Interest payments on the debt exceed our defense budget. We'll have to borrow $2 trillion this year just to pay interest on the debt. Maybe our political leaders should call in to the Dave Ramsey show and get some advice.
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
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SocialSince the 1990s, Bill Clinton had the best economy and raising taxes did squat to stop its growth. The debt and deficits were also declining under Clinton.

Pretty sure the debt hasn’t declined at all in any year for a very long time, but it was growing pretty slowly in Clinton’s 2nd term.
 

Villagedawg

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Nov 16, 2005
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One of the biggest issues is people living longer. Social Security and healthcare are destroying our budget, Around 48 to 53 percent goes to those two. Our healthcare system is one of the worse among high income nations. We basically spend the most to get the worse.
Social Security doesn't add to it. Social Security is self funded. Social Security has a trust fund that is held in treasury bills that have been issued by the government to finance its deficit spending.

In 2001, we were poised to have the debt eliminated by 2009. Then every Congress and president since then were unable to resist having money and not promising everyone the moon, so through bipartisan efforts at increasing spending, responding to recession, and cutting taxes, here we are 25 years later $40 trillion in the hole.

As an aside, the Social Security shortfall that is upcoming, is a different issue entirely.
 

mike tice

Senior
Sep 30, 2022
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One is worse than the other. But there are just too many democrats for it to matter. The future is a shade of blue and people better get comfortable with that
There is no side there is one entity controlling the whole thing. I’m sorry if you feel different .your algorithms make you believe what they want you to believe.
 

Villagedawg

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Social security and Medicare are around 36% of the federal budget.
Social Security is funded entirely through FICA tax. To speak of it as if it's part of the budget Congress passes each year misrepresents it. SS operates for the most part on the 1983 Social Security Act amendment which was the last time major changes were made to it. They pretty much changed it to have baby boomer pre financing their retirement. They didn't quite collect enough, and that gets us to the current projected shortfall.
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
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Social Security doesn't add to it. Social Security is self funded. Social Security has a trust fund that is held in treasury bills that have been issued by the government to finance its deficit spending.

In 2001, we were poised to have the debt eliminated by 2009. Then every Congress and president since then were unable to resist having money and not promising everyone the moon, so through bipartisan efforts at increasing spending, responding to recession, and cutting taxes, here we are 25 years later $40 trillion in the hole.

As an aside, the Social Security shortfall that is upcoming, is a different issue entirely.

I don’t have the energy or inclination to lay out all the wrongness in this post, but I feel certain someone here who does is (or will soon be) frantically tapping a keyboard.
 

Podgy

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They ALL do and have for decades. This is nothing new.
Some do more than others and that's a key distinction. I drink beer once in a while. Some have several beers daily. We're not the same because we drink beer. President 45 is going to be responsible for $25% of our national debt. 1-44 can't claim that.
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
14,783
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President 45 is going to be responsible for $25% of our national debt. 1-44 can't claim that.

Not defending Trump, but you kinda have to judge based on the growth in debt at the time in office. Both Bush2 and Obama were in the neighborhood of overseeing doubling the national debt under their watch.

In other words, they all 17’n suck.
 
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She Mate Me

Heisman
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Fun fact: During the later years of the Clinton Presidency, the economy was really humming and the deficit was getting slashed to the point that people were starting to wonder what it was going to do to the bond market.

And the greatest market bubble in history (not counting this one) was expanding rapidly and about to explode all over our collective faces.
 

mstateglfr

All-American
Feb 24, 2008
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I don’t have the energy or inclination to lay out all the wrongness in this post, but I feel certain someone here who does is (or will soon be) frantically tapping a keyboard.
I dont know if the other poster's comments are all correct, partially correct, or basically totally wrong. Just gonna say that your response here is quite fair and and well worded.
 

dorndawg

Heisman
Sep 10, 2012
9,230
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And the greatest market bubble in history (not counting this one) was expanding rapidly and about to explode all over our collective faces.
You're not wrong but also the numbers show Clinton drastically reduced the deficit and slightly reduced the debt. Isn't that what we want more of?
 

ckDOG

All-American
Dec 11, 2007
10,306
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We've really seen some interesting changes. Trump claims the dictator of North Korea, an actual Stalinist, is a better friend of the U.S. than the democratically-elected leader of South Korea. Our government also has equity stakes in 31 private companies. These aren't typically things a Republican would do. Meanwhile the debt keeps getting bigger and bigger.

"The milestone comes five months after crossing $39 trillion, with the CBO projecting $63 trillion by 2036"
He's a very special boy who can't be questioned lest you want a primary challenge or be labeled with TDS.
 

HailStout

Heisman
Jan 4, 2020
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There really is no defense for this. You can’t run on a platform of cutting government spending and waste and have this happen. There is literally no argument that justifies this. And saying “the guys before him did it too” sure as hell doesn’t cut it.

the problem is that we as the American people just root for politicians like they are sports teams now. We keep supporting our side despite the fact that whatever side you choose has been as impressive as Mississippi state football has recently.
 
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Darryl Steight

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Sep 30, 2022
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The people running on balancing the budget are getting killed in elections.
This is why I wish the Republicans would learn from the Socialists... they have it figured out. You say whatever you have to say to get elected, then you can do whatever you really wanted once you're in power.

You have to lie to get elected these days, so maybe they should try that.
 

She Mate Me

Heisman
Dec 7, 2008
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Trump kinda sucks in a ton of ways, but that graph is flawed as hell. Every future president will look bad compared to previous as the number keeps growing. It’s just math.
 
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johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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Social Security doesn't add to it. Social Security is self funded. Social Security has a trust fund that is held in treasury bills that have been issued by the government to finance its deficit spending.

Social security is not self funded in the sense that it can pay what it has "promised". Right now money is automatically drawn from teh general fund to top up social security taxes and pay benefits. That is the "trust fund". It's just an accounting mechanism, not actual funding. That funding comes from general taxes to the extent the social security tax receipts don't cover benefits paid. Social security taxes pay something like 78% of benefits I think. Or maybe that's what they're projected to pay when money can no longer be drawn from teh general fund without additional appropriations.

In 2001, we were poised to have the debt eliminated by 2009. Then every Congress and president since then were unable to resist having money and not promising everyone the moon, so through bipartisan efforts at increasing spending, responding to recession, and cutting taxes, here we are 25 years later $40 trillion in the hole.

As an aside, the Social Security shortfall that is upcoming, is a different issue entirely.
It's not really a different issue. It's all about whether we are going to pay our obligations. It is different in the sense that all we have to do is not address it and it takes care of itself in the form of benefit reductions, or we could even just pass legislation dropping benefits all the way to zero and it won't have the same financial implications of defaulting on bonds (or monetizing the debt, which is more likely since we still get to borrow in dollars). But at the end of the day, voters for a couple of decades have promised that some other, future tax payers are going to pay a **** ton of money to people, and all of those people expecting to get paid are likely to get some share of the screwing along with future tax payers.
 

mstateglfr

All-American
Feb 24, 2008
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This is why I wish the Republicans would learn from the Socialists... they have it figured out. You say whatever you have to say to get elected, then you can do whatever you really wanted once you're in power.

You have to lie to get elected these days, so maybe they should try that.



That is quite literally what we are living through. You phrased your comment as if this isnt what has been happening.
There is no need to maybe try it...its happening constantly.
 

Darryl Steight

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Sep 30, 2022
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Some do more than others and that's a key distinction. I drink beer once in a while. Some have several beers daily. We're not the same because we drink beer. President 45 is going to be responsible for $25% of our national debt. 1-44 can't claim that.
That's true, but you kinda have to factor in that some of this stat is solely due to an era in time, or "progress" as some would call it. It's like saying Kevin Durant is a much better basketball player than Wilt Chamberlain because he scored more points. Some of that is just due to the eras they played in.

Do you honestly think the next President will magically stop this snowball from running down the hill and solve our debt issues? It's getting harder and harder as it picks up steam.

I'm not excusing any of it, but blaming 25% of all US historical debt on Trump is a little disingenuous too.
 

johnson86-1

All-American
Aug 22, 2012
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Trump is not good on the debt by any means, but 4 trillion of that 11.52 trillion was attributable to interest payments on the national debt.

Trump has exposed a lot of insanely rotten things in our government, but generally we have fiscally irresponsible republicans and fiscally insane democrats, and Trump is closer to the insane side than just the fiscally irresponsible side.
 
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LandArchDawg

Junior
Sep 14, 2003
2,575
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No one on either side really cares until something crashes or a core group of people are personally affected, like when Social Security begins to get cut or the qualifying age gets pushed out beyond the life expectancy of most people. Everyone is just content to "get theirs" and ride it down on the promise that they will be dead before it is a real problem and it will be someone else' problem in the future.
 

Villagedawg

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Nov 16, 2005
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Social security is not self funded in the sense that it can pay what it has "promised".
That's the projected 75 year shortfall that the 1983 amendment did not collect enough to cover.
Right now money is automatically drawn from teh general fund to top up social security taxes and pay benefits. That is the "trust fund".
Nope. Self-financed by law. The trust fund is what SS has in funds mostly treasury bills. Money from the general fund services debt that social security has financed. It's actually to opposite of what you are implying. SS is funding the general fund. Not the other way around.
It's not really a different issue. It's all about whether we are going to pay our obligations.
It's a different issue in that it isn't part of the $40 T debt other than part of that $40 T was borrowed from Social Security. Eliminating the cap without giving those payers the benefit credit would cover about 70% of the shortfall. Eliminating the cap and giving those payers credit covers about 50%. Raising the FICA tax 1% covers roughly the other 50%. All of those things are more popular than cutting benefits to cover the shortfall.
 

LandArchDawg

Junior
Sep 14, 2003
2,575
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63
Showing a chart of the national debt (for any country) is like showing a stock chart without mentioning operating profit, enterprise value, forward P/E etc... By itself it means next to nothing.
It also makes you wonder how much of that market growth and inflation is really fueled by credit cards and other debt. If inflation is the result of more dollars chasing fewer goods. What if a large percentage of those dollars are debt dollars?
 

Villagedawg

All-Conference
Nov 16, 2005
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That's true, but you kinda have to factor in that some of this stat is solely due to an era in time, or "progress" as some would call it. It's like saying Kevin Durant is a much better basketball player than Wilt Chamberlain because he scored more points. Some of that is just due to the eras they played in.

Do you honestly think the next President will magically stop this snowball from running down the hill and solve our debt issues? It's getting harder and harder as it picks up steam.

I'm not excusing any of it, but blaming 25% of all US historical debt on Trump is a little disingenuous too.
It's every president and Congress since 2001. ALL OF THEM.
 
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