Hey, What About the Debt?

From the Publisher: Dennis Sun

Our general election is almost here, and the rhetoric is growing by the minute. Politicians are promising everything under the sun to buy more votes, but no one is saying anything about the national debt.

At times in past general elections, the debt has been one of the major topics, along with new taxes. 

We remember George H.W. Bush running for a second term after he promised “no new taxes” during his first term as president. For some reason – whether it was the debt or not – he did raise taxes, and he lost the election to Bill Clinton. Everyone took taxes and spending very seriously.

These days, it seems the government simply prints more money and the debt keeps rising, but nobody wants to talk about it. There is discussion we shouldn’t worry about a high national debt, but experts say there are some common misconceptions about what the growing debt means.

Our national debt has now grown over $35 trillion, a huge figure that has never been reached before. Thanks to frenzied speåçånding after the pandemic and costly programs initiated by the president and Congress, the debt load could easily top $50 trillion in 10 years. 

The U.S. needs to pay interest on the debt and the principal on maturing government bonds. Higher interest rates will not help. Some economists say debt servicing costs could rise dramatically in coming years where U.S. interest payments on the debt could go over $13 trillion over the course of the next 10 years. 

I’m concerned with the economics of our country. I think we are spending way too much money to pay for student loans, programs we don’t need, immigrant issues and expensive programs to entice voters.

The indicators economists use to measure how the country’s economy is doing is the Gross Domestic Product. This comprehensive measure of U.S. economic activity calculates the value of the final goods produced in the U.S. without double counting the intermediate goods and services used to produce them. It comes out every three months. 

Congress will try again to pass a spending bill and all of the add-ons that go with it. Another item they have to decide on is to raise or adjust the debt ceiling. Raising the debt ceiling will give Congress more money to spend.

With a really close majority, no action may bring on a government shutdown, then at the last minute they could kick the can down the road and vote on a continuing resolution where the dollars would stay the same over a length of time. 

Since 1960, Congress has increased the ceiling 78 times, most recently in 2021. I cannot find evidence of where the ceiling has ever been lowered.

Congress can also choose to suspend the debt ceiling or temporarily allow the U.S. Treasury to supersede the debt limit, rather than raise it by a specific amount. This move was rare during the first 90 years of the ceiling’s existence. 

Congress has suspended the debt limit eight times since 2013, most recently in June 2023.

So here we are getting ready to vote, and we really have had no discussion over the national debt or saving dollars.