Federal debt explodes by $1 trillion in five weeks since deal suspending limit became law

So I hope to NEVER hear again from the Dem/Left/Progs complaints about Republicans and deficits and debt. The last surpluses we had we due to Republican budgets and a Dem President forced to sign them. The next closest we got was a Rep President and Rep Congress not getting there ONLY because the Dems took back the Congress and took a measly $161B deficit to $1,400B in just two years and kept it over $1,000B for the next three.

This last fight just five weeks ago was once again the Reps fighting for some fiscal restraint and responsibilty while the Dems fought tooth and nail for more unlimited spending and deficits and debt.

And here we are

Federal debt explodes by $1 trillion in five weeks since deal suspending limit became law

Total national debt now sits at $32.47 trillion and counting

The U.S. national debt has increased by $1 trillion in the five weeks since President Biden signed a bill into law that effectively turns off the debt ceiling until 2025.


According to Treasury Department data, the total national debt stood at $32.47 trillion on July 6, $1 trillion more than the $31.47 trillion level last seen on June 2. The national debt had been stuck at or near that June 2 level for months because the government had hit the debt ceiling and was legally prohibited from borrowing any more money.....

.....The national debt has increased $4.7 trillion since Biden took office in January 2021, and is expected to keep rising in the face of annual budget shortfalls of at least $1 trillion per year. So far in fiscal year 2023, the government has spent $1.16 trillion more than it has collected and the Biden administration is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit when the fiscal year ends in September.

Biden has continued to boast that he has shrunk the budget deficit.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-debt-explodes-higher-biden-signs-debt-ceiling-deal

And I fully expect those Dem/Left/Prog posters to immediately go to their mainstay canard but TRUMP trying to mitigate the Dems HUGE unnecessary spending increases with the emergency COVID spending. And it will be address just as that.............a total canard.

 

How much did Trump and the GOP lower the debt when they controlled all 3 chambers?

 

BOTH parties spend money like crazy drunk sailors. To claim anything else is a lie.

 

Dems do not know how to lead.

 

Yeah . . . if you can't see how Republicans majorly contributed to this, you have a lot of soul searching to do.

These days it seems like Dems are all about tax and spend and the GOP is all about "Let's spend even more, but also let's cut taxes so we can go into even BIGGER debt."

 

Over 50% of the budget is entitlements that are political suicide to cut. Yet that’s the obvious place to reform and Democrats oppose it. So sure, both parties spend like crazy, but only one party is against virtually any cutting whatsoever except to key government responsibilities like the comparatively small 16% on defense.

Which leaves Republicans what choice exactly? Cut entitlements and get destroyed or cut important functions of government? That’s not a choice.

Until the American people get a grip on reality and stop voting for Entitlement worshipping Democrats and get behind reforming entitlement spending nothings going to change in spending until something goes bust.

 

Great. Switch to medicare4all. Oh wait, it's the Republicans opposing that.

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-...2-studies-agree-medicare-for-all-saves-money/

 

Please don’t expect an answer from @Bluesguy , unless you want a litany of false statements . Republicans only know how to borrow and spend. Time after time they lower taxes on the wealthy (spending tax revenue) and try and explain how this will “stimulate” the economy. Voodoo, trickle down, supply side economics, to use the important sounding buzz words that announce more screwging of the middle class to fund the wealthy. And they just borrow more , kicking the van down the road.

Sadly predictably.

 

Cut defense spending
Revamp Social Security/Medicare programs to reduce costs
Reduce discretionary spending
Increase taxes

Let me know when either party is actually serious about reducing the debt and not just scoring political points with their base

 

Sadly , the first job of any politician these days is to get re-elected, as they see it.

I’m going to go for the “scoring political points” choice.

 

The two biggest increases in the National Debt?

Ronald Reagan = 179% increase.

Bush II = 101% increase in the debt.


Lowest in the last 50 years?

Bill Clinton = 39% increase.

Just say'n...

 

How does more spending result in reduced spending exactly? The mental gymnastics these leftists had to go through must be impressive.

 

My understanding is that the Federal Reserve is mostly a Republican-controlled apparatus. How do we know that they aren't playing games to shine Democrats in a bad light?

Anyway, even if that weren't true, there's still the little tidbit that there was a backlog of bills to pay ever since the Treasury Department was required to enact "extraordinary" measures to keep the government open. All that debt didn't go away, it just all came due at once once the debt ceiling was lifted. That's why we're $1 trillion in debt five weeks after the debt ceiling was lifted. Extraordinary measures don't mean free operations of the government. I hope Republicans remember that next time they even think about playing games with the debt ceiling again.

The correct avenue to deal with the national debt is a balanced budget. And the Republicans hold the House, and it's their turn to draft a budget, so where's their action plan? I heard that McCarthy would go over the budget line-by-line with a fine-toothed comb to cut out the waste, but I haven't heard anything about it recently.

 

dems are tax and spend, republicans are tax cuts for the rich and spend

Trump raised the debt more than any President had in four years ever, gave a mega tax cut to the Corporations

 

raise the Social Security cap on the rich, Social Security problem solved

the problem right now is boomers, that is only a temporary problem, that will pass with time

we should have raised the cap 10 years ago to prepare for the boomers retiring

 

Oh, now I remember! The Treasury issued a record number of 4-week debt instruments (Treasury Bills) at a 5% interest rate, and it must have come due now, five weeks after the debt ceiling was raised. This is but a sample of how much we must pay for interest on the debt.

How are you enjoying this new high-interest-rate period we find ourselves in?

 

Still trying to wrap my head around the phrase "republican surpluses".

You realize that never happened, right?

Anywho, once you address that we will talk about the rest of that nonsense.

 

Social Security was created and is on 100% solid actuarial information. Of course, when the population lives longer , the retirement age increases. Of course, the contribution limit gets raised.

It’s a myth, primarily circulated by Republicans, that the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted soon. Because the cash contributions for SS are deposited in the general budget and an IOU is issued to the SS fund, the fund is dependent on the federal government paying its debts. That’s why every time there is a threatened government shutdown , SS payments get mentioned.

No government could survive defaulting on SS benefits.

 

According to this site:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD

It appears there were surpluses in late 90’s into early 2000’s.

From about 1998-2001. Congress was as follows:
1998- Congress GOP
Senate GOP
1999- Congress GOP
Senate GOP
2000- Congress GOP
Senate GOP
2001- Congress GOP
Senate DNC

GOP would have passed the budget for 2001.

In 1997 it was GOP passing the 1998 budget.

 

Wow, that long ago ?

 

Corporations do not pay taxes. They just collect them... From their customers, which is us. So, corporate 'taxes' are really individual taxes that are hidden and embedded in the price of the products and services we purchase.

As far as the bigger picture goes, first start by eliminating every "Department" that is not explicitly authorized in the Constitution, which is almost all of 'em. DOE, gone, other DOE, gone, too, ATF, buh-bye, and so forth. Then we implement workfare in lieu of welfare, where employers can go to the government to find no/low skill workers to do whatever... pick crops, flip burgers, you name it. When a teat sucker goes to collect their free money, they are told they must take the job, for their benefits are ending whether they do or do not. If they choose to starve, so be it.

No doubt there is some fat in the military budget, but with Russia, China, N. Korea, and all the 'stan countries out there chomping at the bit to kill us and destroy our country, that has to be surgical and targeted soas to not reduce our defensive capabilities to any measurable extent, then go back to, oh, pick a year, let's say 1990. Take that budget (or, pick an alternative year), index it for inflation and population gain, and that's next year's budget. No exceptions, no exemptions. It was good enough then, it should be more than good enough now.

 

And do you remember what the Republican president said about surpluses in 2001?

 

Seriously, they pretend COVID pandemic lasted 4 years but ignore the debt before that under Trump.

 

Exactly. To tax the rich who suck the money out of corporations, you have to tax capital gains like we do income from hard labor, since most of them take payment in stock options. Of course corrupt republicans tried to reduce capital gains. Trump prevented it.

 

Defense makes up almost half of the discretionary budget and INCREASED after Biden pulled us out of the $2 TRILLION dollar war (note that this line item doesn’t include the VA and it doesn’t include soldier pensions — those are added in to non-discretionary items inflating those line items.

The largest discretionary item is social security, cutting it will result in skyrocketing poverty among the elderly. The program needs reform but just moving the age requirement up while life expectancy is falling just makes this another tax and not a safety net.

The next two are Medicaid and Medicare which is approximately 70% to 85% children, elderly or blind / disabled — sure likely some fraud but that cuts the percentage down substantially that you can cut without impacting at risk groups.

Next is Function 600 (Income Security) which includes general retirement and disability insurance (a taxed item, if you cut this we lose the income as well); federal employee retirement and disability (including military retirement); unemployment compensation (taxed item); housing assistance and nutrition assistance (mostly children or pregnant women)

After that we have half a trillion going to student loan programs which are supposed to be repaid but largely go to colleges that are gouging our students with increases never seen before and far outpacing inflation (also includes education for the military)



Which one of the major brackets should we cut? And while we are at it should we also be giving billionaires another tax break?