Should the U.S. allocate more money to eliminating the national debt?
490940
Ok so 1. Our debt is actually mostly to ourselves not other countries although some foreign investors hold U.S. government bonds and such.\n\n2. Bill Clinton did NOT erase the national debt. That is an impossible task for 1 President to do considering the debt is now something like 8 trillion dollars...I'm not sure of teh exact number. What Clinton did was erase the national deficit for a couple of years. A deficit is the debt for 1 year...the national debt is the accumulation of that. \n\nNow that that's clear...yes more money should be going to pay the national debt. But really, first, we need a balanced budget so that we can stop increasing the debt. And then whatever surplus there is should go towards paying off the national debt instead of tax cuts. not that I'm against tax cuts or anything.
716832
No. \n1) the deficit is nowhere near $50 billion/month.\n2) The deficit is going down do to a growing economy.\ntherefore\n3) Tax increases are not only unnecessary but would be counterproductive.
327156
And your not, just another mentally deficient, me, type repuglican. Do not worry about tomorrow, never mind that the kids and grand kids will have to pay this debt, and more importantly the interest. Do you realize that the interest on a 3 trillion dollar debt is enough to fund health care for each individual in the country, oh that's right you have health care and it don't matter to you. I bet I am closer to "right" then you are.
268432
I have to disagree with the guy above, about the 3 Trillion it is 8 Trillion and President Clinton balanced the budget in the late 90's with reserves. This debt has come from this administration solely, and they don't care. Why would a millionaire care about $2.50- $5.00 at the pump when they are making more money off of the stock options? The answer is #C and #D and the lenders are part of the problem for America they are the lobbyists that elected this administration.
345037
i assume you mean the U.S. deficit...just keep printing more money and it will be ok.....lol
675509
Congress allocates where the money goes.
1067160
Given the situation, there's a high chance that America could fall into an economic depression. Looking at it now, it seems almost impossible to pay off the debt. I believe that America will collapse if it suffers from severe depression and attacked from numerous outside forces. But then again, America's suffered two depressions and it managed to survive, so we'll see.
950503
In the entire history of USA till now,there is no instance of the national policy  tuned to the needs of the world. rank selfishness and constant opportunism, in the guise of opportunities has been the sole guiding principle. if no opportunity exists for USA,they will perpetrate destruction of other nations and in the name of re-construction,create opportunity for themselves. If u don't want to repay debt u are a defaulter and may be declared insolvent.But when USA does not want to repay its liabilities to others,a new principle of accountancy has been invented in the form of freezing of assets. However there are millions of right thinking individuals in USA, who contribute their mite individually and collectively for the benefit of mankind especially in times ofnatural calamities. Perhaps the unbridled free market economy and uncontrolled profit motive,with a citizenry more interested in spending rather than saving,as if there is no tomorrow in crass consumerism are responsible for the malady.
503097
Both. It takes money out of our economy, and tries to 'reform' other countries instead of largely leaving them to their own devices, breeds passivity in those countries on solving problems and dependency. Our country's 8, going on 9 trillion in the hole, and if you do the math, you find that the damage that debt can do is only going to accelerate. Even if the interest on 9 trillion drops from 4% to 1%, 1% of a trillion dollars is still a truckload of money. Several truckloads, actually. As Congress stupidly signs anything put in front of em(old folks will sign ANYTHING), and the debt spins up to 13, 14, 20 trillion dollars in unpayable red ink, you're going to see the beginning of The End for this country. The shift is already on to invest in euros instead of dollars. The european countries have the debt stuff WRITTEN INTO THEIR CONSTITUTION. Maybe it's time for america to have such and amendment. Hey, Congress, sign this! LOLOL
327732
the debt is at it's highest in NUMBERS, but not in RATIO TO THE GNP. the highest debt america incountered in money over gnp is the jfk/johnson era. talk about cut programs.
149872
Good answer ybhviper... very astute analysis\n\nI might add there are ways that COULD help.... some conventional, some unconventional...\n\nThere has been some weird talk of a national Lottery... with procedes going directly to debt relief... but then Gambling would have to be embraced by the Fed.... dunno how likely that will be\n\nTax on something other than income, where people readily spend and would not stop spending because of an additional 5% or so tax.... but that makes for a popularity nightmare\n\nCalling on those that do owe us money... or even asking those we have assisted in other ways to wipe out portions of debt we owe them (Japan, China, etc), in exchange for favorable decisions in their favor (Trade wise, treay wise etc)... \n\nBut in all reality, we will never be free of federal debt... the debt helps the economy roll to an extent.... I could see severe effort towards debt reduction.. but I don't know how the Dems and Reps can work together on that, when they are on each others heels about even the smallest things, like stink on a monkey... riders, pork barrel add ons, government as charity relief, government handouts, etc need to be seriously eliminated to bare minimums... I just doubt that with any politician, we will see it
697294
Most countries are in debt, The debt we have is because of giving away more than we can afford.  Why do politicians give countries like Russia 998 million dollars when they have more in reserve than we do?? It should be simple to keep from spending more than you have. The question is how to control those who think it is no big thing to go deeper into debt. The service cost of debt is slowly becoming more than we can handle. Stiff actions are needed to cut the debt.  One of the easier methods is to cut foreign aid and decrease our importation of oil. The government should force rationing of Gasoline and limit waste. Although not popular it could help our debt management.
885358
No. Whereas the wealthy keep the country going with their exobitant taxes they also increase the costs for everyone else to live. How can anyone justify having so much money when fellow human beings are starving?
596311
The original income tax system established by the New Deal was necessary to provide federal support to thousands of Americans during the Great Depression.  At the time of its institution, it greatly assisted in spurring the American economy out of the desperate times.\nThe prior 126 years of American history details a financial different picture than today's America.  For one, the country was a lot smaller with few people.  The great immigration boom did not occur into the earlier part of the 20th century.  Governmental obligations were not as substantial as today's responsibility, and this is not just social programs.  We could not raise enough money through tariffs, excise taxes, and property taxes, to overcome our current debt obligations.  Furthermore, if this was the only form of tax, it would place a substantial burden on the middle class and imports.  Considering our current export/import ratio, foreign importeres would simply have to cease distribution to stall the American economy.\nI do however feel the system created by the New Deal has been bastardized into the current system, which is excessively in equal towards corporations and wealth Americans vs. middle/low income Americans.  I believe the system could be streamlined at both the federal, state and local levels.  Currently, although we do not pay high income tax (countries in Europe fair a lot worse) we pay additional taxes and government surcharges every day.  Ex. total taxes and fees on your personal cellphone bill average approximately 24% - 28% over your usage charge.\nNow, as to find ways to cut spending....yes, there are definitely areas in our budget to cut spending? will this get done?...only by the perservenence of the American people and the general understanding of what are taxes are paying for.  The "pet projects" or massive government failures (thing Boston Big Dig) continually drain our economic resource, and when our governmental debt is so strangulating that we have to keep increasing our cap, we will never be able to recede our government spending to levels able to sustain our American People.\nSome of the solutions presented: flat tax, purchase tax, etc, all sound equitable but each do have their own loop hole.\nPersonally, I would like to have a flat tax.  I would like to at the beginning of each year write a check for a fixed amount of money to the government for a percentage of my forecasted earnings for the upcoming year and not have anything come out of my check for the rest of the year.  But with this money that comes out, I would like programs which make sense - good education, good healthcare, good social security.  Our children should not have to suffer, our elder should not want for anything and every American should be able to get quality healthcare/preventative maintenance to sustain life.
676502
To some extent this is true...but not always.  The amount of capital possed by the government can be raised two ways: 1) Taxes 2) Borrowing.  We been doing a lot of the latter.\n\nThe cited article states how exactly lowering the tax rate does not much good for the current U.S. (except help elections in many cases)\n\nThink about a simple numerical example: Assume you've got a $10 trillion economy and an average tax rate of 30 percent. So the government takes $3 trillion.\n\n\nLet's cut the average tax rate to 25 percent and, for the sake of example, assume that it generates $1 trillion in new economic growth (a Herculean assumption, by the way). So now, what does Uncle Sam get? One quarter of $11 trillion is only $2.75 trillion. The economy grows, government revenues shrink.\n\n\nThat's basically what happened with the large Reagan and George W. Bush tax cuts, both of which were followed by large budget deficits. Yes, spending has a lot to do with that, but the bottom line is unequivocal: In both cases, government revenue was lower than it would have been without the tax cuts.\n\n\nhttp://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/economist/4065
542217
we havent seen a surplus since 1830s. the 'surplus' during clinton was a hoax. he bailed out mexico by having greenspan print up $3.8 billion bounced it off the roof of the treasury into chase manhatten. then bush bought us all off with it at the beginning of his 1st term. right ow the debt is $8,363,454,225,996.54 The estimated population of the United States is 298,676,548 so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,001.71. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.95 billion per day since September 30, 2005! Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House! http://www.eff.org/congress/
206880
No, but it is true that the USA produces most of the world's wealth so I think we're entitled to use as much of the world's resources as we want.