An economic specter haunts America. It’s also one that many American politicians – Republican and Democrat – say a great deal about but are reluctant to address.
The name of that shadow is the United States National Debt: what the US Treasury Department defines as “the amount of money the Federal Government has borrowed to cover the outstanding balance of expenses incurred over time.”
If you go to the Treasury’s website, you can see just how big that debt is. In mid-May, it was 34.5 trillion dollars. The pace of the growth in that debt is equally stunning. Approximately 1 trillion dollars is being added to America’s National Debt every 100 days.
The truth is that the rapid growth in America’s National Debt is driven by two factors. The first is spending on major entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and what is called Income Security (for example, unemployment benefits).
Taken together, these programs constituted 68 per cent of Federal Government spending in 2023. As the pace of boomers retiring from the workforce accelerates, that figure will grow.
The second factor at work is that US government tax revenues aren’t covering government spending. In 2023, the federal government collected almost 4.5 trillion in revenue, but spent 6.16 trillion. That trend has been in place for some time. Since 2000, successive presidents and Congresses have papered over this revenue-expenditure gap by expanding the National Debt.
Seems we are already out considering the debt of 13/14 trillion? How high does it have to go before the crash?
I thought social security was funded separately - you know through paycheck deductions. I know it is 'running out' but I am unaware we use regular taxes to fund it.
The US Treasury actually takes the excess funds and uses it to spend.
In it's place, there are IOU's, not even treasuries.
Yeah, the deficit would be even worse without that.
@ZealousTaylorGreen2wks2W
That is a bunch of crap. Social Security and Medicare come from the Social Security Trust fund and DO NOT affect any of the Federal deficit. People need to stop trying to pass this crap onto others.
@WorldlyPacifistMountain2wks2W
how many trillion in debt? I would say it's been on a spending spree for too many years. our seniors are living below poverty because the so-called leaders have stolen so much money out of social security. we send trillions overseas. we tax the crap out of the working class, so they have to work two jobs to survive.
our military men and women are abandoned by the very people that they protect. so sad
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
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