Will the 8.8 trillion dollar national debt bankrupt America? Do the Republicans even care?

Question

The estimated population of the United States is 301,662,005
so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,321.22.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.67 billion per day since September 29, 2006!

The Bush regime has increased the national debt by almost 2 trillion dollars, and it continues to rise. The Bush regime is responsible for more debt, than any other President in the history of Earth.

http://brillig.com/debt_clock/

Answer 1

Be fair, you have to look at it in terms of GDP.

Bush is no worse than many other presidents, considering the national debt is at the historical average per GDP.

I'm not saying that its not a problem, just that you really shouldn't associate blame with one person.

Edit: LMFAO! Idiots are out in force. Thumbs down for disclosing an indisputable FACT.

Answer 2

Considering how tied together everything is, the countries that we owe money do will do everything they can to prevent it, short of causing a collapse in their own countries.

Your average work a day citizen, be they republican or democrat, doesn't have a clue as to what is going on with the country financially, which is just the way most of the elite want it.

The big boys are not too worried about a collapse, they are international corps and will just move to where the grass is green and wait it out. Anyone who remembers or has read about the Great Depression will know that the top 1% were inconvenienced while the rest of the country was traumatized.

So I think you will find that both the Republican AND Democrats at the top really don't care that much.

Answer 3

Republicans may not have but conservatives did! If you want to know why conservatives didn't abandon the Republicans because of it.... be patient you are seeing the alternative in action now and while complain about Bush's 4 trillion deficit in 8 years.. you are about to see Obama equal that in his first year alone! 800 billion here at least 2 trillion for tarp2 and then national health care is coming for at least a trillion a year.! As Obama said this is just the beginning

Answer 4

Yeah and the per employee debt of Anheuser Busch corporation dwarfs that.

8.8 trillion is too much. 4-5 trillion, even 6 trillion wouldn't be. 6-7 trillion we could live with. The effect of the 8.8 trillion has been about 25 bps on the ten year bond.

The problem is that the debt keeps rising - it will be 10-11 TN if we keep this up.

It's pathetic - revenue has been skyrocketing and when that happens you're supposed to pay the debt down - and Bush hasn't been doing that. The Democrats haven't exhibited any contrary tendencies on the spending side though, only on the tax side, and there to the negative.

We have one party that wants to keep tax rates where they are but keep raising spending.

We have another that wants to raise tax rates and keep raising spending.

What we NEED is a party that will keep tax rates where they are and freeze spending.

Answer 5

The 3 options that all the political leaders seem to me to have are these:

1. Raise Taxes (But that won't help their re-election campaign)
2. Cut Programs (But that also won't make them very popular)
OR
3. Just Print more money. (which causes each dollar to be worth less...."inflation")(but the people won't necessarily blame them personally)

Historically, from what I understand...#3 usually happens. It just seems like the logical path that financially undisciplined people will take. I read about Germany and how it happened there...it becomes "fiat money" ...

"All paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value."

I hope that it gets addressed and fixed, but as far as the motivation factor goes...WHO really does care? does ANYONE care enough that it will be fixed?

I think the people who really SHOULD start caring...are the people who have money saved...because if the current trend was to continue or accelerate...that savings becomes worth less (in real value)....on the other hand if a person is in debt already or has no savings it wouldn't affect them as much.

Another question I have is:"Is it by design and according to a plan to try to bankrupt America? (if so by whom?) or is it actually just bad financial management?"

Answer 6

Do Democrats? If either side cared, they would do something about Social Security, welfare and all the other social programs. The Number one responsibility of our government is to protect our freedoms and our borders. They are not doing a good job on either because they are too concerned about buying their next re-election by offering more social programs.
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Since so many of you like talking about tax cuts, think about this...
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair
share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they
might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Answer 7

I would like to remind you that it was James Traficant Democrat from Ohio who stated before a session in the House (Congress) that our country was in bankruptcy; better known as Chapter 11. This was in 1993 and can be found in the Congressional Record! No wonder he's in jail. As to the definition of money, it is nothing but the movement of electrons on a screen.
To get caught up in the dialectic of our nation's debt, whether that be a Republican vs Democrat doesn't allow us to see the forest from the trees.

Answer 8

The U.S. is already bankrupt.

Yes, the Republicans care; that is why they are so gung-ho about the war in Iraq. Iraq has few trillion barrels worth of proven oil reserve. Multiply that by at a minimum of $70 per barrel average. 30% of that is for US oil companies. (Read about Iraq's law before someone blasts me on this).

The democrats are chickens - they do not want, or pretend not to want this Iraqi resources to be transferred to the US.

To give credit that the Republicans really want to take care oft the national debt, they are also eyeing the oil resources of IraN.

Answer 9

Unbelievable. After 11 answers, there was not one Republican that was concerned with our huge national debt. They say things like, "compare it to the GDP", or "to who is it owed", or "so big deal, cut taxes and we will stim. the econ"... any wonder why we are in the shape we are in? I think there is a possibility that they are running up the debt on purpose. They are aware that Democrats are more responsible and that they will have to increase taxes to pay for the debt that the Republicans ran up. Once this happens, they will use that as propaganda for years to come.

Answer 10

It's easy to climb out of debt. Simply cut taxes. It stimulates the economy and all the economic activity generates huge windfall in federal revenues. Stop listening to liberal propagandists.