Is our soaring national debt something we should really be concerned about?

Question

At the rate it's rising, how long will it take to pay it off. Should we be concerned or is it something only the liberals are concerned about?

How do we eliminate it (each of us have our own definition of waste and corruption), so what would you specifically do to eliminate the national debt.

Answer 1

Yes, our soaring national debt should be of great concern to all of us.

If you go to the FAQ section of the United States Treasury, you will find that the Federal Reserve Notes that are printed up are good for nothing but for what they can buy in the economy.

Look at it this way........we pay taxes and all they do is shread that money up and print more.

The Federal Reserve is a privately owned corporation (owned pretty much by England) and they are making the rules.

The whole goal is to bankrupt the nation so that we become enslaved to England.

If this sounds farfetched, wait, it's right around the corner from happening.

We are on the same kind of currency that Germany was before Hitler rose to power. Our money is just paper that is backed by nothing.

Just think, they more money you make (that is the more Federal Reserve Notes you own) the more our country goes into debt.

After all, a Federal Reserve Note is nothing more than a promissory note. And we pay taxes on promissory notes, not true income.

Answer 2

Our national debt is actually falling, and falling at a faster rate than predicted. And as long as our economy and GDP continue to grow at steady rates, there's no need for undue concern.

I love this answer. First off it is apparent that this person knows nothing of our fiscal policy over the past five years, or how we added more to the national debt in the Bush White House then any president in the history of this country.
To answer your question, if you were a bank and noticed that a business barely met the interest rate of the debt it consumed, yet took on more debt anyway, how long do you think that company will last?

Answer 3

Generally speaking, yes. However, it's much more useful to focus on how much it is as a percentage of GDP than it is to follow the common path and just look at the number itself.

Looking at the national debt as a percentage of GDP is exactly the same as looking at your personal debt as a percentage of your annual income. In American it is not uncommon for people to successfully manage a debt load that is many times their annual income. When a household's debt load is that high most of it is mortgage debt, of course.

It's my belief that our current national debt is very manageable and that reducing it is still a very good idea. This belief is widely accepted among economists, academics, and those in government.

Conservatives are and always will be much more concerned about the national debt than liberals will be. Liberals put social welfare programs ahead of fiscal concerns and that's just a fact of life no matter what any politician might be saying at the moment. Considering the constituencies that the liberals rely upon for financing their campaigns, if they didn't put social welfare programs ahead of fiscal concerns the liberals would be out of business!

To eliminate the national debt would mean paying it down over time while budgeting in a way that sees to it that income outpaces spending. Just like you do at home.

Unfortunately, with the coming retirement of tens of millions of Baby Boomers expecting their Social Security and Medicare, the Medicaid blow-up that is not too far off, and the necessity of replacing a good deal of our nation's 50-to-100 year-old infrastructure, I don't see the national debt going down. We will be able to consider it a success if the national debt remains manageable.

If that debt doesn't remain manageable then I fear that the consequences in this country will dwarf anything that Al Gore is talking about.

Answer 4

Of course we need to be concerned about it. We also need to realize that all money in the hands of citizens and not in the tresury banks is counted as national debt. If I had a choice to do something about it, I would pull troops out and minimize spending more than we can afford now, and entact a temporary tax(1cent/1USD) applied to items that are not food to be put into a account and used to eliminate the tax. I would inform everyone, but am concerned that congress may use the "slippery shoe" therom and try to keep the tax after the debt is abolished, but with enough fighting they won't be able to.

Answer 5

I'm not really to worried about it even if the numbers are the actual numbers. We aren't really hurting in the sense where we are going without. What is really hurting the economy isn't the national debt it is the lack of personal responibilty. We settle for the high prices for vehicles and houses, we don't use cash anymore, we max our credit in all areas out but it doesn't stop us. We buy and buy and buy knowing we can't afford it and then when we have to pay the price we can't and go under leaving not only ourselves in debt but those that we took from.

Answer 6

I am a simple man and do not understand the principles of economics.
I don't understand how we can be borrowing money to finance a war and not raise but lower taxes.
I don't understand how people can be talking about the GNP being up but we are the biggest consumers on the planet Earth and import more than we produce.
I don't understand how it can be cheaper to gather materials for a product and ship it overseas to be assembled and ship back than it is to assemble it here.And,how can that be good for the working class consumer?I mean it would seem as if eventually the working class will have lost so many jobs that we would not be able to afford the assembled products being sent back from over seas.
Is that that 'VoodooEcomomics'I've feared for so long?

Answer 7

Not until the Republicans lose the White House. Yes it is a problem. The government is competing with corporate debt, as they borrow heavily with Treasury paper. The "risk free" government paper attracts money away from private paper and raises the cost for business borrowers. The number 1 problem is the current debt will explode when enough baby boomers retire and start drawing SS checks. The Treasury will have to borrow to pay social security benefits.

Answer 8

"Or is something only the liberals are concerned about?" LOL you're joking right? Libs want to increase government expenditure past tax revenue through social programs while neo-cons want to increase expenditure with our military spending.

We will have to start worrying more and more about the debt as foreign nations start to lose faith in the dollar... which has been steadily declining in value.

Answer 9

I think the economy in general is more important than the national debt, which really doesn't have a tremendous impact on our economy, other than limiting the availability of funds in the federal budget for other pets.

The truth is, if you want to cut spending, you cut social spending, because that debt is larger than our interest payments on the national debt.

Answer 10

Our national debt is actually falling, and falling at a faster rate than predicted. And as long as our economy and GDP continue to grow at steady rates, there's no need for undue concern.