US Spending and our National Debt are undoubtedly linked. In this episode of McCuistion TV we will discuss current standings and what Congress needs to do. Our guest for this episode is Russ Vought. Russ Vought is the Political Director of Heritage Action for America.
Formed by the Heritage Foundation, its purpose is to get word out to its members and Congress about the economy and state of the Union. Presently it has over 750,000 members, 1600 in every congressional district in the country. This makes them essentially an “employer” to be reckoned with in each region, and a large one at that. When they walk into a Capital Hill office, they are going to be listened to and command respect.
One of their major concerns is the national debt- now 1.6 trillion dollars in size and growing. It takes 40 cents of every dollar to fund government with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, three of the top budget areas of spending. According to Russ Vought, this will consume all spending in the next 30 years. There could be no other funds for anything else unless we double taxes.
He doesn’t advocate doing so, but if we are presently borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar from someone. We need to take Draconian measures to correct this situation. US spending is definitely a problem. If we could get 5 of GDP down to 20%, we could in fact balance the budget.
He addressed the job situation and said people who give jobs are the entrepreneurs who put it back into the economy. Taxing small business is the last thing to do in time of needed economic growth. Heritage does not feel raising taxes is the solution.
Join us as we discuss US spending, the national debt, and what congress needs to do.
As always, we’re talking about things that matter… with people who care.
Dennis McCuistion:
Wonderful considerate/courteous/respectful/understandable analysis of a complicated political/economic issue.
To my knowledge, neither the State politicians nor the Federal politicians seem to mention the unconscionable fact — as I understand it to be — that if the Feds would quit taking revenue out of the Social Security Trust Fund, quit depositing the revenue into the General Fund, and quit spending the revenue for other purposes — including their pork-barrel legislation — we wouldn’t have to worry about current or future Social Security payments. It is my understanding that the Feds replace the compromised revenue with IOUs.
Please advise. Thank you.
Virginia Carson
In a properly run economy, the U.S. would have paid down its debts during good times, rather than create debts in order create good times at someone else’s expense. THEN, when bad times came, the U.S. (or any other country on the same program) would have ample ability to do some spending and stimulate the economy. If you pay off debt in the good times, then you have the capacity to use debt to get by in the rough times. That kind of economic program evens out the highs and lows and makes life a lot more livable in a responsible way.
The U.S. has been so profligate with debt during the good times that it has no capacity to take on more debt now. (In one of the greatest travesties of American history, we used national debt and personal debt to create good times for ourselves by setting up our children to pay for our easy high living.)
The U.S. already has more debt than it will ever find the political will to pay off. More dangerous by far than that, as a result of these bailout spending policies that began in the Bush II years, the U.S. NOW has more debt than it could ever pay off, for paying off the debt at any time in the future will be such a burden that it would pull even the strongest of economies right back down.
We have passed the point of no return, and that is why Krugman and others want to keep up deficit spending. Without it, there would be / will be NO economy because the old economy is existing solely on life support now. When an economy is moribund, it would be better to declare a “year of Jubilee” and forgive all debts everywhere and do a complete reboot. Tough as that is, it would put the entire world in better shape for the future.
“Throughout the years of Reagonomics, however, the United State’s national debt as a percentage of GDP — after decades of decline – grew rapidly and continued to do so under President George Bush the First. Then U.S. debt plunged for the first time throughout the Clinton years (when taxes on the wealthy were raised) and finally began to rise again during the Bush II years (when taxes on the wealthy were cut again … even more than they were cut by Reagan).” ( http://thegreatrecession.info/blog/?p=2213 )
Obama has essentially continued with the Bush Bailout Plan.
–Knave Dave