This is how you impoverish the future.
Democrats and Republicans alike have done this.
Without fail, every president within the last 50 years has expanded the nation's debt. When President Trump took office on January 20, 2017, the national debt, the amount the federal government has borrowed over the years and must pay back, was a whopping $19.9 trillion. Despite Trump's pledge to drain the swamp and eliminate the debt, the federal debt is now approaching $27 trillion and is on track to surpass $78 trillion by 2028.
For many years now, economists have warned that economic collapse would be inevitable if the national debt ever surpassed the size of the U.S. economy. The government passed that point in June 2020 and has yet to put the brakes on its spending.
In fact, the Federal Reserve just keeps printing more money in order to prop up the economy and float the debt.
At some point, something's got to give.
As it now stands, the U.S. is among the most indebted countries in the world.
Almost a third of the $27 trillion national debt is owed to foreign entities such as Japan and China.
Most of the debt, however, is owed to the public.
How is this even possible? Essentially, it's a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
First, the government requires taxpayers to pay a portion of their salaries to the Social Security Trust Fund. The government then turns around and borrows from Social Security to cover its spending needs. Then the government raises taxes or prints more money in order to pay out whatever is needed to the retirees.
It's a form of convoluted economics that only makes sense to government bureaucrats looking to make a profit off the backs of the taxpayers.
According to the U.S. Debt Clock, each taxpayer's share of the national debt is $214,000 and growing.
That's almost five times more than the median income for what Americans earn in a year. That's also almost five times more than the average American has in savings, across savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, call deposit accounts, and prepaid cards. Almost 60% of Americans are so financially strapped that they don't have even $500 in savings and nothing whatsoever put away for retirement.
Just the interest that must be paid on the national debt every year is $338 billion and growing. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the fastest growing item in the budget over the next decade will be interest on the debt.
As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported in 2019, before COVID spending pushed the country over the fiscal cliff, "Interest payments will rise from $325 billion last year to $928 billion by 2029, a nearly threefold increase. If tax cuts and spending increases are extended, interest will exceed $1 trillion and set a new record as a share of the economy. The federal government will spend more on interest than on Medicaid or children by 2020. By 2024, interest will match defense spending."
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