"The national debt has passed a new milestone, topping $22 trillion for the first time," reported the Associated Press. "The Treasury Department's daily statement showed Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion. It stood at $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017."
"It looks like a $9 trillion time bomb is ready to detonate, a corporate debt load that has escalated thanks to easy borrowing terms and a seemingly endless thirst from investors," CNBC reported.
"For the first time ever, consumer credit has risen above $4 trillion," said news accounts citing a Federal Reserve release. Since 2013 there has been a $1 trillion increase in the amount of debt Americans are carrying.
"Student loan debt in the U.S. more than doubled in the past 10 years, hitting an all-time high of $1.36 trillion in the third quarter of 2018," according to consumer credit reporting agency Experian.
All these debt bubbles pose high risk for another economic meltdown. The NY Times quoted 76-year-old influential fund manager Jim Rogers predicting a crash that will be “the biggest in my lifetime.”
Shhh. All these peak debt levels have occurred with Republicans in control of the Congress and White House.
No surprise really. Take the national debt. Republicans like to talk "eliminate the deficit" and "reduce the debt" and "balance the budget," but since George H.W. Bush was president have never followed through with the walk. It's really the height of hypocrisy these days when they talk down Democrats about spending and deficits.
Remember Donald Trump's campaign promise to eliminate the debt? In a March 31, 2016, interview with the Washington Post, he promised to eliminate $19 trillion in debt in eight years. Instead it has gone up $3 trillion.
Rising interest rates and escalating debt are a formula for economic turmoil if not collapse. Debt watchdog, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, reported in December that interest on the national debt "will nearly triple over the next 10 years, soaring from $315 billion in 2018 to $914 billion in 2028." Soon interest payments alone with top $1 trillion annually.
"Unless we make the hard decisions to close the structural imbalance between spending and revenues, federal debt will climb to unsustainable levels and put America’s economy and future prosperity at risk," the foundation declared.
Those decisions include uncomfortable spending cuts matched with undesirable tax increases. As we learned from the failed Obama-Boehner "grand bargain" that followed the failed Simson-Bowles plan, such decisions will not happen. The politics are too tough for our elected officials. Republicans can only cut taxes, not raise them, and Democrats can only increase spending, not cut it.
Sigh. As Pogo told us, "we have met the enemy and he is us."
P.S. Mississippi is not immune to the debt dilemma. State financial reports show our public debt continues to grow. The two largest components, bonds and notes payable at $5.6 billion and the PERS unfunded pension liability at $16.9 billion, total $22.5 billion. That's up from $19.7 billion in 2012.
Shhh. This occurred, too, with Republicans in control of the Legislature and Governor's Mansion.
Care about this stuff? Download former Sen. Tom Coburn's deficit reduction plan: https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=682791, or the Simpson-Bowles plan: https://www.srainternational.org/sites/default/files/documents/Fiscal%20Commission%20-%20Moment%20of%20Truth.pdf
Crawford is a syndicate columnist from Meridian.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Bill Crawford: The New Republican Reality: Debt, Debt, & More Debt
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28 comments:
You can’t turn a ship around on a dime, it takes time. President Trump is doing a fantastic job. He is getting the US some great deals in trade. We have the lowest unemployment in decades.
The deficits have created a false economy as a result of excess spending. Republicans and Democrats know that if deficits decline, so will the economy. And, if the national debt is paid down, down goes the economy. Both events take money out of the economy. Neither of the political parties wants that while they are in power. So, they play the game while knowing they can always print money. As Hyman Roth told Michael Corleone in "Godfather: Part II", "This is the business we've chosen."
i’m confused?? The Little Emperor got elected as Lt Gov by campaigning on a plan to lower the state’s debt. What gives?
22 trillion with a conservative leader who we have chance to improve our lives with or 90 trillion cost of a Green New Deal. By the way, I was at an establishment and several of the black employees were saying how well they had it now they have a well paying job. But, if you are a dummakrat you want your constituency to hail you as their sole provider while the conservatives thrive on self sufficiency.. Even Forrest Gump or Bobby Bushae were both smart enough not to chase Amazon away.
A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon we are talking real money.
The current administration seems destined to continue to pump liquidity into the Wall St market while keeping wages at poverty levels to make those banks that we bailed out wealthy beyond our imagination. And of course those Wall St bankers have had their taxes cut in half to ensure they can quickly accumulated more of the nation's wealth before the economy crashes. And it's likely that the Ministry of Troooth at Faux Noooz will find some success in blaming the coming financial debacle on the lazy poor people. Mississippians are usually last to recognize the problems and it's somewhat certain that trend will continue.
Anyone who thinks that .25% interest on bank CDs is the result of "the market" needs a mental evaluation.
"You can’t turn a ship around on a dime."
You'd have to be a complete idiot to think Trump turned anything around. Inherited a great economy and has spent us further into the hole. Fiscal conservativism is a lie.
But then again, he bankrupted every business she's ever run, so he's right on track.
12:51 Now if he can just make the trains run on time, he'll have the U.S. running as smoothly as his mentor had Italy going back in the 30's. Deficit spending don't matter unless it's those damn democrats anyway.
4:10 I hate to wake up a happy dreamer but, right about now, everybody including your conservatives are thriving on national credit a.k.a. debt. Dream on if it makes you feel better, but wake up in about six years of Trump and see what the national debt looks like. Republicrats unite!
Suddenly stupid Donkeycrats are worried about budget deficits and the national debt! ROFLMAO
P.S. Mississippi is not immune to the debt dilemma. State financial reports show our public debt continues to grow. The two largest components, bonds and notes payable at $5.6 billion and the PERS unfunded pension liability at $16.9 billion, total $22.5 billion. That's up from $19.7 billion in 2012.
Shhh. This occurred, too, with Republicans in control of the Legislature and Governor's Mansion.
So Mississippi Democrats grew the state debt to $19.7B and Crawford calls out the Republicans for adding another $2.8B (+14%) over the past 7 years.
Thank goodness Kingfish runs his columns for the jackassery.
@5:34 No more sudden than the stupid Repubs forgot about budget deficits and the national debt! ROFLMAO
Crawford, March 2014:
Debt Service and outstanding bonded indebtedness don’t usually capture much public attention. For years the Legislature regularly passed multi-million dollar “Christmas Tree” bond bills for all sorts of projects. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves changed that two years ago when he led the Senate to block the annual bond bill. Reeves said he is determined to reduce Mississippi’s dependence on debt.
Data indicates his approach has begun working. From 2000 through 2011, Debt Service nearly doubled from 4.6 percent of General Fund appropriations to 8.3 percent. Since Reeves took office in 2012, the percentage has dropped each year, down to 7.5 percent this past year.
Don't believe we heard a peep of debt concern out of you @5:56 while the Obama Messiah was doubling the national debt.
The National Debt is the least of the problem for Mississippi. Let's remember it's a Welfare state.
Tariffs are the biggest problem and if something isn't done very soon it's going to be painful for farmers and any business that needs imported steel.
Obama came into office inheriting a vastly undervalued S&P 500 at 9 times earnings.
Trump came into office inheriting an overvalued S&P 500 at 19.5 times earnings.
On another point, Rod Knox's post above reads like fiction written by a third grade boy.
Trump has only filed for bankruptcy 6 times. We should do the same as a nation. That would really screw the Chinese.
Suddenly, the Trumptards are huge supporters of debt and don’t care about being lying hypocrites. ROFLFAO!!
The GOP would have a more defensible position if they weren’t handing so much money to their donors. Their big middle class tax relief is looking like more of a sham each passing day. The American people aren’t even getting anything out of all our money they are giving away. No healthcare, no money for education, no big spend for research, it’s just a straight up robbery. Hopefully the religious right will wake up and stop getting conned by these thugs.
Dear "lowest unemployment" folks. Driving for Uber doesn't count (especially when it doesn't even cover the student loan payments you've got from attaining a college degree).
Well, at least Crawford got one thing right. Republicans can't raise taxes and Democrats can't cut spending. Wait, is that two things?
The hypocrisy is making me ill.
Either the deficit and debt are problems or they aren't.
Decide.
If you think they are, then damn well get the facts and understand the entire problem, not just one sector or even a few sectors of the economy. This is overall economic history, not just economics today. It's the sum of all parts and no one part is definitive.
Some of you believe things that are just not even close to being accurate and would be laughable if your ridiculous opinions weren't part of the problem!
It's about how you spend money as well as not wasting money. We have to prioritize in such as way as to reduce debt in the process. Rather than artificially stimulate or " save" some sectors of the economy.
For example we need to improve the infrastructure so it can support growth and well as create new sectors. It doesn't matter how many " widgets" you make if you can't transport them.
Nor does it matter how many "widgets" you make if people can't afford to buy them.
It is ridiculous to repeatedly create boom/bust projects which enrich a few at the expense of the entire economy.
It is ridiculous to " save" that which is doomed to become " obsolete".
And, in spending money, you damn well need to also look at what causes societies and their economies to fail. Focus on democracies and republics.
We've done this before. It never turns out well.
Keep on deciding that one person or party is always right and deserves your loyalty and support all the time for every damn thing. Keep believing that politic parties are about some high ideals and not about money and power.
Do remember that Democrats were anti-abortion in the first half of the last century and Republicans were pro-abortion. Remember the KKK were Democrats and now they vote Republican. If the parties had consistent principles, such would not have been possible!
And, HELLO, the debt and deficit are current examples of policy reversal.
Pretty soon, there is going to be a split in the Republican party. I know currently, everyone seems to be willing to forget about the constitution and just go along with all the shenanigans, but at some point the people will demand much, much more. You'll have the extreme right hate groups go along with the Trumptards get separated from the mainstream religious right, corporations, and billionaires.
@ 3/4, 12:33pm
The religious right, extreme right hate groups, and Trumptards are all pawns of the corporations/oligarchs/billionaires. The left's corporations/billionaires/oligarchs have their pawns as well. This will be never-ending until we all unplug from the matrix.
Hi Donna. Click an ad while you are here.
Repubs can't win w/o Trump voters. RINOs mouth 'compromise' then go ahead and capitulate. Drain the swamp and thin the RINO herd. Make America Great Again!!!
Yes,3:38 pm, it's all about winning and losing and not about the fate of our Nation.
It's about power. And, so , let's be sure to have a minority dictate to the majority.
And, whatever you do, do NOT look at the policies of the States that are actually progressing and are economically sound. Let's do what Mississippi has always done instead.
...do NOT look at the policies of the States that are actually progressing and are economically sound.
Provide the Top 5 states that fit your claim. Put up.
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