Are tariffs the problem or is it more along
- Thread starter EERs 3:16
- Start date
I'll tell you what's perplexing me about this entire issue. Why would American consumers want to let Foreign countries keep charging us more to sell our stuff to them than we're charging them to sell their stuff to us? 🤔
Tariff "reciprocity" to me means, doing to others exactly what they're doing to us! So if India, China, Mexico, Canada, & others want to charge us more to sell our things to their consumers, we'll charge them exactly what they're charging us for them to sell their things here!
reciprocity /rĕs″ə-prŏs′ĭ-tē/
noun
- A reciprocal condition or relationship.
- A mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges, especially the exchange of rights or privileges of trade between nations.
- Mutual action and reaction.
What's the problem with that? 🫤
Anyone on the Left want to take a stab at what's wrong with this for us? @moe , @bamaEER , @sammyk ????????
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It's a how much money Biden's Administration printed in a short amount of time problem. Bring the jobs home and grow the economy here.
Of the Government's total debt of about $10 trillion at the end of FY 2008, approximately $5.8 trillion was debt held by the public in the form of Treasury securities, such as bills, notes, and bonds.
U.S. National Debt by Year
The U.S. national debt is the total of what the federal government owes creditors. The U.S. has always carried debt, but the total has expanded rapidly since 2008.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ECONOMY GOVERNMENT & POLICY
U.S. National Debt by Year
By HIRANMAYI SRINIVASAN Updated November 04, 2024
Reviewed by SAMANTHA SILBERSTEIN
Fact checked by VIKKI VELASQUEZ
National debt refers to the outstanding financial obligations of a country. The national debt of the United States is what the federal government owes to its creditors.
The U.S. has always carried national debt and the majority of presidents have added to it. However, total national debt has been expanding rapidly since 2008 due to a combination of increased government spending and failure to raise taxes.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
As of January 2025, the U.S. national debt was over $36.2 trillion.
2
Tax cuts, stimulus programs, and increased government spending on defense can cause the national debt to rise sharply.
Looking at the debt-to-gross-national-product ratio of a country shows whether the nation can pay back its debt.
The U.S. periodically hits its debt limit; the ceiling can be raised or temporarily suspended.
3
Understanding the National Debt
The federal government borrows money to cover outstanding expenses that accumulate over time. Funds for federal spending are mainly generated by collecting taxes on personal and corporate income, payroll earnings, and borrowing.
The government then spends this money on programs such as Social Security, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and national defense. When the government spends less than the revenue collected through taxes, there is a budget surplus. When government spending exceeds its revenue, the result is a budget deficit.
To pay for this deficit, the U.S. Treasury borrows money by issuing Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. These can be purchased by investors, financial institutions such as banks and insurers, the Federal Reserve, and other foreign central banks.
The national debt, which is also referred to as government, federal, or public debt, is made up of this borrowing along with the interest owed to investors who purchased these Treasury securities.
As of January 2025, the U.S. national debt exceeded $36.2 trillion.
2
The Growing National Debt
The U.S. has carried debt since it was founded. In fact, the U.S. accumulated more than $75 million in debt during the Revolutionary War, and that increased to over $2 billion by the end of the Civil War in 1865.
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Major economic and political events usually trigger an increase in the national debt. Recent events that caused a spike in debt levels include the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Great Recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
4
Military spending reached record levels of more than $600 billion during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
5
Government spending on relief measures during times of economic turmoil, such as the Great Recession and COVID-19, also causes an increase in the national debt. For example, former President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was an $831 billion fiscal stimulus aimed at restoring jobs during the 2008 recession.
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Spending also increased under President Donald Trump during his first term by about 50% from fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2021. This was largely driven by tax cuts and COVID-19 relief measures. Those types of moves, along with increased government spending and decreased tax revenue from high levels of unemployment, can generally cause the national debt to rise sharply.
4
Spending decisions made by the president in office also affect the national debt level. A president’s actions to direct government spending toward national defense, healthcare, education, or fiscal stimulus packages can increase debt levels. However, the president can’t always control these decisions as they may be made in response to unforeseen events like a war, pandemic, or recession.
Presidential decisions can also lower the federal deficit and reduce borrowing. For example, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed in 2022 under former President Joe Biden, could reduce the federal deficit by $58 billion over a decade.
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The last paragraph is laughable.
End of Fiscal Year Debt (in Billions, Rounded) Major Events by Presidential Term
1929 $17 Market crash
1930 $16 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act reduced trade
1931 $17 Dust Bowl drought raged
1932 $20 Hoover raised taxes
1933 $23 New Deal increased GDP and debt
1934 $27
1935 $29 Social Security
1936 $34 Tax hikes renewed Great Depression
1937 $36 Third New Deal
1938 $37 Dust Bowl ended
1939 $40 Depression ended
1940 $43 FDR increased spending and raised taxes
1941 $49 U.S. entered World War II
1942 $72 Defense tripled
1943 $137
1944 $201 Bretton Woods Agreement
1945 $259 World War II ended
1946 $269 Truman’s first-term budgets and recession
1947 $258 Cold War
1948 $252 Recession
1949 $253 Recession
1950 $257 Korean War boosted growth and debt
1951 $255
1952 $259
1953 $266 Recession when war ended
1954 $271 Eisenhower’s budgets and recession
1955 $274
1956 $273
1957 $271 Recession
1958 $276 Eisenhower’s 2nd term and recession
1959 $285 Fed raised rates
1960 $286 Recession
1961 $289 Bay of Pigs
1962 $298 JFK budgets and Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 $306 U.S. aids Vietnam; JFK killed
1964 $312 LBJ’s budgets and war on poverty
1965 $317 U.S. entered Vietnam War
1966 $320
1967 $326
1968 $348
1969 $354 Nixon took office
1970 $371 Recession
1971 $398 Wage-price controls
1972 $427 Stagflation
1973 $458 Nixon ended gold standard; OPEC oil embargo
1974 $475 Watergate; Nixon resigns; budget process created
1975 $533 Vietnam War ended
1976 $620 Stagflation
1977 $699 Stagflation
1978 $772 Carter budgets and recession
1979 $827
1980 $908 Fed Chairman Volcker raised fed rate to 20%
1981 $998 Reagan tax cut
1982 $1,142 Reagan increased spending
1983 $1,377 Jobless rate 10.8%
1984 $1,572 Increased defense spending
1985 $1,823
1986 $2,125 Reagan lowered taxes
1987 $2,350 Market crash
1988 $2,602 Fed raised rates
1989 $2,857 S&L Crisis
1990 $3,233 First Iraq War
1991 $3,665 Recession
1992 $4,065
1993 $4,411 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
1994 $4,693 Clinton budgets
1995 $4,974
1996 $5,225 Welfare reform
1997 $5,413
1998 $5,526 Long-Term Capital Management crisis; recession
1999 $5,656 Glass-Steagall Act repealed
2000 $5,674 Budget surplus
2001 $5,807 9/11 attacks; Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act
2002 $6,228 War on Terror
2003 $6,783 Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act; second Iraq War
2004 $7,379 Second Iraq War
2005 $7,933 Bankruptcy Act; Hurricane Katrina
2006 $8,507 Bernanke chaired Fed
2007 $9,008 Banks crisis
2008 $10,025 Bank bailouts; quantitative easing (QE)
2009 $11,910 Bailout cost $250 billion; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) added $242 billion
2010 $13,562 ARRA added $400B; payroll tax holiday ended; Obama tax cuts; Affordable Care Act; Simpson-Bowles debt reduction plan
2011 $14,790 Debt crisis, recession, and tax cuts reduced revenue
2012 $16,066 Fiscal cliff
2013 $16,738 Sequester; government shutdown
2014 $17,824 QE ended; debt ceiling crisis
2015 $18,151 Oil prices fell
2016 $19,573 Brexit
2017 $20,245 Congress raised the debt ceiling
2018 $21,516 Trump tax cuts
2019 $22,719 Trade wars
2020 $26,945 COVID-19 and recession
2021 $28,428 COVID-19 and American Rescue Plan Act
2022 $30,928 Inflation Reduction Act
2023 $33,167 Rising interest rates
2024 $35,464 Credit rating downgrade
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I have got big heart and don't want anyone going broke or dying to get healthcare. But once you go through the numbers of how much this is costing us one has to wonder if destroying private health insurance was a good idea. How much fraud, waste, and abuse is being conducted by the Medical Community because taxpayers are paying for it. There's got to be a better way to do this.
www.cbo.gov
Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance: 2023 to 2033
In 2023, federal subsidies for health insurance are estimated to be $1.8 trillion, or 7.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In CBO and JCT’s projections, those net subsidies reach $3.3 trillion, or 8.3 percent of GDP, in 2033.
www.cbo.gov
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It's like it was created to destroy the previous system and Install Unversial Healthcare controlled by the government. Something we couldn't afford if we cut the Defense Budget Completely. Got to be a better way.
The moment they made the fine for not having health insurance --and then getting rid of the fine-- cheaper than the cost of the premiums...Obamacare was doomed to be a failure.
The trick is, things like Obamacare, Medicade, and other social programs make up the largest chunk of the budget. If you want to reduce federal spending, you have to reduce the money being paid out via social programs. And to be honest, a lot of this social spending is due to the open border policies of the last four years. IMO - if you cannot afford to sustain yourself then you should not be allowed to migrate to the US. We had that policy before..and it worked well.
The trick is, things like Obamacare, Medicade, and other social programs make up the largest chunk of the budget. If you want to reduce federal spending, you have to reduce the money being paid out via social programs. And to be honest, a lot of this social spending is due to the open border policies of the last four years. IMO - if you cannot afford to sustain yourself then you should not be allowed to migrate to the US. We had that policy before..and it worked well.
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