vash1012
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Will America Ever Pay Off Its Debt? | Ronald Cooke | FINANCIAL SENSE
I found this article interesting. Curious what others think about it. The main conclusion I got from the explanation of our debt situation is that we are not going to be able to realize either side's ultimate vision for where they want this country to go. We are in a situation where we couldn't, even if we wanted to, lower the overall tax burden if we ever hope to pay down debt. We are also in a situation where, even if we wanted to, we couldn't raise taxes enough to start paying off our debt while increasing the size of the federal government enough to support some of the more generous and broad social models of some European countries. According to that article, we would have to increase our budget by 25% to pay off our debts over the next 20 years (starting in 2018). This is also assuming that this budget was fully funded so we not only have to make up the current budget deficit we already have but we'd have to raise another 25% on top of that. This is TRILLIONS of dollars. The only way to do that is to significantly raise the tax burden or significantly reduce government spending or some combination of both. There is absolutely ZERO chance we can reduce OVERALL tax burden for many years to come. I also don't see anyway we can increase the scope of the federal government with large new social programs without increasing taxes to far beyond what the public is willing to pay (seeing as they are unwilling to pay for what they are already getting).
I found this article interesting. Curious what others think about it. The main conclusion I got from the explanation of our debt situation is that we are not going to be able to realize either side's ultimate vision for where they want this country to go. We are in a situation where we couldn't, even if we wanted to, lower the overall tax burden if we ever hope to pay down debt. We are also in a situation where, even if we wanted to, we couldn't raise taxes enough to start paying off our debt while increasing the size of the federal government enough to support some of the more generous and broad social models of some European countries. According to that article, we would have to increase our budget by 25% to pay off our debts over the next 20 years (starting in 2018). This is also assuming that this budget was fully funded so we not only have to make up the current budget deficit we already have but we'd have to raise another 25% on top of that. This is TRILLIONS of dollars. The only way to do that is to significantly raise the tax burden or significantly reduce government spending or some combination of both. There is absolutely ZERO chance we can reduce OVERALL tax burden for many years to come. I also don't see anyway we can increase the scope of the federal government with large new social programs without increasing taxes to far beyond what the public is willing to pay (seeing as they are unwilling to pay for what they are already getting).