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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe National Debt Is Skyrocketing, and Trump Feels Fine
Republicans pride themselves on fiscal responsibility. Or at least they used to. Since President Trump found his way into the partys bloodstream, conservative lawmakers have only been able to pay lip service to the crisis, which is growing worse despite a robust economy. On Tuesday, the Treasury Department reported that the national debt has for the first time eclipsed $22 trillion, up from $19.9 trillion when Trump took office.
The president doesnt seem as concerned as he was when President Obama was in office.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
The national debt did indeed skyrocket under Obama. Ten years ago, the United States owed only $10.6 trillion, but the government decided that the financial crisis necessitated increased spending, causing the debt to balloon. Republicans were critical, and during the 2016 campaign Trump promised he would eliminate the debt over a period of eight years. This isnt going to happen. Despite inheriting a healthy economy, the debt has risen by over $2 trillion since Trump took office, thanks to the $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich Congress passed in the fall of 2017, as well as exorbitant defense spending. Last summer, the Congressional Budget Office noted in a report that, at 78 percent, the ratio of the debt to the GDP was at its highest level since World War II. The office said in January that it estimates the number will rise to 93 percent by 2030, barring changes in federal law.
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The Trump administration has responded with a shrug. When Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was asked last week why the president didnt mention the national deficit in his State of the Union address, Mulvaney reportedly said nobody cares. By nobody, Mulvaney may just mean Trump. In December, the Daily Beast reported that the president isnt worried about the debt crisis despite pleas from advisers to take it seriously. When confronted with charts explaining the severity of the situation in 2017, the president brushed it off as something that wouldnt affect the United States until after he left office.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/what-is-national-debt-794308/
msongs
(67,546 posts)WhiteTara
(29,742 posts)Our countrys national debt is about $21 trillion; the total amount of money in the United States today is about $1.7 trillion. In the broadest sense of the word money, there is about $90 trillion all together in the world. Horrifyingly, we (US citizens) owe more than 20% of all the money in the world and only have .5% of that amount in the country to pay our debts.
A couple of years ago, The Panama Papers rocked the financial world of ultra wealthy oligarchs by exposing hidden money that belongs to coffers in their home countries. The ensuing transparency found that U.S. corporations are hiding 55% of their wealth offshore costing us nationally $130 billion in tax revenue each year.
In the Tax Justice Network study, researchers found that worldwide, there is $21 trillion stashed in secret bank accounts and that 92,000 people (a thousandth of one percent of the worlds population,) control $9.8 trillion of the worlds wealth. This fabulous wealth comes by leaking or skimming money, for example: $700 billion from Russia since 1990; $305 billion from Saudi Arabia since the 1970s disappeared during sales of state resources.
The same study noted that if this secret money were recognized, with 3% interest paid annually and that accrued interest was taxed at 30%, it would generate $188 billion in tax revenues for countries around the world, each year, which would eliminate the need for world aid.
I hope you'll finish the article at http://eureka.news/free-parking-66/ for those ever coveted eyeball clicks
Beartracks
(12,854 posts)Maru Kitteh
(28,353 posts)the debt he leaves behind now?
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Bigredhunk
(1,365 posts)Huh
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