Overspent and overdrawn.
The 2020 Stimulus check. Surrounded with 100 dollar bills. Sent to US citizens during the covid-19/coronavirus pandemic
As May progresses, you’ll hear a lot about the ‘debt ceiling,’ – the amount of money that the United States Treasury may legally borrow. It’s like the credit limit on your MasterCard (only with something like 12 more zeroes).
At this writing, the U.S. debt limit is fixed at $31.4 trillion by virtue of a bill that President Biden signed into law on Dec. 16, 2021. That law raised the debt limit by $2.5 trillion.
That $2.5 trillion has since been borrowed and spent and Treasury secretary Janet Yellen now warns that the by June 1, Treasury will again hit the debt limit and will be unable to legally borrow any more money.
When that happens, the government runs the risk of not having immediately available cash to cover payroll or to make the interest payments on the money that has already been borrowed. Failing to make those interest payments would result in a first-ever default on the nation’s debt and would send shockwaves throughout the world financial system.
The Biden economy isn’t helping. In fact, it’s slumping. GDP has grown at an anemic 0.9 percent over the past five quarters. A slumping economy results in slumping federal tax receipts. Year-to-date federal tax revenues are running $74 billion behind the same period last year.
Meanwhile, federal spending continues apace. Year-to-date federal expenditures are $359 billion higher than the same period last year. The federal government is spending more while taking in less. Understanding the consequences doesn’t require an Ivy-league degree. (To the contrary, given that our government is disproportionately populated by Ivy-league graduates, possession of an Ivy-league education apparently precludes such understanding.)
With the debt ceiling looming, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy late last month pushed a bill through the House that he called the “Limit, Save & Grow Act of 2023.” The bill would authorize a $1.5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. But the bill also rolls federal spending back to the levels of two years ago, claws back unspent COVID-19 money, eliminates funding for the 87,000 new IRS agents the Biden administration wants to hire and rolls back most of Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
None of that sounds crazy to normal people. Normal people know that when income doesn’t meet expenses, expenses must be reduced.
But Washington, D.C. isn’t heavily populated by normal people. It’s populated by establishment, leftist, big-government elites who are responding to McCarthy’s bill by shrieking about children being starved and the Earth burning to a crisp. Joe Biden is one of those elites and he promises to veto the bill should it somehow magically get through the Democrat-controlled Senate and get to his desk.
So, a crisis looms. Federal revenues are down. Spending is up. The Treasury is soon out of money.
Again.
Of course, spending must be reduced. Normal American businesses and households expect to make such choices. But our president and most members of Congress have no such expectations, as they haven’t for decades.
The question therefore begs. How much longer can we tolerate being so thoroughly misgoverned?
Surely the US Public is intelligent enough to understand how crazy our government’s spending is. Please tell me they are???
That’s bad grammar, using public and intelligent in the same sentence.
Unfortunately all across this Great Land the electorate is deaf, dumb, and completely uneducated on the consequences of their votes. I suppose they think the National Debt is nothing more than Monopoly money with no consequences. Keep this in mind; the Great Depression and World War II produced “The Greatest Generation” but at a huge cost in lives and resources. We are heading toward the creation of the next Greatest Generation redux. At least our Grandkids will proudly wear that badge of honor if history repeats itself.
We are living in a world where the meaning of words are changed indiscriminately. Those who have the power of defining can change debt from bad to good. Remember only about half pay any income tax at all (this number includes illegals). Why would they care, especially when they think will benefit the most.
I think our democratic party is run by some other country and they have two standards , one for them and one for everyone else they are not for America and they leading America into war and trying to disarm us so we can not fight back . they do not support freedom of religion instead they support the the people that has killed more of the human race then all the worst killers combined like hitler and others.
This is the very reason I am for a NATIONAL SALES TAX instead of an INCOME TAX! It is more fair all the way around since the left insists on making the border open instead of closing it for OUR CITIZENS SAFETY! The ones who pay no income tax would contribute if we had a National Sales Tax…infact, this would include everyone including “visitors”.
Another thing I would do is allow the PEOPLE to say if Congress gets a raise or not. Congress should NEVER be allowed to just give themselves a raise anytime they feel like it.
Things being out of control as they are didn’t just happen overnight. The American citizens have stood by and watch with open eyes as people who should never have been in Congress in the first place took the reins and are bankrupting this Country. We American Citizens do not allow our private banking to do as the National Treasury does, so why should Congress be allowed to do whatever they please with OUR TAX MONEY?
This Country is NOT a candy store for Congress even though they act like it. Let me leave you with one question… Would you allow your child to go in a Candy store and go wild spending on every candy that they think they would like???
Spending must be reduced seems logical but it will never happen until there are real tangible consequences for overspending. Until that 31 trillion dollar defecit impacts the voters directly, they don’t care if it’s 100 trillion. It would also help to develop the mindset that government dependence is bad-not gonna happen!