Why is the media not talking about the massive U.S. government debt?

[Anonymous]

Has OP come back yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I agree the National debt is a problem, but there are only two way to address this problem raising taxes or cutting spending.

The third option is inflation.

And, yes, we need to balance the budget using all three mechanisms. This will necessarily include cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and the military.

I have no idea why the press does not seem to want to address any of this, since the debt is probably the US's biggest problem. And, no, nothing that the Trump administration is doing right now is actually helping to solve any of it in any sort of meaningful way. At most, it amounts to the arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to go after the three largest expenses and also increase revenue. Part of increasing revenue is increasing GDP, and the current tariff situation precludes that. The whole situation is a big mess and neither the majority of voters nor the press (nor Congress) seems to care.

Ross Perot focused on the debt during his presidential run back in the day, so it comes up from time to time.

The Fed is also a major culprit for buying all the excess treasury debt starting in 2008 and really continued until 2023. This has artificially suppressed interest rates for 15+ years, and encouraged more government spending than would have naturally occurred, if they would have let the free market work. We would have had higher rates sooner, with less debt.

Trumps tariffs are pushing down rates now b/c people expect a recession.

[Anonymous]

There’s money for billionaire tax cuts but not for lunches for low income children. Sorry hungry kids.

[Anonymous]

We could cut defense spending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our national debt is truly shocking. Just look at this “debt clock:”

https://usadebtclock.com/


This debt could get out of control and even become an existential threat. But I do not hear anyone in our national media sounding the alarm.

Why is that?

Letting the TCJA tax cuts expire would reduce the growth in national debt by trillions of dollars over the next decade.

That would be a tax cut for me due to the SALT cap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree the National debt is a problem, but there are only two way to address this problem raising taxes or cutting spending.

The third option is inflation.

And, yes, we need to balance the budget using all three mechanisms. This will necessarily include cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and the military.

I have no idea why the press does not seem to want to address any of this, since the debt is probably the US's biggest problem. And, no, nothing that the Trump administration is doing right now is actually helping to solve any of it in any sort of meaningful way. At most, it amounts to the arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to go after the three largest expenses and also increase revenue. Part of increasing revenue is increasing GDP, and the current tariff situation precludes that. The whole situation is a big mess and neither the majority of voters nor the press (nor Congress) seems to care.

Ross Perot focused on the debt during his presidential run back in the day, so it comes up from time to time.

The Fed is also a major culprit for buying all the excess treasury debt starting in 2008 and really continued until 2023. This has artificially suppressed interest rates for 15+ years, and encouraged more government spending than would have naturally occurred, if they would have let the free market work. We would have had higher rates sooner, with less debt.

Trumps tariffs are pushing down rates now b/c people expect a recession.

Rates will not go down if there is stagflation.

The debt increases are predominantly tied to unfunded taxes cuts and military spending by Republicans.

Nice attempt to re-write history.

[Anonymous]

Older folk have been calling this out since the early 80s and probably earlier than that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our national debt is truly shocking. Just look at this “debt clock:”

https://usadebtclock.com/


This debt could get out of control and even become an existential threat. But I do not hear anyone in our national media sounding the alarm.

Why is that?

Letting the TCJA tax cuts expire would reduce the growth in national debt by trillions of dollars over the next decade.

In other words:

- raise the percentage of taxes collected every year?

Americans voted in MAGA to stop Democrat insanity.

Ha ha ha ha. It is the GOP that keeps ramping up the debt you moron, to fund their massive tax cuts for the rich. Last time things were good were under Clinton who was a DEMOCRAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has OP come back yet?

She has a press conference at 4:30pm and may check in after ::

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot be serious OP. There have been several posts on here about the House GOP’s plans to make this situation significantly worse with further tax cuts and spending cuts that are aimed to curb economic growth.

Consistently, conservatives have avoided those threads and they quickly dropped off the first page.

Democrats do care about the debt. They want to let tax cuts a loopholes that benefit the rich and corporations expire to raise revenue. Those, combined with targeted cuts that are not aimed to hurt our poorest citizens will help the situation.

But increasing unemployment, tariffs, extending and increasing tax cuts, cutting funds that promote growth and leave our poorest citizens at risk isn’t going to do that.

By the way, neither is mass deportations, as seen by Florida’s recent moves to roll back child labor laws.

It’s fascinating how quiet these “conservatives” are when it comes to actual conservative priorities. It’s almost like “conservative” is a cover for something else.

Republicans are not "conservatives" anymore. They are MAGA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our national debt is truly shocking. Just look at this “debt clock:”

https://usadebtclock.com/


This debt could get out of control and even become an existential threat. But I do not hear anyone in our national media sounding the alarm.

Why is that?

Letting the TCJA tax cuts expire would reduce the growth in national debt by trillions of dollars over the next decade.

In other words:

- raise the percentage of taxes collected every year?

Americans voted in MAGA to stop Democrat insanity.

Ha ha ha ha. It is the GOP that keeps ramping up the debt you moron, to fund their massive tax cuts for the rich. Last time things were good were under Clinton who was a DEMOCRAT.

Clinton inherited a booming Reagan economy. Nice try.

[Anonymous]

Good grief. Wailing about the national debt has gone on as long as I've been an adult, which is more than 50 years. I went back to college in the 80s and had a stats professor who one day went on a tirade about Reagan's contribution to the deficit.

Yes, it's high. It was higher in 1946. Tax cuts are not the solution. Wild attacks on government functions will make it worse, because you don't achieve efficiency by taking a chainsaw to everything that annoys you. For example: FDA cuts mean fewer people to manage drug and medical device approval or to enforce laws against misrepresentation of drugs and devices (e.g. the deceptive marketing of antipsychotics that had significant health effects on Americans and added major costs to state Medicaid programs, leading to lawsuits to recover those costs). That's the opposite of efficiency. Firing people illegally and then being forced to rehire them with back pay while also having to recoup the damage done to derailed projects. Forcing people (like the SSA poster who described the impossible work conditions in another thread) back to the office where they can't do their work efficiently and get the damn job done.

Deficit issues require thoughtful long-term solutions, not corporate raider tactics. Not unless your plan is to destroy the company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our national debt is truly shocking. Just look at this “debt clock:”

https://usadebtclock.com/


This debt could get out of control and even become an existential threat. But I do not hear anyone in our national media sounding the alarm.

Why is that?

Letting the TCJA tax cuts expire would reduce the growth in national debt by trillions of dollars over the next decade.

In other words:

- raise the percentage of taxes collected every year?

Americans voted in MAGA to stop Democrat insanity.

Ha ha ha ha. It is the GOP that keeps ramping up the debt you moron, to fund their massive tax cuts for the rich. Last time things were good were under Clinton who was a DEMOCRAT.

Clinton inherited a booming Reagan economy. Nice try.

Now that's hysterical. When Bush succeeded Reagan, he was forced to call for tax increases because of what the Reagan cuts had done. And when Clinton ran, economic problems were the core of his campaign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree the National debt is a problem, but there are only two way to address this problem raising taxes or cutting spending.

The third option is inflation.

And, yes, we need to balance the budget using all three mechanisms. This will necessarily include cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and the military.

I have no idea why the press does not seem to want to address any of this, since the debt is probably the US's biggest problem. And, no, nothing that the Trump administration is doing right now is actually helping to solve any of it in any sort of meaningful way. At most, it amounts to the arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to go after the three largest expenses and also increase revenue. Part of increasing revenue is increasing GDP, and the current tariff situation precludes that. The whole situation is a big mess and neither the majority of voters nor the press (nor Congress) seems to care.

Ross Perot focused on the debt during his presidential run back in the day, so it comes up from time to time.

The Fed is also a major culprit for buying all the excess treasury debt starting in 2008 and really continued until 2023. This has artificially suppressed interest rates for 15+ years, and encouraged more government spending than would have naturally occurred, if they would have let the free market work. We would have had higher rates sooner, with less debt.

Trumps tariffs are pushing down rates now b/c people expect a recession.

Rates will not go down if there is stagflation.

The debt increases are predominantly tied to unfunded taxes cuts and military spending by Republicans.

Nice attempt to re-write history.

You must not being paying attention to daily markets. I buy 3-5 year treasuries at the end of every month. Last month I got 4.375% for 4-yr paper. This month 3.995%, that’s a significant drop in the treasury world.

And it’s a fact that the Fed tripled their balance sheet buying treasury debt and mortgages. So not sure what history you are referring to being rewritten.

[Anonymous]

Well, we did just find out that a lot of them are getting paid by the ballooning national debt, so why are you surprised?