The federal government's or "national" debt is reaching historical levels. The federal government now borrows more money to pay for programs than ever before. Estimates show that this year's deficit will reach 1.4-1.5 trillion dollars and contribute to the seemingly uncontrollable growth of the debt.Because of the growing size of the debt a fierce political debate has arisen over how to best deal with this problem. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are currently battling over how this issue should be addressed.
You are going to investigate this controversy and comment to this post by doing the following:
1) Define the words debt and deficit. How are they different? How are they related?
2) Read the attached articles (by clicking on the active links below) and summarize what you learn about the debt and deficit from these articles. Your summary should be based entirely on the articles found below and should not be a list of facts. I expect the summary to be written in coherent paragraphs.
What They're Not Telling You
The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt
Out of debt: A tax increase is no way to start
Debt according to dictionary.com is the amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Deficit according to dictionary.com is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. Debt and deficit are different in a way that debt only has to do with owing someone, something. Debt is only the money that in this case a country owes. While deficit is the amount of money that in this case a country loses per year. For example if a country earns $10 billion in a year but owes $11 billion that country has debt of $1 billion because it could not pay all the money it owed. But, if a country brings in $5 billion a year and spends $7 billion a year the deficit would be $2 billion because it spent $2 billion more then it made for that year. They are similar in a way that each year the deficit will either become the debt if there was not debt or the deficit will be added to the pre-existing debt.
ReplyDeleteFrom the first article I learned that everyone knows that the U.S. deficit is a major issue, but nothing is really being done to end it. The national deficit is growing at an unsteady pace. It will continue to get worse if nothing is done. But, if spending is cut, millions of people will be hurt not helped. Right now, the best thing would be to get the economy better and increase tax revenues. All of the deficit problems can be traced back to George W. Bush and has been made worse by Obama. A country should be able to handle a deficit though. Getting a deficit under control involves having the economy grow faster than the debt. Saving money is a crucial part in overcoming a national deficit. This could involve cutting back things like health care or social security. As I stated above, cutting the spending completely would hurt more than it would help, so, a combination of some benefit cuts and some tax increases would fix a lot of problems. Finding what to cut back on will be the hard part for the U.S. For example, 20% of the budget goes to defense. In the past that percentage cannot be changed. If the Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of the year taxes will begin to rise. This will make many people unhappy, but it will help the national deficit. Something needs to be done and it needs to be done soon.
From the second article I learned that the growing deficit will cause the national debt to rise uncontrollably. Even saying this, the budget report offered nothing new. The federal debt will equal 62% of the country’s economic spending. That number has only been over 50% once before after WWII. The National debt today is about $13 trillion, this is because the budget was decreased and government spending increased. At lot of the blame is put on Bush and Obama, but it has been reported that they actually help the economy so that a second Great Depression has not come. If more money is spent on health care and social security the debt by 2035 will become 80% of the GPD. The U.S. is on their way to a ruin of debt. Little is being done on the issue, but everyone refers to it as a serious problem.
From the third article I learned that one thing the government is good at is running up the national debt. Obama was appointed to office to help fix things, but has only made them worse. If the Bush tax cuts expire people will be hit with a big tax increase. All though a tax increase will not do much because the debt has gotten to out of control. Our best option would be to extend the tax cut and see what the government can come up with to help.
Debt is how much a one person or group owes another. Deficit is how much money a company is losing versus how much they make. The words are similar in the respect that a person owes money to either another person or business, yet they differ because when you are in deficit you are losing money and need to cut spending in order to keep level, where as you are in debt when you owe someone either money or a favor.
ReplyDeleteIn order to get a hold of this runaway train that is the deficit we will need to make some cuts in spending. Also we are going to have to do some thing that no one wants done, yes I am going to go their, we need to raise TAXES!! Yes ladies and gentlemen the thing every one hates to do. But the politicians can’t say that, well at least the republicans won‘t. The deficit needs to be brought to a halt, if we don’t do something about it now we will be even deeper into debt. Now politicians are debating on the best way to halt this “runaway train” that is the deficit. The republicans are stubbornly protecting the rights of “Joe the plumber” and are rejecting an increase to taxes. Budget cuts are also frowned upon by the republicans. Yet if we can cut spending on things that are of minor importance for three years we can see an increase in savings of 11 billion dollars and moderate increases after that. So the debate should not be weather we want to, but rather how do we stop the deficit.
Merriam-Webster® Online (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/debt) defines "debt" as "something owed" and as "a state of owing". To put this into my own words, I define the word "debt” as owing a product, service, or other object of monetary value to another person or a group of others. Merriam-Webster® Online (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deficit) defines “deficit” as a “deficiency in amount or quality” and “a lack or impairment in a functional capacity”. To define this word in my own words, economically speaking, I define “deficit” as when the amount of money being spent goes beyond the amount of the money being gained.
ReplyDeleteThese two words differ in the way that “debt” is used to describe the act of owing something and “deficit” is used to describe when someone is simply experiencing a negative profit. An example of debt would be if Country X had run out of money to spend and borrowed money from Country Y. Country X would then owe money to Country Y and therefore be in debt to Country Y. An example of deficit would be if Country X’s government is spending more money on programs and various social services than bringing in money from profits from areas such as government-affiliated organizations. “Debt” and “deficit” are similar in the way that the action of having a deficit for long enough will cause an organization, administration, or person to go in to debt. The terms go hand in hand in that if Country X is spending more money than it brings in, it will eventually owe money due to the rate of spending being higher than the rate of income.
Of all the knowledge I gained from the first article, “What They‘re Not Telling You”, the first thing that really intrigued my mind was that such a plethora of chat is occurring in Washington about what to do about the nation’s deficit, though, nobody taking the conflict with an austere consideration. The Republicans have took a hypocritical approach to this issue saying that the issue began with items like the stimulus even though it was started long ago by their tax cuts. The debate is still ongoing in the congress by the democrats meanwhile the deficit at large losing $1.4 trillion dollars this year. For the next ten years, the deficit is projected to be around one trillion but in around forty years, it’s expected to increase another one trillion. Were the United States Government to decrease the pay out to efforts to easy the hardships forced on by the recession, it would further delay the rate of which the economy recovers. If we are to stop increasing the deficit, we need to slowly but steadily cut the amount given to federal assistance programs around 2015. Once we are able to control the nation’s deficit, the economy can be restored to a stable state, yet taxes will need to be expanded also. After Bill Clinton left office, the Bush administration only worsened the previous surplus of money, creating a deficit from it’s tax cuts and war spending. Now that there was a deficit, it will continue to rise since both Republicans and some Democrats are choosing the continue the tax cuts. Since the Obama Administration increased the deficit by aiding the economy with a stimulus, the current state was maneuvered from worsening further. It astonished my mind that the United States had run up $9 trillion dollars total in debt. I had no idea that the United States Government had ran up the national debt so high. If the country is to avoid effects such as slow, gradual augmentation of the economy and the strong increase of interest rates, we need to reduce the deficit seven percent of it’s current percentage of the GDP (gross domestic product) of the country. Much of the United State’s budget goes towards programs such that help with health like Medicare and Medicaid.
ReplyDeleteAlong with those, Social Security helps make up this vast forty percent of the budget. Even though it takes up a lot of money to ensure than these programs meet their standards, it’s is of much importance to fund these programs because if not, the wellbeing of many Americans with health concerns and monetary issues are put at serious risk. If we are aimed at lowering the amount of the budget put into Social Security, we must slowly decrease it over a large period of time so that those who are in retirement or those nearing the that stage don’t suffer. Social and health programs, as expensive as they may be, don’t make up the entire budget. A small portion of the budget also pays for the interests acquired from having national debt: six percent. United States’ President Barack Obama has suggested that budgets for programs that involve the research of science and the improvement of the education system be ceased for a whopping 3 years so that it will save $11 billon dollars. A total of thirty-four percent goes towards spending for the nation’s defense (fourteen percent) and programs that help those who need financial help(twenty percent). If the tax cuts that were created from the former president, George W. Bush, would end at the end of 2010, it is possible that the revenue at the end of this decade could raise a total of $2.4 trillion dollars. This is not feasible to happen because the current administration under President Obama along Democratic leaders in the congress wish to offer tax cuts to the middle class rather than the rich, thus, costing a little under $3 trillion in a decade. In contrast, Republicans wish for these tax cuts for the rich to be continued and not ended which would cost and additional $800 billion more than it would cost for the tax cuts to be given to the middle class. We need the deficit issue to be addressed and it is President Obama who needs confront this issue and figure out what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteOne of the major things I learn from “The ‘Tipping Point’ of America Debt” was that in response to the United States budget deficit spiraling out of control, it will bring national debt along with it. Even though this is assured to occur, there is not a sure sign of when this is bound to happen. The size of this national deficit has reached a remarkable level as shown by reaching sixty-two two percent of the gross domestic product, the second time that the national debt has reached over half of the gross domestic product in United States History. Debt was a problem in this country even before the recession brought all of the financial problems. It all started during George W. Bush’s presidency and stands today, climaxing at the occurrence of the economic recession. This was because as the government began spending more and the gross domestic production dropped severely. Even though they accumulated much national debt, the administrations under both George W. Bush and Barrack Obama prevented the country from falling into vast economic depression, namely, another Great Depression. If both of their administrations had not done what they had done, the amount of jobs lost during the recession would have over doubled. A prediction from the budget report shows that with the increase on health and security, in around 25 years, eighty percent of the gross domestic product will equal around the national debt. The worst that could happen in 25 years would be that debt would equal one hundred-and-eighty percent of the gross domestic product. All around the world, countries are witnessing as the United States falls into financial peril. The time when the deficit sends the debt out of control will not being soon, but there are issues to overcome along the way. Eventually the economy can return to a stable state.
ReplyDeleteWhilst reading “Out of Debt: A tax increase is no way to start” I realized how much the presidents love to spend money. It is clear, as observed in the first ten years of this century, that presidents, regardless of their political standpoint have no problem spending the country’s monetary resources. When Bush’s tax cuts end this year, both Republicans and Obama’s administration agree that they should be further continued differ on who should have their taxes cut. Increasing taxes would help the nations revenue generate money but would only hurt Americans by further weakening the economy. If taxes were to be raised, the government would likely have no other option than to spend the revenue. A three-to-one ratio of spending cuts to tax increases would help the nation progress whilst make sure the Americans do not have to overpay severely in taxes. With control of the nations money, increased taxes can aid the nation back to a state of prosperity.
Merriam-Webster® Online (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/debt) defines "debt" as "something owed" and as "a state of owing". To put this into my own words, I define the word "debt” as owing a product, service, or other object of monetary value to another person or a group of others. Merriam-Webster® Online (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deficit) defines “deficit” as a “deficiency in amount or quality” and “a lack or impairment in a functional capacity”. To define this word in my own words, economically speaking, I define “deficit” as when the amount of money being spent goes beyond the amount of the money being gained.
ReplyDeleteThese two words differ in the way that “debt” is used to describe the act of owing something and “deficit” is used to describe when someone is simply experiencing a negative profit. An example of debt would be if Country X had run out of money to spend and borrowed money from Country Y. Country X would then owe money to Country Y and therefore be in debt to Country Y. An example of deficit would be if Country X’s government is spending more money on programs and various social services than bringing in money from profits from areas such as government-affiliated organizations. “Debt” and “deficit” are similar in the way that the action of having a deficit for long enough will cause an organization, administration, or person to go in to debt. The terms go hand in hand in that if Country X is spending more money than it brings in, it will eventually owe money due to the rate of spending being higher than the rate of income.
According to “historians.org,” debt is created whenever one of the two companies has a transaction and puts off keeping his end of the agreement. One party is immediately benefited because the other person has kept their end of the negotiation. According to this article, the United States are in a federal debt, which is all the money borrowed by the federal government over the years before the Articles of Confederation (Article Six, Clause One). As stated in Government in America, page 436, a deficit arises when “expenditures exceeds revenues in a fiscal year.” What this means is that the government spends more money than the total of the taxes that they receive. For example, if a country exports more than it imports then that country has a trade deficit (dictionary.com). Debt and deficit can have both similarities and differences. A debt can be a loan and a deficit can be a budget shortfall or a business loss. Debt is also the total amount owed of the deficit. They are similar because debt is an accumulation of deficit. However, a deficit can be constant, but debt cannot be constant when there is a deficit.
ReplyDeleteNew York Times clearly states that even though many people know about the over whelming deficit in the United States, they are not blaming themselves but the stimulus plan. Because most of the problems came from the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, it makes up about forty percent that is in our budget. It also mentions many things that just plainly would worsen the economy such as, cutting back on spending on the relief and recovery and the lowering the current tax. By increasing tax revenues significantly, and returning to a “solid economic growth,” the government will have less to deal with because those are the best ways of controlling this deficit. Some other possible ways of controlling this would be decreasing the number of people who uses health aids. With this, it is possible that for the next decades would not have to deal with a deficit of with a booming increase of trillions of dollars. However, we wouldn’t be dealing with this problem if it wasn’t for the Bush-era tax cuts and Obama trying to help consumers get their jobs back. Having to pay for two wars, lead to the outstanding deficit of over one trillion dollars as of 2009. Even though many people will be unsatisfied with increasing the taxes, in the end, our economy will be better with no outstanding deficit.
The “Tipping Point” described in Real Clear Politics, is none other than the major deficits that will cause debts to rise immensely. Because of this growing crisis, government officials say that there is no particular tipping point of debt relative to gross domestic product (GDP), indicating that a disaster is likely or about to happen. The size of this deficit has reached a stunning level of sixty two percent of the GDP. Although the number has only passed fifty percent after World War II, government officials are saying that the percentages will continue to rise. The debt again increased by about two thirds and is increasing by that amount each year. A good reason that this happened is that the GDP was turned down and government spending increased. Because of the actions taken by President Bush and President Obama, there is a belief that we may have to go through a Great Depression II. However, if they did not take the approach they did, the quantity of jobs lost would have been 8.5 million. If something isn’t done to reduce this deficit, then the best estimate is said that by 2035, the debt for Social Security and health programs will have reached about eighty percent of the GDP. A historian H.W. Brands said, "sooner or later, every country gets the foreign policy it can afford."
ReplyDeleteThe Chicago Tribune says that this debt has increased immensely ever since George W. Bush had a running of surpluses. Obama only increased the debt of the government but now also have the chance to extend the tax cuts because it is going to expire. If he does extend them then the economy would either stay as it is or most likely grow in the expanding debt. If they do not pass the bill then the amount of taxes would be greatly increased. This article also recommends that we should extend the tax cuts for a year and then see what the deficit costs proposes to restrict our addiction to debt. Increasing the taxes wouldn’t help because the government would use up more than all the money and that it would just be too stressful on the striving economy. The article also says that pulling in more tax revenues would not benefit our economy because the amount of debt that we are in from over the years is just too great. Erskine Bowles suggests that with a ratio of three to one would help in spending cuts and also benefit tax. Although it would be challenging, he believes that this would get the nation’s economy back on track.
Dictionary.com states that debt is an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. It states that deficit is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. Debt and deficit are similar in ways but they are also two very different things. Debt deals with owing money to someone or something, and it usually just involves two people or two companies or nations. Deficit is just the amount of money or goods that was lost in a particular time period, and usually deals with a single person or company. The two are similar because the both deal with losing something and eventually having to give it back, both terms are negative also. They closely tie together because deficit will turn into debt if it is not paid or given back.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article I learned that the U.S. has a huge deficit right now. It is about $1.4 trillion. And at the rate we are going, the deficit is estimated to remain around $1 trillion for the next decade. What makes up most of the deficit is spending on Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security. Increasing taxes is really the only thing that can help this problem right now, because that will give the government more money. George W. Bush started causing the deficit and Obama has done nothing but make it worse. Debt totals are now around $9 trillion and 6 percent of the national budget is going towards the debt. The deficit and debt problems needs to be fixed VERY soon or it is just going to end up causing a crisis.
In the second article I learned that with growing budget deficits, debt will rise to very high levels, and the higher the debt, the greater risk there is of being a crisis. Recently our debt has reached record highs and federal debt is about 62% of GDP (the size of the economy) and it has only been over 50% one other time and that was after World War II. George W. Bush caused the national debt to increase by 2/3 in 4 years and Obama caused it to spike by 1/3 in two years! Debt is honestly just expecting to rise because of the spending on health care and social security, but it needs to stop before it rises anymore.
In the third article I learned that debt is just getting worse, not better. Tax increases are not the solution, it will just cause the government to spend more money. We are really in the problem we are in because George W. Bush spent a lot of money, and then Obama just spent more money to make it worse. The best option right now to solve this huge problem is to just extend the tax cuts that are in place for a year and see what happens.
Dictionary.com defines debt as an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Dictionary.com also defines deficit as a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. These two words are different because debt is money that you owe someone. An example would be if I borrowed a dollar from my mom, I am in debt to her by a dollar because that is what I owe her. Deficit is money that is spent that you never had. An example would be if I went and bought a shirt but I never had the money to pay for it. These words are related because they both deal with loss of money.
ReplyDeleteThe first article helped show how the national deficit is not getting better, but worse. The estimated deficit of 2010 is $1.4 trillion and is expected to stay at $1 trillion a year for the next decade. Problems that started this can be traced back to when President Bush began the tax breaks. This began the downward spiral since the country was trying to pay for two ongoing wars. When President Obama came to office, the problem only got worse when the economy began to decline. Obama spent over $862 billion in economic stimulus. Now Republicans are wanting to extend the Bush tax breaks. It is hard to take down the deficit when you have no money coming in. It is even harder when there are really no places to cut out of your budget. 40 percent goes toward Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, 15 percent goes toward economic stimulus, around 14 percent goes toward safety net programs, and about 20 percent goes to programs for health and environmental protection. It would not be right to take money away from these programs, especially in the downed economy. The only places that money can come from are by raising taxes, something citizens don't want to hear, or cut money from the defense spending, which would be hard to do during a time of war.
The second article talks about how the national debt will soon become a problem that we will not be able to control. Our country is over $13 trillion in debt and it shows signs of becoming worse. Debt will constitute 62 percent of GDP or the size of our economy this year, the highest it has ever been. The reason for this is because government spending soared. Many believe that government spending has helped stall a second Great Depression, but for how long? Rising debt could become the downfall of America. Since politicians cannot agree on what to do, the solution to our problem may never get fixed.
The third article talks about the Bush Administration tax cuts. These tax cuts run out this December 31st. Republicans are wanting to extend these tax cuts for the middle-class. Congress agrees, but the President doesn't. If both don't agree, the tax cuts will vanish and everyone will be hit with much higher taxes, This would worsen the problems since the economy has slowed and more taxes would hurt it even more. They hope the tax cuts will be extended for at least a year, giving people enough time to perhaps be better off.
Debt- the difference between all the money that our federal government has ever spent and all the revenue it has collected since our nation's inception.
ReplyDeleteDeficit- the difference between the amount of money spent and the amount received during a particular year.
Debt and Deficit are different because debt is how much money I would owe someone and it keeps adding up. Deficit is how much money I’m going over compared to what I’m making. (Spending money I never had) For example if I make 2,000 a month but I spend 2,100 a month and each month a I add a deficit of 100 dollars which is funded by a credit card. By the end of the year I would have 1,200 dollars in debt for the year. 1,200 dollars in debt would just add on to your debt the year before and the year before that and so on. Debt and Deficit are the same because both terms deal with losing money (negative) and having to either cut down on spending to repay someone or to stay at level of spending with what you make per month. Deficit will add to previous debt.
Article one clearly states that the Deficit size is huge. The U.S government has a wide gap between the amount of money being collected from taxes and how much the government is spending. To solve this problem government would have to increase tax revenues. When bush cut taxes and the U.S had to pay for 2 wars it left the nation chronically short of revenue. A reasonable goal would be to reduce the deficits to where it will no longer be outgrowing the economy. Spending that would be hard to cut is Medicare and Medicaid.
Article 2 stated that the congress is not doing anything to try to control the deficit of the U.S. Soon the U.S debt will be a problem that cannot be controlled. GDP is declining and government spending is increasing. Since George W. Bush was in office debt increased by about two thirds and stands at about 13 trillion today. Sooner or later the nation will have to decide what it can “afford” and not what it “wants.”
The third article tells us that the economy was running on surplus until Bush, and now with Obama debt is becoming worse. If the congress and the president can’t agree on whether to extend tax cuts it would create a bigger problem then what we have now. Article three says that extending tax cuts would be a mistake in the long run and that the best option would be to extend tax cuts for a year and see how it works out.
According to Dictionary.com, debt is an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Also from Dictionary.com, deficit is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. Debt and deficit are very closely related, but are also very different. Debt is money that the country owes and had to pay back. Deficit is money that the country loses each year. At the end of the year, deficit becomes debt; the higher the deficit, the higher the debt.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “What They’re Not Telling You,” I learned that the deficit in the United States is a very big issue. I learned that the gap between the spending and taxes collected is expected to be between $1.4- $1.5 trillion. I also learned that the amount of deficit is not expected to go down within the next decade, but remain at about $1 trillion. The biggest things that the United States spends money on these days are Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. These three things make up approximately forty percent of the spending. The damage done had a lot to do with the tax cuts that Bush made. It also had a lot to do with having to pay for two wars. I learned that the tax cuts that were supposed to expire at the end of 2010 are probably going to be extended. Obama wants to freeze the discretionary spending (education, environmental protection, food and drug safety, scientific research, and diplomacy), which would save about $11 billion next year. This would cause a lot of problems with people, but would ultimately help the national deficit.
In the article “The Tipping Point of American Debt”, I learned that the growing deficits will cause a ridiculously huge amount of debt. I learned that the debt will be equal to 62% of the country’s spending. This is the first time since World War II that it has been over 50%. I learned that the debt has risen nearly a third in the past two years and the United States is now in debt of about $13 trillion. I learned that without the governments help, about 8.5 million more jobs would have been lost on top of the 8 million that were lost. The debt will not only hurt our economic power, but also our physical power.
In the article “Out of debt: A tax increase is no way to start,” I learned that both Republicans and Democrats are good at running up the government debt. I learned that the tax cut that Bush issued is supposed to end this year and if it is not renewed, there will be a huge tax increase. I learned that the deficit began getting bad with Bush as a President, and has only gotten worse with Obama. I think that if we extend the tax cuts for another year, it will help out the deficit issue.
According to Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/debt), debt is “an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another.” Also according to Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deficit), a deficit is “a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits.” These two terms are different in a way that debt is money that someone owes while deficit is when someone spends more money than they make. For example, if John borrowed twenty dollars from Jane, John would be twenty dollars in debt. However, if John earned twenty dollars, but spent fifty dollars, John would have a deficit of thirty dollars. They are related because having a deficit will cause someone to go into debt, or add to pre-existing debt.
ReplyDeleteThe first article, “What They’re Not Telling You,” placed a lot of information on the table. The article claims that there is a lot of talk about how to solve the national deficit in Washington D.C., however very little of this talk is truly serious. For 2010, there is a projected deficit of $1.4 trillion. Also, if current tax and spending policies continue, it is estimated that the deficit will continue to be around $1 trillion per year for the next decade, after which the deficit will explode and double in size by 2050. However, cutting spending on things such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would worsen the economic slowdown, without really helping the deficit in the long term. For the short term, the biggest help to the deficit problem will be an upwards turn in the economy, resulting in increased tax revenues. However, much more than just economic growth will be needed to solve this problem. The truth that so few politicians are willing to tell is that significant tax increases are desperately needed. According to the article, our nation was running a surplus under Bill Clinton for three years when he left office in 2001. By the time George W. Bush had left office, our nation was running a deficit for seven years. A large portion of the downhill slide in the economy was due to the Bush-era tax cuts. These tax cuts left the nation short of revenue, especially with having to pay for two wars. The fact that many politicians are trying to extend these tax cuts is not going to help the deficit, only worsen the problem. Because of the spending to try to contain the recession, the debt has risen under President Obama to $1.4 trillion. What makes cutting spending so difficult, is that only 20% of the budget that could be cut is non-defense spending. Defense spending is usually hollow ground for cutting spending, but there may have to be some very strong thinking in that department.
I also learned a lot from the second article, “The ‘Tipping Point’ of American Debt.” According to the article, our nation’s debt has reached historic levels. By the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the federal debt will add up to 62 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, or GDP. This number has only gone above fifty percent once before, which was during and shortly after World War II. During George W. Bush’s presidency, the national debt increased by two-thirds. With this recession, debt increased a third in two years, currently standing at about $13 trillion, according to Treasury records. The article says that the real debate isn’t about whether or not the government should have stepped in. It is about the extent of their action. Without government action, another 8.5 million jobs would have been lost, on top of the 8 million jobs that were actually lost. Sooner or later, this nation will need to make serious changes in the way it spends and collects dollars, whether it likes it or not.
ReplyDeleteThe third article was “Out of debt: A tax increase is no way to start.” For those who think the government can’t do anything it sets out to do, they are wrong. The government is extremely good at running up government debt. The article states that while budget spending under George W. Bush was bad, spending is worse under Obama. This year’s deficit is expected to nearly reach $1.5 trillion. The Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire December 31 of this year. Republicans want to extend all of the tax cuts. The administration agrees, however they want to raise taxes on upper-income households. Due to the large deficit, raising tax revenue is an appealing idea to many in Washington. However, this will not help anything much. According to the article, the government would spend all of the extra money and then some because there is very little spending restraint. Also, it does not make sense to “place a new weight” on the already struggling economy. The best idea for now is to extend the tax cuts for a year while the deficit commission tries to come up with a new idea to solve this issue. There will, of course, be some boost in revenues, but it will most likely be in covering tax loopholes that are no longer useful. Also, it would be pointless to raise revenue if spending wasn’t decreased as well. One suggestion says to decrease spending cuts by $3 for every $1 in tax increase. This won’t be an easy path, but hopefully it will allow us to get ourselves back to fiscal sanity.
According to Merriam-webster.com the definition of debts is something owed. Deficit according to Merriam- webster.com is an excess or overspending of revenue. Debt and deficit are very similar but they are also very different concepts. While both words deal with money debts is something that is owed and you must pay back after time. But deficit is how much money or goods have been lost over time, money that you will not get back. You simply don't have the money.
ReplyDeleteThe first article “ What They're Not Telling You.” has opened my eyes to see how badly our country is in debt. Our country is $9 trillion dollars in debt and the only way to fix is to raise taxes and cut spending. But our government has to be very careful where they cut spending because our biggest cost is Medicaid and Medicare, it makes up over 40% of the nations budget. It is projected to keep rising if we don't do something to fix it. But the change can't be to drastic because many elderly people use that money to pay for their medical costs. All the tax cuts the Bush administration made really hurt our debt level exceptionally with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan costing so much. The stimulus program isn't helping our debt level, it is said that it is helping the deficit rise this year to over 28% but it is projected to lower to only 14% in 2011. President Obama has plans to lower our debt and decrease the amount of deficit in our country, people may not like them but if we want to help our economic situation they will be needed.
“The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt” is the title of the second article. The author put into perspective what our nation is going through with the analogies he started off with, basically if we don't change the way we spend money and how much we spend our kids will have crazy amounts of debt to pay for our mistakes. From the time Bush was sworn into office in 2008 to now the national debt has increased two-thirds, probably from all those tax cuts. There were 8 million jobs lost and if the government wouldn't have stepped in there would have been 8.5 million more lost jobs. This article projects our national debt to be roughly 13 trillion, and they expect it to keep rising unless we cut spending. This journalist thinks that if we don't make a change then our country is headed toward a second great depression, not in the near future but it will happen sooner or later if changes aren't made to our spending. To prevent this both parties need to work together to help our debt problem. Once our nation reaches the tipping point it will be hard to make a comeback.
The article titled “Out of Debt” is mostly talking about Bush tax cuts. The tax cuts want to be extended by republicans because they run out this December 31st. If congress and the president don't agree to keep the cuts then they will vanish which would make for a large tax increase. By increasing taxes it will hurt the economy that is already weak because people won't have as much money to spend on good and help it grow. The government is trying to put together a plan that consists of having a dollar tax for every three dollars in spending cuts. This effort will not be easy but it is a start.
Debt is the total money that a country owes. Deficit is the amount of money a country loses each year. Debt and deficit are different because debt is a total, while a deficit is an amount based on the year. They are similar because debt and deficit both have to do with an owing of money by a country. Every year, the debt increases or decreases based on the deficit.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first article, I learned that cutting back spending in order to help decrease the deficit will be difficult. No matter what part of the spending the government chooses to cut back, there will always be citizens against it. Raising taxes is also something that will meet strong opposition but is also necessary to help improve the national debt. Cuts in spending and raising taxes are two things that will meet opposition, but need to be done in order to decrease the deficit and debt.
After reading the second article, I realized just how serious of a problem that the national debt is. Federal debt, held by the public, will constitute 62 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDR). This is the first time this ratio has been over 50 percent since World War II. I also learned that action needs to be taken as soon as possible, but may not be. The government may wait too long. Action by the government cannot be delayed until serious consequences are evident.
After reading the third article, I learned that tax cuts may not be the best option. I also learned that the government may not be as eager to improve the debt situation as the public might like to think. As beneficial to the debt as tax increases may seem, the government may not spend that money to pay back the national debt. However, extending the tax cuts would just give the government an excuse to put off the problem for another year until this situation arrives again.
According to Merriam-webster.com, the definition of debt is something owed. The definition of deficit, also according to Merriam-webster.com, is the excess of expenditure over revenue, which is basically overspending with money that you don’t have. These two terms are different because a debt, you have to pay back over time, while a deficit is the spending of money that you never had. These two terms are related because they both have a lot to do with what is going in our governments financial problems.
ReplyDeleteThe article “what they’re Not Telling You” really made me realize how badly our country was in debt. The debt all started when Clinton was in office, then the problems only got worse when Bush-era tax cuts made spending tight with two wars going on. The stimulus has also contributed to the debt, so far it accounts for 28% of the country’s debt so far for 2010. But in order to increase revenue, the government would either have to cut spending from programs like Medicare, or increase taxes. Obama will have to make some decisions about what programs to cut pretty soon because we cant go much longer spending like this.
In the article “The ‘Tipping Point” of American Debt” it states that we need to change our spending habits in order for us to prevent going into a second Great Depression. Debt will account for 62% of the GDP or size of the economy, which isn’t a good thing since the last time it spiked over 50% was shortly after WWII. Also, national debt increased two-thirds during the Bush Administration, which Obama hasn’t exactly made up for. The article said that we might be reaching our tipping point pretty soon, and once we’ve reached that, it’s a long journey back to the way things were. Also, sooner or later tough choices will have to be made and the government will be forced to only spend what they can afford.
The article “Out of Debt” was about the Bush-era tax cuts. In order to resolve the conflicts involving these tax cuts democrats and republicans will need to work together and compromise. The article says that the wisest thing to do would be to extend the tax cuts for another year in order to give the government time to propose something that will help get us away from our spending. Also, spending discipline and revenue measures can both help pull our country out of debt, or at least lessen the debt.
Debt is defined as, an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Deficit is defined as, a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. With both debt and deficit one party owes another party money. But deficit does not exisit without debt.
ReplyDeleteIn the article "What They're Not Telling You", I learned, deficit in the United States is growing and there is not much that the government can do at this point that will make a significant impact. The deficit problem effects everyone; rich, poor, old, and young. The republicans and democrats want to blame each other but it is everyones' problem. In order to fix the deficit problem it will take a long time and taxes will need to be raised. President after president the deficit is growing and they are doing nothing about it, except making more debt. With all the tax cuts and stimulus packages and the expence of two wars this problem will have to be delt with by several generations.
In the article The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt, I learned that debt has been an on going probalem for years. The amount of debt has not been this bad since after World War II. Without some action this is going to affect our political power in the world.
In the article Extend the George W. Bush tax cuts for now, I learned that doing away with the tax cuts that expire on December 31, will not make much difference with our already slow economy. It would only slow it down even more. Instead to increase revenue by eliminating some tax loopholes. At the same time the government would need to decrease spending, in order to help balance the budget.
Dictionary.com states that Debt is an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Dictionary.com also stated that Deficit is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. Debt and Deficit, though they seem to be similar, are two different concepts. Both terms deal with money, but having Debt means something was owed to you that you, over time, will have to pay back. Deficit is how much money or goods were lost in a specific time period. The two terms go together because a deficit will turn into debt if the money or goods is not given back.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first article,"What They're Not Telling You", I began to realize just how deep our country is in debt. I learned that in 2010, the government is projected to collect $2.2 trillion in taxes and spend $3.6 trillion, leaving a gap of $1.4 trillion. I learned that deficits are estimated to remain $1 trillion a year for the next decade, and then explode to twice the size of todays deficit by the year 2050. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up about 40 percent of government spending, so the costs of these programs will need to go down or the country will face an even bigger deficit crisis. Saving money is the main weapon to defeat a national deficit crisis. Raising taxes would face tough opposition but needs to be done to help improve national debt. If something doesn't get done soon, the United States could bury themselves in a whole that they can't dig out of.
After reading "The Tipping Point of American Debt", I realized that national debt is more of a problem than I thought. Our national debt has reached historic levels. Federal debt, held by the public, will constitute 62 percent of the nation's gross domestic product by the end of 2010. This is only the second time in history that this ratio has exceeded 50 percent, the first during WWII. According to treasury records, national debt stands at about $13 trillion. This happened because GDP declined and government spending soared. Two leading economists reported that the Bush and Obama administration measures likely did forestall a second Great Depression. But this will not be able to happen everytime. If another crisis erupts will we have the wherewithal to intervene at this scale again? If nothing gets done, rising debt could very well be the downfall of our great country.
After reading "Out of Debt", I learned that tax cuts are not the best option to help eliminate national debt. The Bush administration's tax cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of this calender year. If congress and President Obama do not agree to keep the tax cuts then they would vanish, causing a large tax increase. I learned the wisest option to decrease national debt would be to extend the tax cuts for a year and then see what the deficit comission proposes to curtail our addiction to debt, according to the article. A suggestion states to decrease spending cuts by $3 for every $1 in tax increases. This will not be easy, but maybe it is a start to decreasing national debt slowly but surely.
According to Definitions.net debt means money owed to a person or a party. Deficit according to Definitions.net means a "deficiency in amount or quality." Debt and deficit are different because a debt is how much a person or group owes a deficit is how much they lose a year.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first three paragraphs i realize how big of a national deficit we have.A 1.4 trillion dollar deficit in one year is very circumstantial loss. The article states that if we cut our spending right now our economy would slow worse than it already has and that it would only cause a small dent in the future. Taxes need to be raised and spending needs to be cut.
The second article states that our GDP is at 62 percent this is the first time in history it has been over 50% since WWII. The article also states that we do not know where and when our tipping point will come but when it does we are in serious trouble.
The third article i now believe that tax cuts are not the best option for our debt. The problem with fixing the debt is that larger , higher income households will take a bigger hit than lower income households. Which means members of Congress will take the fall which holds them back. I learned that tax cuts just delay the problem until it arises again later on.
Using “Dictionary.com,” I came to see that debt is the amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Deficit on the other hand is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that these two words do not have an extensive difference. In fact they come together; each year's deficit is added to the existing debt. The difference is that debt is the amount of money that a party owes from borrowing or just spending too much and “deficit” is the act of spending more than you’re bringing in as a profit.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article, “What they’re not telling you,” I learned that various people are clearly informed that the United States is in an over whelming deficit. However, all the blame is put onto the stimulus plan; no one is taking responsibility or even taking the situation serious. I also learned Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, makes up about forty percent of our budget. I learned in the previous year, the government was projected to collect $2.2 trillion in taxes and spend $3.6 trillion, leaving a deficit of $1.4 trillion. Therefore, raising taxes and cuts in spending is going to be the answer to decrease the Federal debt and deficit.
In the second article, “The Tipping Point if American Debt,” I learned our national debt has reached historic levels and something needs to be done as soon as possible. The national debt increased two-thirds during the Bush Administration, in which Obama has not come close to making up for. Debt will account for 62% of the GDP at the end of this year, and not to mention the last time it exceeded over 50% was during World War II. The reasoning behind this is, GDP has decreased, and however, federal spending has increased drastically. I learned that our national debt is going to be roughly thirteen trillion, and may be more due to our unlimited spending amounts. Unfortunately, it appears that our country is headed towards a second great depression and the only solution to this is if we make changes quickly, before it is too late.
The third article, “Out of Debt,” I learned that raising taxes may not be the solution to our countries debt. Reason being, having citizens with less money, is not going to support our economy very well. The government is looking to make a plan as follows; having a dollar tax for every three dollars in spending cuts. The Bush administration's tax cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of this calendar year, however, congress and President Obama have the option to agree and keep the tax cuts. If they do not then they will vanish, and obviously causing a massive tax increase. If this does take place, then our country is headed down a bumpy road.
Debt is an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another (dictionary.com). Deficit is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits (ditionary.com). Even though these two terms are related by the loss of money, they actually are two very different concepts. When people borrow money, and they then have to pay it back is considered debt. Deficit is just simply spending money that you never had in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article, i learned that in 2010, the government is projected to collect $2.2 trillion in tax, and then spend $3.6 trillion, leaving a huge gap of $1.4 trillion. Also, if the current taxes continue, then America will have a deficit of $1 trillion for the next decade. And, it will increase to twice that size by 2050. Economic growth is not enough, in order for the deficit to be put on a sustainable path, we will have to issue significant tax increases on all of the citizens in America. And, social security and healthcare make up only 40 percent of the deficit. Apparently, the stimulus is responsible for an estimated 15 percent in 2009, 28 percent in 2010, and 11 percent in 2011.
In the second article, I learned that the United State's debt has reached historical levels, 62 percent. This is the first time our country's debt has reached over 50 percent since WWII. And, according to Treasury records, the debt is about $13 trillion. Two leading economists have reported that the Bush and Obama administration likely did forestall and second Great Depression.
In the third article, I learned that the tax cuts passed under Bush are to expire December 13, 2010. Republicans would like to extend them, and the administration agrees except for higher-income households. But, if the President and Congress do not agree, then America will be hit with a heavy tax increase. But, even with the extra money, many people believe that the government will just spend it rather than pay off the existing debt.
Debt according to my Webster’s Dictionary is something owed to another or the condition of owing. Liability, obligation, mortgage, duty, arrears, deficit, note, bill, account payable, indebtedness. Deficit the amount by which sum of money is less than the required amount. Shortage, paucity, deficiency.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “What They’re Not Telling You” they say that there is a lot of talk about deficit but none of it is really serious they are just playing on the anxiety of the people about the economy. But the deficits size is a large amount. There is about a 1 trillion dollar gap between the government’s spending and what they really have to spend. If the current spending polices continue the deficit will remain about $1 trillion. But if they cut spending the money on the relief efforts the economy would worsen.
In the second article “The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt” they author says that if the deficit continues it will cause debt to the government to where it is way out of hand. The budget support wasn’t anything new this year. The government’s debt has reached an all time high. The government’s debt was before the economy went soar. Most of the debt was caused by George Bush. And in two years the debt has increased about two thirds. This year’s recession is almost as bad as the Great Depression and if something isn’t done we might not be able to get out of it.
In the third article “Out of debt: A tax increase is no way to start” the article states that the government can’t do anything but continue to rack up debt. With George Bush’s tax cuts due to expire soon they want to extend it but the Congress and President can’t agree then taxes will increase. Even if the taxes increased it wouldn’t make the gap any better and the government would just spend it all anyway and maybe some more. But if taxes are increased it won’t make the economy any better it will just make it worse for the citizens.
Debt- An amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/debt)
ReplyDeleteDeficit- A situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits.(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deficit) The difference between the two terms lies in that with debt, it is how much money a person/group owes another person/group, while with deficit, it is how much money is lost based on how much is being brought in. (Spending money you don't have) The two terms are similar in that both deal with the loss of money.
From the first article "What They're Not Telling You" I learned that the problem of national deficit is more serious than what I had previously thought. In 2010 alone, the government is projected to collect $2.2 trillion in taxes and spend $3.6 trillion, leaving a deficit of $1.4 trillion. The deficit is estimated to remain around the $1 trillion mark for the next decade.The current budget looks something like 40 percent going toward Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, 15 percent going toward economic stimulus, around 14 percent going toward safety net programs, and about 20 percent going toward programs for health and environmental protection. It is hard to get rid of deficit when you do not have a steady supply of money coming in. The most logical option seems to be to simply raise taxes, something the people of America will not be pleased with.
From the second article "The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt" I learned that the country's debt has risen to historic levels. The debt will be equal to 62% of the country's spending. The ratio has only risen above 50% once before, and that was during world War 2. Action should be taken sonner ratherthan later, but it may not be. The author hints that a second Great Depression is possible if spending ways do not change.
From the third article "Out of Debt: A Tax Increase is No Way to Start" I learned that both Republicans and Democrats are very good at running up governmental debt. I also see that raising taxes may not necessarily be the best option to resolve our country's debt.Tax cuts passed under Bush are to expire December 13, 2010, this will not make much difference to the economy. Co-chairman Erskine Bowles suggests a ratio of $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases. No one thinks this will be easy, but itmay be perhaps the best method to decrease national debt.
Deficit is when the total amount of money doesn’t reach the amount that was required. Debt is money that was borrowed and will have to be returned, or owed after it has been used. They are different because debt is an amount of money owed, but deficit is money needed to reach a certain amount of money. They are similar because they both have to deal with money, and deficit can turn into a debt, when borrowing money to try to reach the required amount of money.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article, what I learned about the national deficit this year was at a large amount of 1.4 trillion, and it will remain around the same amount for many years to come if nothing gets solved and things do not change. So how can the situation be solved, it seems that raising taxes is in favor, so the most probable answer to this situation will be to increase taxes. Many citizens will be opposed to this, but something needs to be done to change the outstanding amount of national deficit and debt.
In the second article, I learned that the main reason of national debt increasing is due to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreasing. And because of Gross Domestic Product declining it has caused 8 million people to lose their jobs. I also discovered that we were once in a situation like this before, shortly after World War II ended. This article made me come to realization that National Debt is a serious issue that needs to become resolved.
In the third article, I have realized that if the tax cuts expire this December and do not become extended, the last thing that would need to happen is a tax increase to help solve the National Debt issue. Because not only would citizens have to start paying more when the tax cut expires but on top of that a tax increase would cause people to pay even more. So when reading this article I have learned that a tax increase would not be the answer after all. The best thing to do is to let the tax cut be extended and see what happens.
According to Dictionary.com debt is something that is owed, such as money, goods, or services .Deficit is the amount by which a sum of money falls short of the required amount. These terms are different because debt is how much money is owed and deficit is where you are spending more money than you are taking in. These terms are similar in the sense they both talk the loss of money
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first article it really suprised me what had been going on. I Knew we were in a time of deficit but I had no idea it was exceeding a trillion dollars. That wasnt what shocked me the most, I didn't like the fact that many of the republicans had been blaming the problem on the extended unemployment and forcing out the truth of how their irresponsibility with tax cuts is what got us into this in the first place. It seemed to me like the clinton years were pretty good for the economy in the fact that three of them were surpluses. Then came George W. Bush who sent the country into a massive deficit. Of course Obama with his stimulus plan put a bigger stress on the already rising deficit.
The second article was different that the first one because it had several new points of view. In it explained how the economy had Obama and Bush administrations to thank in the aspect of them helping prevent even futher job loss and putting more stress. If we think of the worst then the deficit is in a turn for catastrophe.with the debt ever rising we need to get a grip on the situation. I think there should be a limit on how much the government spending should be so that they can plan ahead for these types of situations.
The last article was explaining the role of taxes in the economy. The tax cuts during the Bush administration is what cause the deficit in the first place. Due to expire are the tax cuts and when they do it will bring a big change. Whos to say that a tax increase is actually good for us when the government gets our money how do we know they wont spend it all. this was one of the strongest points I found in the article
A deficit is when the actual amount is lower than expected or required. A debt is owing something or having an obligation to pay back. A deficit is different from a debt because a deficit may be unexpected and could mean you failed to do something. A debt is only a temporary failure. They are the alike because they both often deal with money and a deficit leads to debt.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article, I knew the U.S. was in a deficit, but I found out that it will stay at $1 trillion for about the next decade! Things have gone from bad to worse starting when Clinton left the White House and when the Bush Administration started tax cuts. And now, especially with two wars happening, the U.S. is having trouble with lowering debt and yearly deficits. Obama's stimilus added fuel to the fire and now we are running out ideas how to slow down spending. In this case the old saying, "you have to spend money to make money" is wrong. Also, there is not much funding we can cut without worsening our situation. One of the only places we can get money from is taxes. Not many citizens are up for that idea.
In the second article, I learned that national debt has to reach of a point the it will soar out of control and/or force us to change our lifestyles. I also learned that our gross domestic product (GDP, basically the size of our economy) is 62 percent. This is an all-time high. Some reasons like government spending and Bush's tax cut are to blame. Some politicians think that spending more will fix or stall the problems that can only be compared to as a great depression. Until politicains can agree on a solution, we are escalating down into debt.
In article three, I learned that the national debt is be run up way more than in the past and doesn't show much signs of stopping. With Bush's tax cuts ending soon, the government has two options, letting them expire and create more debt in the long run or extending them for one year and letting the deficit commission decide and what to do. Erskine Bowles suggest a $3 spending cut for every $1 tax increase. It will be a rough road ahead, and only time will tell what will happen
According to dictionary.com deficit is the amount by which a sum of money falls short of the required amount. According to dictionary.com debt is something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another. They are different in that debt is what you owe on something and deficit is the amount of money that you need to reach a certain amount. They are similar in that they both deal with money. In both of them you need money and also a deficit could turn into debt.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article I learned that the national deficit is $1.4 trillion. If the current tax and spending policies continue deficits will remain near $1 trillion for the next decade. If something is not done soon the deficit will probably just continue to rise. Forty percent of the budget is going to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. To solve this problem taxes might have to be raised. The American people will not like it but it might be what has to be done. Something has to be done to stop this deficit.
In article two I learned that the national debt stands at roughly $13 trillion. This is because the Gross Domestic Product or the size of the economy is declining. While that is declining, government spending is soaring. There has been 8 million jobs already lost. This debt power will not only impact our economic power but also our physical power. It needs to be resolved.
In the third article I learned that the tax cuts are supposed to expire this December. If the administration cant agree the economy will have a big tax increase. This would be a terrible mistake for the health of the economy. This is not the way to lower the national debt. I would extend the tax cut.
Debt is something that is owed from one person to another. Deficit is the amount by which a sum of money falls short of the required amount. These words are different because debt has to do with having to pay someone back and deficit is when you spend more money than you make. These words are alike because they both deal with the use of money.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article I was surprised to find out our country's deficit spending was so high. I never realized that it is now around $1.4 trillion. I also found out that the most costly things in the budget are Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The deficit spending started when Bill Clinton was in office and it got worse when George Bush took office and had us in two wars. Spending continued to get worse and unless President Obama makes some wise decisions soon the problem is only going to get even worse.
The second article taught me about the gross domestic product or (GDP). GDP is decreasing which is part of what is causing our national debt. Also, I discovered that this is a situation that our nation has been in before, after World War II. This is the first time since then that the debt has been over 50%. The Bush and Obama administrations were likely what prevented the second Great Depression.
In the third article it explained that both parties do a fair job of running up national debt. I don't think that raising the taxes would be a good idea because citizens are already paying to much. I think that right now the best thing to do would be to extend Bush's plan until President Obama can figure out a better solution.
According to Dictionary.com, debt is something that is owed or bound to pay to another. The definition of deficit is the amount that falls short of the required amount. Debt and Deficit are related because all of the deficit added together tells you how much debt you are in. The two are different because debt is the total amount that you owe someone and deficit is the amount that was not paid.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article,"What They're Not Telling You", I learned that the deficit in America is a major issue. America's deficit is around $1.4 trillion. The Republicans blame the deficit on the stimulus plan but the truth is that getting rid of the plan would hurt the economy more than it would help it. If the government continues to spend money like they are spending now the deficit will remain around $1 trillion for the next decade.Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are the reason why the government spends so much money.The only thing that will help lessen the deficit will economic growth and increasing tax revenues. The deficit started to begin when President Bush was in office and cut taxes. The debt of the U.S. has now reached a total of $9 trillion. The only way to lower the country's deficit is to raise taxes now and in the future and to possibly to make cuts in some programs in the future.
In the second article,"The Tipping Point of American Debt",I learned that Congressmen and other officials don't want to change their spending habits to try to help the economy. The debt of the U.S. has reached a point that is historical. The debt is said to have increased when Bush came to office. The best scenario for our economy is still not good. No one knows what the tipping point is but at this rate the deficit will keep getting larger and larger putting the U.S. in more and more trouble. One official said the national debt is like cancer meaning it will keep spreading until it takes over and kills the economy. Soon the U.S. will have to decide what it is going to do to lower deficit. The government is going to have to decide what it can afford at what it has to stop spending money on.
The third article,"Out of Debt: A Tax Increase is no way to Start",I learned that the government likes to spend more money than it has. Before Bush the government had a surplus of money but when he came to office the U.S. started to have a deficit. Then Obama raised the deficit to higher levels. Republicans want to extend tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of the year. Raising tax revenues would hurt the economy and not help it because people already struggling to pay bills will have to struggle to pay more taxes. The best thing to do is to extend tax cuts for one more year and then see what needs to be done next.
According to dictionary.com debt is something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another, and Deficit is the amount by which a sum of money falls short of the required amount. the two terms are similar in the fact that they both deal with losing money or owing some one something. The two terms are different in the fact that a debt is something to be paid back and a deficit is how much you could not payback.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first article "What They're Not Telling You" i was surprised that our nation was in such a high amount of debt and that government officials were so easily blaming the problem on things such as unemployment, when tax cuts are what has got the nation into the position it is in today. I also find it very irresponsible that the government so willing ignores the issue and that we are going to be another 1.4 trillion dollars in debt. the only thing i can see being done to help the debt is an increase in taxes.
In the second article "The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt" there are different views on how the debt has become too its current position. This article states that the Bush and Obama administration actually prevented a second great depression from occurring. Even without these administrations slowing the debts growth it is still rising uncontrollable and will eventually reach catastrophic levels. this year federal debt will equal 62% of the economy's spending this number has only been over 50% once before after World War Two.
The last article "Out of debt: A tax increase is no way to start" debates if a tax increase would help or not. If we increase taxes we are not sure the government will not just spend more money and make the increase useless or if they will keep spending levels the same and help the national debt. Or if the increase will just make the economy struggle even more and cause a total collapse. the third article also says that the government needs to improve its spending habits to help the situation from getting much worse.
Debt is an amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another (dictionary.com). Deficit is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits (ditionary.com). They are the similar by in both cases we have to give up money. The difference between the two is that a debt is a set price once we pay back the debt we stop losing money, but if your in a deficit you are continually losing money.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article I learned how we will collect 2.2 trillion dollars from taxes but our government will spend 3.6 trillion dollars leaving us in a 1.4 trillion dollar hole. The worst thing though is these deficits estimated to about $1 trillion will remain for the next 10 years and will just get worse after that. We are in this mess because George W. Bush and his tax cuts. Our spending plan goes by: 40% going to Medicare, medicade, and social security, 15% going to economic stimulus, 14% going toward safety net programs, and 20% going towards health and environmental protection. We need to raise our taxes to get out of debt. Americans won’t like this but it is what the country needs. “ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country” – JFK
In the 2nd article I learned that a risk of crisis will continue to grow until our deficits start to shrink. George W. Bush caused debt to increase by 2/3 in 4 years wile Obama increased it by 1/3 in only 2 years. If this keeps growing I fear we won’t be able to control it. It’s not that we want change, its we need change and our government is making the wrong choices.
For some reason the republicans want to extend the tax cuts. I found this out in article 3, and my question to them is why? This will just make things worse. The only thing we can really do is discipline our spending habits. No matter what we do it will be difficult, there is no easy or smooth path. People can’t also suspect a rapid decrease in debt, it will take a lot of time to shrink.
According to dictionary.com debt is something that is owed, such as money, goods, or services. According to dictionary.com deficit is the amount by which an actual sum is lower than that expected or required. Debt and deficit are different because debt is the amount of money someone owes somebody else, and deficit is where someone is spending more money then they get.The two words are related because they both have to do with lossing money.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article I learned that the U.S. deficit is a big problem, and nothing is being done to stop the deficit. The deficit is about $1.4 trillion right now. The national deficit is growing fast and it will continue to grow. Medicare, Medicade, and socail security make up mast of the deficit spending. the best thing to do is increase the taxes so the government has more money to spend. The deficit problem started with George W. Bush and Obama has only made things worse. Debt is now up to $9 trillion and only 6 percent of the natinoal budget is going to pay for debt.something needs to be done about debt and deficit.
In the second article I learned that if the national deficit grows then it will cause the national debt to rise fast. Our debt has recently reached record highs, and the federal debt is 62 percent of GDP and has been over 50 percent only once before and that was right after World War II. Alot of people blame Bush and Obama, but they actually helped stop a second Great Depression. Debt is expected to rise because of all the spending on socail security and health care. Everyone thinks that it is a big deal but they are not doing anything about it.
In the third article I learned that debt is getting worse and the government is good at making the national debt larger. Obama was to make thinks better but he only made them worse then what they were. Increasing taxes is not the best solution because the government will probably spend more money. the best thing to do is to extend the tax cut for now and wait to see what the government comes up with to help.
In elementary English debt means owing something to someone with the intention of paying them back. An example of debt is that I lend money to a friend, and until they pay me back, they are in debt to me. Deficit in elementary English is the negative difference between the spending and the income. For example if my bills cost me $100 per month and I only make $75 a month I have a deficit of $25 a month. They differ in the fact that debt is what is physically owed to someone, and deficit is all of the debt added together. They are related because they both deal with being out of or short money.
ReplyDeleteIn the first article I learned that we can slowly start to fix out debt and deficit problems, but people are not going to like how it is going to be done. The only way to get us out of where we are is to slowly raise taxes and cut benefits. Most of the federal budget goes to programs that cannot be cut down without causing more problems. George W. Bush is the one who really sparked the deficit problem to begin. When he made his tax cuts, the debt of the country went skyrocketing.
The second article basically says that yes, we know we need to change how our government has been spending, but we aren’t quite sure how or where to do that yet. It also tells us that we won’t reach a ‘tipping point’ tomorrow, but we do know that it is coming. If the government doesn’t change what they are doing now, the country will be in for a rude awakening when the tipping point does come.
The third article realizes that President Bush is someone to point fingers at as to who started this, but there are more people to blame than just Bush. The tax cuts that Bush put into action are due to expire at the end of this year. Different government officials are debating on what the best thing is to do in regards of them, to extend them or let them expire.
The three articles in short, tell us that we realize we have a problem, we know how we could start to fix it, but we won’t because it will make too many people upset. The government knows that spending needs to decrease and income needs to increase, but as the old saying goes that is very well easier said, than done.
Debt according to dictionary.com is the amount of money borrowed and owed by one party to another. Also according to dictionary.com deficit is a situation in which liabilities exceed assets, expenditures exceed income, imports exceed exports, or losses exceed profits.They are different because debt is how much money is owed and deficit is where you are spending more money than you are taking in. They are similar because they both deal with the loss of money.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first article "What They're Not Telling You" I've learned that the problem of national deficit is extremely high. In 2010, the government is projected to collect $2.2 trillion in taxes and spend $3.6 trillion,which created a deficit of $1.4 trillion. The deficit is estimated to remain around $1 trillion for the next decade. If washington doesn't start lowering prices of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, America will face an even worse deficit problem. I feel that the best solution is to raise taxes.
After reading the second article "The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt" I'verealized that national debt is a bigger problem than I thought. Our national debt has reached historic levels. This is only the second time in history that this ratio has exceeded 50 percent, the first during WWII. According to treasury records, national debt stands at about $13 trillion. This occurred because GDP declined and the governments spending increased. If nothing is done, rising debt could be the downfall of this country.
After reading"Out of Debt: A Tax Increase is No Way to Start" I learned that tax cuts may not be the best option. I also learned that the government may not be as willing to help with the debt situation as we think. tax cuts passed under Bush are to expire December 13, 2010. Republicans would like to extend them. Even with the tax increase, people believe that the government will just spend it instead of paying off the debt.
Debts and a deficits do have similarities. In both situations, they involve losing money. Debt differs from deficit because yearly deficits can eventually become a national debt. Deficits aren't as long lasting in the ecomnomy because defictis are basically statistics, amounts of money lost in the year. Debts are the effects of deficits, and can last for at least a decade. According to http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu, debt is the state of owing something. The country's debt is how much money the country needs to pay back. A deficit is when more money is being spent than taking in. Since the average yealry deficit is one trillion dollars,The United States is losing that much money a year.
ReplyDeleteFor the first article, half of it I knew, and half of it I didn't. I knew that the national deficit has risen uder the Bush and Obama administrations, and it rose to over one trillion dollars. It's also obvious that neither political party didn't want to take the blame for their part in the rising deficit,like how Repulibcans are blaming the stimulus package and how the Democrats have done everything but discussed the debate. As if any politician would want to take the blame anyways. I didn't know about specific spendings of the American government that could have caused the growing deficits and national debt. Some of the biggest spendings are for safety net programs, which is 14 percent spending, and 40 percent going to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Maybe that's why Obama and the Democrats are pushing for free health care. Maybe that's why the eldery are worried about the futures of their Social Security.
"The 'Tipping Point' of American Debt" taught me about the predictions of the potentially rising deficits and debt of the United States in the next 40 years. Some economists are wondering if the amount of government interference can do the trick to help with some of the costs of healthcare, taxes, etc. Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi have calculated that without the government's meausers, 8.5 million jobs would have been lost instead of 8 million. Their policies included the Wall Street Bailout and the bank stress tests and the stimulus. Mainly this research has shown that government help with policies could possibly help slowly decrease national debt.
This last article of this blog has the main idea of the future of debt when the Bush tax cuts expire in December. If Congress and the president don't agree on an idea for tax renovations, then the U.S economy could see a big tax increase. The article says that if the taxes increase, the long term fiscal health of the economy would be in terrible condition. Erskine Bowels suggests that a good ratio of $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increase could help wih the decrease of spending money. Now the wisest decision is to extend the Bush tax cuts, accrodung to the article and see where that goes. Then we could see what the deficit commission proposes to help or hurt our obsession to debt.