Summary: President Obama and Congress had created an agreement that enables the president to borrow money unlimitedly until March 2017. This Boehner-Obama plan is said to be fully funded by cuts elsewhere, however Boehner himself left Congress last week. He understood that the situation was getting complicated and knew it was time to leave. The plan would enable somewhere around $154 billion increases to spending. Although the agreement promised to cover $112 billion, in reality only $78 billion is paid for in honesty. The remaining $56 billion which is mostly war spending and interest cost is never paid for. According to Obama, the agreement is meant to strengthen the middle class and invest in education, job training, basic research, national security, avoid Medicare and Social Security cuts, and it locks in two years of funding and break the cycle of shutdowns and manufactured crises which harm the economy. Before Obama was president, the national debt was $10.6 trillion and was an enormous issue. Currently the national debt is $18.15 trillion and will most likely reach $20 trillion when Obama leaves office, which nearly doubles the debt prior to his two terms.
Question: Do you believe the added debt cost is justified? Why or why not? Is there a solution to decreasing the national debt? If so, then how?
Boehner only stepped down as Speaker. He's still in Congress. In fact, now he has more time to play golf, smoke cigarettes & cry about his daddy being a bartender.
ReplyDeleteAs for the debt, here's a crazy video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WFP-2_iDYMU
Personally, I think the national debt is an interesting issue for the United States. On one hand, increased debt insures that the United States can remain on the world stage, acting as a key player in world globalization. On the other hand, it seems a bit unprecedented that Obama and staff are able increase the national debt and leave the country to the next president. It is almost certain that the US will continue to remain in debt for the next few years, so It seems like a more moderate issue. Additionally, there seems to be less concern about a balanced budget that in the mid to late 1900s.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the national debt is an interesting issue for the United States. On one hand, increased debt insures that the United States can remain on the world stage, acting as a key player in world globalization. On the other hand, it seems a bit unprecedented that Obama and staff are able increase the national debt and leave the country to the next president. It is almost certain that the US will continue to remain in debt for the next few years, so It seems like a more moderate issue. Additionally, there seems to be less concern about a balanced budget that in the mid to late 1900s.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the recently passed plan was justified, because, as a nation, we have only begun long term recovery from the Recession of 2008. Growth must be solidified by making sure all that education, Welfare and Infrastructure projects remain well-funded. If unemployment is allowed to rise again, then we could continue to see the anemic recovery that has plagued the US for several years. However, the debt does remain a significant issue, and likely will stay at the top of the list for a long time. Only with decreased spending and, most likely, increased taxes, will it ever be resolved.
ReplyDeleteAll things considered, it is necessary in a sense to increase the national debt. After all, we need to fund our schools, medicine, and other public facilities.The issue is, is that the debt isn't shrinking. As a country, we do need to try to lower it however we can. After all, it isn't wise to have a country that owes trillions in payments to others. The issue however, is that there is no easy way to lower the debt. It may very well take decades to even start to balance the budget. And it's quite likely that it will take at least twice as long to begin lowering the debt. It's going to take time, after all, it took time to build it up to this level.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the debt Obama has contributed to is indeed not all on his shoulders. Before his two terms in office, Bush left things a mess, Obama did a good job in trying to minimize the debt best as possible. With the debt increasing, it is at a significantly huge number being at 65$ trillion, scary to see these numbers growing. Theres not much America can do to reverse this besides taxing the people of this nation. Bring taxation up, and a lot of problems not only the debt, will dissipate.
ReplyDeleteAfter the recession hit this country hard in 2008 and plummeted us into trillion dollar debt, it has only been a small hike up from there. Although the nations debt has increased significantly throughout Obama's presidency does not mean that the responsibility resides only on him. I believe that this plan is justified because we do need to fund our schools, research, national security, etc for the future. It is in our interest that these areas are funded and solid. I believe that it will be hard to find a solution to bring this nation out of the 20 trillion dollar debt that it has been put into. However, I disagree that rising taxes will be the solution. We are already raising taxes significantly and I believe if we continue to raise the taxes the gap between the middle class and upperclass will continue to increase to a point of no return.
ReplyDeleteThere are two-sides that I can agree with in regards to the national debt. I understand the increase in debt while he was in office due to the mess he had to fix from the Bush administration; especially bringing troops home, military which is where most of the spending goes as is. Now, with this new agreement, this major addition to the already current debt seems absurd by not looking to decrease it. If each president keeps looking to add to it, where will that end up leaving us and how will we eventually recover. I do deem that it is admirable he is focusing on trying to help the middle class, education, research, job training and national security. This could help decrease the gap that seems to always be rising and level out the playing field.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the added debt cost is justified. For one, the added expenses are toward areas that need the extra expense, especially in the area of national security. The US feels a responsibility not only to protect its own people but also other countries abroad, and the added expense would only help to increase security in those areas and in the US. The debt from before ($10.6 trillion) was already no small amount, and the US government was nowhere close to paying it off. Debt is not a new issue, and the government has not been very good with managing it in the past.
ReplyDeleteThe only way that we can hope to accomplish a national budget is by having the members of congress work together. If they are unwilling to do this than we have to bypass them by electing new officials that will be able to agree with each other. We have to elect moderates that are willing to compromise or we will continue to be in gridlock.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense I think that Obama's spendings could be justified, however, by spending money in order to strengthen the middle class, it is hurting our economy. Being in such a large debt will eventually catch up to us. I do not believe it is worth it to spend all this money in order to strengthen the middle class when it will end up hurting the middle class and most likely weaken it. In order to resolve this issue we must elect moderates that will be able to compromise that way we can slowly find our way out of debt rather than digging ourselves a bigger whole.
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ReplyDeleteI think the increase of national debt is justified. Obama has intended this bill to help strengthen the middle class which makes his reason for increasing the national debt well justified. Furthermore, it will give him more leeway to work to pass legislation and create more bills that will further help the middle class. Although this could possibly mean increasing taxes for the upper classes, I think it is worth it.
ReplyDeleteDid Bohener really step down because of the debt? I don't think so. I think the increased deficit spending is necessary, but that is the flaw with deficit spending. The moey has to be spent in a way in which we don't treat the symptoms, but cure the problem, so that we can fix the deficit and do it again if necessary.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the money went to a good place, I still think it was not necessary. It is not healthy because deficit spending has become a slippery slope. If they borrow money for a completely legitimate reason, it is logical to borrow money for a completely unnecessary reason. It is dangerous and spending needs to be limited or taxes need to be increased to fix this. It is a serious issue that gets completely ignored and will haunt the country for the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though we spent the money on defense which America will always need. Debt is always justified if the country needs it, and in reality when will America ever really be out of debt. We keep spending money and I honestly don't believe there will be a way to decrease the national debt, no matter how much we raise taxes.
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