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U.S. national debt crosses $37 trillion for the first time in history amid rising fiscal pressures (www.cryptopolitan.com)

submitted 2 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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Head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, Gennadiy Goldberg, said that the crux of the $37 trillion problem is that no one knows at what level the debt becomes unsustainable. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that the U.S. government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Goldberg agrees with Bessent’s argument but states that the U.S. also does not tax much compared to both the size of the country’s GDP and government outlays. He believes that either taxes have to go up, spending has to come down, or some combination of the two, but warned that it’s very complicated to figure out.

The White House said on June 7 that the GOP tax bill significantly improves the country’s fiscal trajectory by including $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings, while Trump’s tax cuts will spur economic growth. Democrats have pointed to analyses showing the bill’s tax cuts will benefit wealthier Americans far more than low- and middle-income workers while also adding to the national debt.

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[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 38 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Never cut spending
Cut taxes on the rich

"Wow, that's a lot of debt"

Cut taxes on businesses

"Wow, we're really broke"

Cut taxes on the rich

"Golly, this is a serious problem!"

Cut taxes on the rich

"Nobody really knows why we're in so much debt or how to deal with it, but it's probably the fault of poor people. Guess we better cut taxes for the rich more lmao"

[–] AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

According to MMT, the problem isn't the debt, it's the tax cuts on the rich. Money needs to be removed from the system and taxation is the main way to do it

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

This. Like, even if the average person didn't get any richer simply taking money from the rich makes it worth it.

The rich having too much money is the cause of basically all the world's problems even putting aside the associated economic malaise.

[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In addition, when they say this

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that the U.S. government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

They're talking about cutting entitlement spending. Never cutting "defense" spending, obviously. They really just want the USA to be like Mad Max.

[–] AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

🌎👩🏽‍🚀🔫👩🏽‍🚀

[–] floop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 days ago

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 days ago

Why would I ever be happy to pay taxes when the vast majority goes towards funding the military, the CIA, the NSA, ICE, for profit incarceration, genocide, etc? If most of my tax dollars went to universal healthcare, infrastructure, libraries, postal service, education, and other socioeconomic safety nets, then I wouldn't have nearly as many objections.

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Countries with Fiat currencies need to balance interest rates against inflation when taking out debt. Total National debt isn't a real concern.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

National debt isn't real in a country that prints its own money.