National Debt :: Argumentative Economy Economics Papers

National Debt How large are we going to allow the national debt to become? If we believe that it never comes due then its size is of little concern. However, that belief is like that of the ostrech; bury your head in the sand so you can not see the problem and the problem goes away. The fact is that the size of the debt is nearly five trillion dollars and grows by an average of 620 million dollars every day! The cause is that every year the government spends more than it collects in taxes. The government makes up the difference by borrowing billions of dollars annually, competing against private enterprise for the use of money saved by American citizens. That money should be used for investments to improve our standard of living and create a brighter future. Instead, our savings are being used by the government to pay for todays consumption, for special interests and for the interest on money borrowed in earlier years. At the present rate of growth the interest payment will eventually be greater than the current debt. Can we afford this? Are there enough creditors to support such an enormous burden? What will happen to our future, our childerns future? We are spending it for them now before they have a say about it. Surely this trend of deficit spending is leading us to national bankruptcy. A new policy geared toward a zero deficit must be adopted. This means that we must change the way we view spending on the entitlement programs, defense and domestic discretionary programs. Between 1980 and 1990 the national debt quadrupled from 800 million to 5 trillion. The current trend of spend every cent we can get our hands on and borrow the rest by mortgaging our future must be stopped. The fact that past investment in government bonds was sound and secure does not predict that the future will remain the same. How can