Nathan
I believe that the in this day and age having a national debt is inevitable, however the debt that the US has is out of control. In order for a stable government to stay in place America must reduce its national debt. In my research I looked at how debt may be useful in running a country and I found that having a manageable national debt is often a good thing but having too much debt is very bad. America has too much debt now and the government keeps on spending adding more and more to the deficit each year. The first step in a long road to fixing the national debt is to balance the yearly budget so we are not adding to our debt each year. This can only be done two ways either by raising taxes or by the government cutting spending. I believe that the enactment of a flat tax is the best way to keep large american business from moving their business offshore. I believe that ultimately that is the only way to get the national debt under control. In addition the government needs to get rid of excess spending, Mr. Vogel shared with us about how government products can become very expensive, and this sort of ridiculous spending needs to stop, if America is ever going to get its national debt under control. (Vogel, Park. "Mr. Vogel Interview." Personal interview. 11 Feb. 2015.)
Nathan 2
My next recommendation is that the government significantly cut its spending. This may be a more popular decision with the American people, even though the people would see a significant decrease in the amount of services provided to them. More than half of the federal government’s money goes toward paying pensions and to health care. If the government were to stop giving out pensions to lower level employees they could end up saving lots of of money. The other major area of spending that could be cut dramatically is the healthcare category. 26% of the government's spending went to Healthcare. Even though it would be tough, and is much easier said than done, if the government were to cut each of these sections even by ¼ they would be saving billions of dollars. While these cuts would drastically affect life for government employees and also would have an effect on the common person cutting the budget may actually be better for getting the debt under control than raising taxes by any amount because it fixes the problem at its root. ( US government Spending)
Cayley
National debt is one of the biggest issues our nation is facing. I think it is possible that we could get rid of most of our debt but not all of it. Debt actually can benefit economies and business so its not always horrible to have. The most obvious thing is that we need to get rid of it, how is the question? Through doing research I have found several ways to reduce our overall national debt. We may need to do cutbacks on spending and be more effective with the ways we spend, and invest our money. The government needs to understand that 17 trillion is to the point where the money spending needs to stop, we are digging ourselves a hole that is going to be very hard to get out of. I propose that we have a flat tax of 25% on all classes, low and high included. We shouldn’t impose high taxes on people who work hard for their money, and shouldn’t impose high taxes on middle and lower class. The government is creating such high taxes to cover themselves for overspending. If it means cutting back on programs I think we should. People may not be happy with the cutbacks, but it is something we should sacrifice because it will help us get our of our precarious position. Overspending is the biggest problem within our government today, and we need to stop it sooner rather than later.
Cayley 2
My next recommendation for fixing our national debt is raising taxes. Although the American people would not be too happy I think that it is one of the other ways that we can get out of debt faster. Having people pay that much will start the slow process of getting out of debt sooner. If steps are not taken to reduce the United States national debt it could be very detrimental for our economy. Although 25% seems very high it will keep the national debt from growing more. The rich can stay rich, and then the poor can put in there part as well. I dont think that it is fair that wealthy have to pay that much more just because of the income they are bringing in. The rich should not be expected to uphold the government, but they lower class should also be expected to help get us out of debt as well. Imposing a flat tax will help us out of national debt quicker, and less painless.
Sterling
Through consideration of the pros and cons of national debt I have come to a conclusion on the national debt crisis. The national debt is used to keep America as a whole running efficiently. Education, public roads, medicare, and social security are all required to run a modern day nation to retain government control. Although, all the above forms of luxuries of high society must be cut back on to ensure a stable government for future generations. Millions of dollars are being budgeted to schools and through medicare and the large scale funding causes multiple loopholes to occur. Where large public schools will use excess budget money to obtain unnecessary expenditures. Vast amounts of money goes to unnecessary materialistic items throughout the country. Yet people justify it because it is government money which is inevitably the people’s money. Therefore, it is mandatory that the government look more in depth towards how much of the government spending is vital and which is not necessary. Although a line of credit is necessary for the government to have any leverage to obtain loans in time of need. The debt we have currently is too vast for any country to take loans out of the United States, yet they continue. I think it’s crucial to set a defined limit to the budget deficit and begin major cutbacks to ensure the debt doesn’t consume the country. I and many other Americans realize the necessity of government spending, but enough is enough at a certain point. If America does not begin paying off the massive national debt, the country will be casted into a spiraling depression like we saw in the early 1900s. Money makes the world go round, what direction does it turn if you owe trillions of dollars?
Sterling 2
There are multiple alternatives to resolving the debt, although cutbacks seem almost mandatory, I doubt they will come to fruition. Alternatives to massive cutbacks would be just redirecting the money spent on medicare and social security could be resolved through the Trickle Down method. By requiring companies to hire more people resolving unemployment rates and relying on companies to provide health care and social security for all employees could effectively resolve a large portion of growing debt. Aside from having companies hold the responsibility of providing for the people, maybe government funding just needs to be revised. Welfare is a primary contribution to the national debt. The fact that those on Welfare are not required to obtain a job is absurd. Welfare must have a regulation requiring dependants to work a government job to obtain their paychecks just like every other citizen of society. All resolutions to debt are estimated, nothing can logically resolve trillions of dollars in a short amount of time.
Daniel
National Debt is not a terrible thing. Borrowing money enable government to quickly fund its short-term needs as well as long-term goals. And, in fact, not just United States, every country in the world has debt on their shoulders. But, still, debt is not a nice thing to have, if it had to be paid. Too much national debt would compromise a nation's economic future. In the last six years, U.S. national debt has soared more than thirty percents and broken through 100% of GDP. Such unprecedented debt levels can be a result of the economic crisis in 2008. In the early year, acting to cut the debt too soon could damage the recovering economy. Now, since the economy has pick up, should be the time to deal with this threatening debt. I propose to raise the retirement age. Over the past 50 years, life expectancy has increased from 70 to 78, but the average retirement age is not. Raising the retirement age means larger work force, more taxable income and stronger economic growth.