How to Bankrupt otherwise productive and industrious people. The democratic/liberal method. i.e. spend money on people who do nothing but waste it. i.e. the indigent and the government.
Embarassingly, the repubs get blamed for a large portion of this debt. Wars are one of the biggest single contributors. However social programs are a major one. The repubs objections to the cost of government today are well founded. Something has to be done about the debt. It is out of control. We have to pledge to bring it down to 25% of GDP by the end of the decade. This is tough medicine to swallow, but it must be done for the grandchildren. Or they will get sold into slavery in Asia.
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The United States has had a public debt since its founding in 1791. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation amounted to $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. From 1796 to 1811 there were 14 budget surpluses and 2 deficits. There was a sharp increase in the debt as a result of the War of 1812. In the 20 years following that war, there were 18 surpluses and the US paid off 99.97% of its then debt.[ citation needed]
Another sharp increase in the debt occurred as a result of the Civil War. The debt was just $65 million in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and reached $2.7 billion by the end of the war. During the following 47 years, there were 36 surpluses and 11 deficits. During this period 55% of the national debt was paid off.
The next period of major increase in the national debt took place during World War I, reaching $25.5 billion at its conclusion. It was followed by 11 consecutive surpluses and saw the debt reduced by 36%.
Social programs enacted during the Great Depression and the buildup and involvement in World War II during the F.D. Roosevelt and Truman presidencies in the 1930s and 1940s caused the largest increase — a sixteenfold increase in the gross public debt from $16 billion in 1930 to $260 billion in 1950. When Roosevelt took office in 1933, the national debt was almost $20 billion; a sum equal to 20 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). During its first term, the Roosevelt administration ran large annual deficits between 2 and 5 percent of GDP. By 1936, the national debt had increased to $33.7 billion or approximately 40 percent of GDP. [7] Gross debt relative to GDP rose to over 100% to pay for WWII.
After this period, beginning in 1965 and each year afterward, the growth of the U.S. aggregate debt began to increase faster than GDP as GDP growth rates in western countries began to taper off. [8] Gross debt in nominal dollars quadrupled during the Reagan and Bush presidencies from 1980 to 1992. The net public debt quintupled in nominal terms. Gross debt relative to GDP declined after WWII, then rose during the 1980s as part of Reaganomics. [9] [10] During the 1970s, debt held by the public declined from 28% of GDP to 26% of GDP. During the 1980s, it rose to 41% of GDP.
In nominal dollars the net public debt rose and then fell between 1992 and 2000 from $3 trillion in 1992 to $3.4 trillion in 2000, in part due to the Dot-com bubble. [11] During the 1990s, debt held by the public rose to 50% and then was reduced to 39% by the end of the decade.
During the presidency of George W. Bush, the gross public debt increased from $5.7 trillion in January 2001 to $10.7 trillion by December 2008. [12] Under President Barack Obama, the debt increased from $10.7 trillion in 2008 to $14.2 trillion by February 2011. [13] Debt relative to GDP rose due to recessions and policy decisions in the early 21st century. From 2000 to 2008 debt held by the public rose from 35% to 40%, and to 62% by the end of fiscal year 2010. [14] |
