@SpikeTalon and that debt, other than student loan debt, is mostly homes and cars, as I noted above.

A correction $25-$35 trillion.

@SpikeTalon FDR proved that we could spend our way out of debt, Government is not a business so business rules don't apply, The only time in history (Andrew Jackson) that the US ever eliminated its national debt, it was plunged into the worst depression in all of its history. The US has been the world reserve currency since the 1970s which gives it a unique spot world economics. A revamp of the US tax code back to the Eisenhower era, would give a 10 year map to fiscal equilibrium. A national debt of 10% of GDP to bolster US investment, plenty of funding for all the other programs that no one is willing to cut. Go back to funding education, roads, bridges, harbors, air ports and hospitals. Make healthcare non-profit like before Reagan,

@SpikeTalon Govt spending is not a business and should be seen as an investment. Nearly 100 years later we are still benefiting from the New Deal projects WPA and CCC. It was the war that drove the debt up and the need to pay off the war supplies that were just made and destroyed. A vast majority of US airports are former SAC bases, that were seen as boondoggles in their day, but that planning has made sure that in 2024 we can get to any major city in the US quickly. The interstate highway system was built to be able to move troops and material easily in any direction, today it speeds interstate and international commerce. The civil reserve air fleet, a public private partnership between the military and civilian airlines to move troops and material during times of heightened alert (Iraq twice, Vietnam,) has allowed smaller airlines to enter the market by pledging their aircraft and receiving a subsidy. I could go on.

You forget that the vast wealth of the nation rests not in its individuals but in its corporations. we have a GDP of >$23 trillion,value of non financial corp >$36 trillion, and financial corp >$12 trillion. Individual taxes are a drop in the bucket. Corporate taxes should make up30-40% of all tax revenue instead of 6 % as is the current case. 45% comes from individuals.

When I say the wealthy should pay there fair share, the corporations are the wealthy. The Tax reform act of 1986 lowered the top tax rate from 50 to 28 and RAISED the lowest tax rate from 11 to 15. It also created more loopholes than swiss cheese. Retirement plans that previously received preferential tax treatment were fully taxed and Social Security was taxed for the first time ever to pay for the rich getting their tax breaks.

Nothing short of a Tax rewrite on the scale of the 1954 IRC would correct all of the deficiencies of the current tax code

@SpikeTalon Forgot to reply to your medical area. Prior to 1981, it was illegal to have a for profit health insurance company or hospital. Research was funded and conducted by the govt. (Universities, USHS, CDC, etc) We had one of the highest levels of care in the world and exported it to the world. Today we have to import doctors from Asia, Africa, and South America. Free market healthcare lead to $25,000 interferon a drug that costs a few hundred to make, $2000 insulin a drug that costs <$5 to make, $300 inhalers another drug combo that costs <$5 to make. Tell me again how a totally free market in a basic necessity makes any sense. Right now the hedge funds control the hospitals and the banks control the medical insurance industry, both need to be eliminated from their positions.

@SpikeTalon Your SS and medicare numbers are misleading, while the expenditure is indeed $1.3 trillion, the income of designated funds is also $1.3 trillion or a net zero for budget purposes. [ssa.gov].

@SpikeTalon You published a book, I don't have the time or energy since you keep expanding on points. I took a masters level course on Government spending, so most of my references come from memory not look ups on the internet. I have been known to be wrong and will readily admit it when i am , like 1981 vs 1973, I mixed up Reagan and Nixon.

@SpikeTalon As far as the new Deal goes, i think we still get power from the Bonneville dam and fly out of Lagardia Airport as well as the millions of trees that were planted across our country, The WPA, PWA, CCC, all gave us long term projects that we still enjoy today. One is across the street from me. When they updated it for erosion control, the 80 year old government built facilities had not significantly deteriorated, but within 2 years our fine private contractor built facilities had to have major repairs. Not a reqlly good use of funds, I'd say.

@SpikeTalon As far as the interstate highway system, all you have to do is look at our experience with the railroads.

@SpikeTalon You missed my point on SS, its spending and allocated taxes are equal, it does not now nor has ever contributed to the national debt, in fact the trust fund still has $2.9Trillion in reserve. The WPA and CCC were both intended as short term make work programs while the PWA was intended as a long term solution to government projects. You are right that there were good and bad that came out of the New Deal. In the case of the interstate system, it was a public private partnership, but the government did the master planning , much like current major maintenance on roads.

@SpikeTalon You are falling for the smoke and mirrors that date back to the Nixon administration. The debt that SS is contributing to is from money borrowed from it in the past. Nixon borrowed from the SS fund and used the monies to prop up the stock market. That is the reason that SS can only invest in treasuries. He gave the Wall Street banks IRAs to make up for the lost revenue as well as legalizing the trading and possession of gold. eliminating SS would have next to zero effect on the debt. there is a net of $41 billion difference between income and outgo.
Bush pulled funds from the SS trust fund to fund tax cuts and the Iraq war. So it is not social security adding to the debt, but the republican war machine, just deferred.

All of your possible impact are can/may, not do. There does need to be a change made to SS, but the trust fund was scheduled to be depleted by 2036 roughly 100 years after the parents of the baby boomers were born. We paid for our parents retirement and our own, Expand all earned income to SS tax and the fund should never deplete.

The answer to demographic shifts is the same as it has always been allow enough qualified immigration of working age persons to prop up the numbers.

As far as SS running a deficit since 2010, that was planned, in 1980. There had been a multi year bi-partisan commission that made proposals to postpone any major problems to 40-50 years in the future when there would be less political strife (lol). The 1983 SS act would fit into that 50 year deferment perfectly.

Good to see that you guys are taking an interest in the US debt. So what would be your opinion about a POTUS that increased it by 25%? You would never even consider letting such an idiot near the White House again right?

@SpikeTalon Trump is definitely preferable over Biden!

@Trajan61 Oh I see, the debt is important to you but only when you think you can bash Biden with it. When the fact that Trump was a far worse administrator of the debt then shown then it is "Move along now, nothing to see here"
It seems to me that there is logic or fact that will move you from your preconceived ideas. Much in the way we get so annoyed with theists.

I agree!