US debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP
https://thehill.com/business/5857998-us-national-debt-gdp/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRgwiRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4wkRm7YQdbqWcFbcURVGlLPLMObQCr5cd-rxJJBjAUqDoHnzP1TK8RCjalAQ_aem_BySIQxQj_hG_LwCekgtgsg
Posted by kootles10
2 Comments
From the article:
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released data on the national debt reaching 100.2 percent of GDP on Thursday, noting that debt held by the public on March 31 was $31.27 trillion. GDP over the last year was $31.22 trillion.
The national debt was at 99.5 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal 2025 in September.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said the borrowing did not come from “a seismic global conflict, but rather a total bipartisan abdication of making hard choices.”
“It’s happened — the national debt is now larger than the U.S. economy, about twice the historic average,” she said in a statement reacting to the news.
“We’ve heard plenty of alarm bells in the past few years about our fiscal path, but this one rings especially loudly,” MacGuineas continued. “The real question is whether or not our leaders in Washington will listen.”
It isn’t that hard to get the budget under control actually. Raise taxes on high earners back to where they were. Reform the estate tax/gift tax/trusts to capture more revenue. Increase corpo taxes a bit. All this will probably bring in at least $600 billion a year
Raise the SS retirement age a year or two or make the spousal benefit less generous, moderate cost controls on Medicare (less costly end of life procedures for those that are going to be dying soon to be blunt about it, this is the dirty secret in a lot of European countries that have universal care). Get defense spending in check. Moderate federal civil service benefit reforms. All these changes could probably decrease spending at least $300-$400 billion a year.
So then you are down to a deficit that is under $1 trillion a year