National Debt Reaches 8 Trillion Dollars!!!

Quote from Rep. John Tanner:

"We are so far in debt that if China attacked Taiwan we would have to borrow the money to fight."

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

 

I'm no economist, but if we're that far in debt we're already borrowing the money to fight (in Iraq).
Jack

 

Borrowing from China

Yes, we are borrowing from China. We sold billions of dollars in bonds.

 

Everything government does is on borrowed money. As Mary Ruwart might say, borrowed at the point of a gun.

 

Decimon,

A balance budget was realized during the Clinton administration.

On C-span yesterday, a Representative said that Bush has spent more money during his last five years in office than the combined budget of all the presidents for the previous 40 years.

 

Budget balanced or not, all government money is "borrowed" money.

 

The distinction you are not making is if the money is being borrowed from foreign source or domestic.

Right now if China cashed in on the debt we owe them the American economy would tank.

Eight trillion dollars is a debt level that should turn on alarms for anyone.

 

There are no worries. If the government runs low on money, all they have to do is print more and ***POOF*** the problem is solved. That's government economics 101.

The only problem that I see is if people want to exchange their currencies for gold, then will the government have enough gold-on-deposit for something like that??? Oops, my bad -- our currency isn't back by gold any more. Well, since the currency isn't back by gold anymore -- and since the public still finds value in it -- then we can print it till kingdom come!!!

Eventually our currency will become worthless.

 

Poof Factor

Me again,

I forgot about the poof factor of government 101.

I wish they would print me a little more of that green stuff so I can go for my MBA.

 

Nice...

Here are some simple questions to inform people on the real facts not the ones as they see them for you:

a. How is it in China's best interest to call in debt from the country that is their largest customer? In effect, China is giving us back our own money. China's economy has real problems, much more than ours.

b. How is a congressman on CSpan a good source for anything? Some of our congressmen are nuts. Trust me, I know a lot of them. Also, the actual quote was, I believe, that he has borrowed more not spent more. Either way where's the proof and was it adjusted for inflation? I would bet when adjusted for inflation FDR takes the cake. Simply put, when I was a kid gas was $.36 a gallon. Today it is $2.09. If I bought the same amount of gasoline in 2005 as my father did in 1968 one could say I spent 6 times what he did but it really doesn't say I am a worse spender than he was.

c. What backs US money? Nothing, that's what. People claim that printing money would drive down the value of the US dollar thereby tanking the US economy. They are right, but as the engine that drives the worlds economy, a tanking US economy would also tank everybody elses just like it did in 1930 when the economies weren't even as interlocked as they are today.

d. Clinton never had a balanced budget either. Since we were using excess SS taxes for revenue spending we were essentially using borrowed money. His so called "balanced budget" was also a creature of hyperinflated stock prices. He is taking credit for something which was actually a bad economic situation.

 

Steve,

I had that very discussion with my Political Science professor. Dr. Michael Chambers says that the interdependence of our countries is a very strong peace factor but he believes that a Taiwan conflict could breakdown the present structure.

 

Here is a link.

Dtech,

Here is a link that details some factors about the national debt.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ms04_taylor/truths200408.html

Interest Link:

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdint.htm

 

Welcome to U.S. Treasury Debt Reduction Services.

Do your bills have you feeling low?

Can't make ends meet?

Let USTDRS show you how to inflate your worries away. Our Monetary Inflator has stood the test of time and will puff you up as it has many satisfied cuntomers.

 

Representative Tanner

Representative Tanner's website details that President Bush borrowed more money from foreign interests than the past 42 Presidents combined.

http://www.house.gov/tanner/press109-050.htm

 

What borrow? With the onset of hostilities we repudiate the debt and seize their resident assets.

But, hey, the Germans recently got Bayer back and we don't hear much whining from them.

 

Re: Here is a link.

Big guy, I have been a student of business and the national debt for over 20 years. I do not need your links to become informed. I could give you an eight hour block on the pro's and cons of public borrowing and on the intricacies of our current debt problem but don't have the time or inclination to do it here.

You come on here and quote some congressman speaking to an empty chamber for the benefit of his constituency and I simply pointed out some real information. Your post didn't even appear to be a factual repeat of what he said even if what he said was factual. Your political leanings required that you point out Clinton had a balanced budget when in fact he never did. Here's a question for you, when did SS tax receipts exceed expenditure's and allow Congress to start spending the money?

 

Whether China could call in the notes right now would depend on the terms of the debt. Normally, the terms of a debt would be that the creditor cannot call the note unless it is in default. The government knows that it would not be in their best interests to default on the debt, inasmuch as their creditors would likely not loan them more money. Even if the terms of the loan said that the creditor could call the note early, that would not be too terribly likely to happen because creditors are primarily after the interest income and only secondarily do they want the eventual return of their principal at the end of the life of the bond. Normally, when one decides they want their money back before a loan is due, they sell the loan through such third party intermediaries as the bond market or factors or whatever.

 

Could be done, but not a good idea. If you find out how many dollars have already been printed and then fire up the printing presses and print a like number of dollar bills, then two things happen. Domestically, you have a horrible inflation in which prices double (which could spell trouble, if wages and salaries don't double). Internationally, the value of the dollar is reduced by half against other currencies. Then, our foreign creditors either refuse to loan us any more money or they demand repayment in their own currency rather than in dollars.