Hello, New Way, this is Editor-In-Chief Simon McAvity here to talk with you about our country’s national debt, so I’ll save you a preamble and let’s get started. Before we talk about what’s been going on with it recently, let’s figure out just what it is exactly and how it has worked in the past. The Treasury Department defines the U.S. debt ceiling as “The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments.”
As to say, the debt ceiling is the amount of money the government allows itself to borrow. The debt ceiling can be raised by Congress. Now the government finds itself raising the roof debatably often because we borrow a lot of money. Our current national debt is 36.18 trillion dollars. This is, of course, a very intimidating figure. Although many people do overestimate just how important it is, nonetheless it is one of the largest issues facing our nation. Here’s a graph from an economic foundation, it is relevant to know the foundation is slightly biased right but in my research these figures are accurate.
The ceiling was last raised by President Biden in December 2021 from 28.9 trillion to 31.4 trillion. As you may have noticed, the amount of debt we currently have is above the debt ceiling. This has caused figures in Congress to move to raise it again because we need to borrow money, but the debt ceiling is in place to stop us, although the government is 100% able to surpass the debt limit for various reasons, which is how we got here. Although, many lawmakers are suggesting more and more drastic measures to keep the debt under control.
Of course, things do seem to definitely be deteriorating, Treasury Secretary Yellen has been Yellen, I’m sorry, that “extraordinary measures” will have to be taken to avoid default. For those who don’t know, defaulting on debt is when an organization can no longer make payments on its debt. If this happens the organization, our government, will be open to seizures, legal claims, and far fewer opportunities to borrow money. The money we need to keep the wheels turning. If we default, our economy would explode and crash into a million pieces, to put it simply.
Now debt, obviously, happens for a reason, specifically the main thing that’s been helping turn on the debt faucet recently is the Trade War with (pronounce it mentally the way Trump does with me) China started by President-Elect Trump in his first term. A Trade War is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “a situation in which countries try to damage each other’s trade, typically by the imposition of tariffs or quota restrictions.” Of course, China won’t just let us attack their trade, meaning ours has been getting brutally whacked for the past few years as China is our largest trade partner by a long shot. According to the New York Times, to summarize, the Trade War was a haphazard maneuver that was not advised by an expert, and we are more or less losing.
Although the Trade War is the most recent thing added to the pile, the key cause will be, as mentioned in the definition, government spending. Government spending on Social Security, the military, transportation, and many other essential programs. Another issue is rising healthcare costs, if you’ve had any major medical issue or know someone with one you can see how it’s an issue, but it affects the government because it pays for healthcare programs to make the current system tenable. This is, of course, not enough to make our healthcare system functional, but it’s just another part of the problem.
There are many more parts of this issue, and just about every politician has their own opinion on how to fix it. President-Elect Trump suggests that tariffs can be used to improve the situation, personally, I think this will make the Trade War problem larger, but many experts say it’s a viable solution and many others disagree. It’s a complex issue, although we can all agree something needs to be done. Now as they often do everyone in the government disagrees on how to fix it but if a plan to combat it gets close to or does pass myself as well as my team at the Campus Courier will be here to explain it to you, the New Way student, parent, or staff member. Thank you for reading, -Editor-In-Chief Simon Gersten McAvity.
