Federal debt to rise to $28 trillion
What, me worry? A new Congressional Budget Office report today predicts the federal debt will grow to $28 trillion in the next decade.
Government spending is projected to increase by 5 percent, or $178 billion, while government revenue is projected to increase by less than 1 percent, or $26 billion. The rise in government spending is attributed to a 6 percent increase in outlays for Social Security and Medicare, a 1 percent increase in discretionary spending, and an 11 percent increase in net interest.
With the American people apparently favoring candidates who want to increase that debt, I suspect this prediction is seriously understated.
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What, me worry? A new Congressional Budget Office report today predicts the federal debt will grow to $28 trillion in the next decade.
Government spending is projected to increase by 5 percent, or $178 billion, while government revenue is projected to increase by less than 1 percent, or $26 billion. The rise in government spending is attributed to a 6 percent increase in outlays for Social Security and Medicare, a 1 percent increase in discretionary spending, and an 11 percent increase in net interest.
With the American people apparently favoring candidates who want to increase that debt, I suspect this prediction is seriously understated.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“. . . and an 11 percent increase in net interest.”
And that’s the important number. I’ve posted before that we’ve borrowed so much money that the interest payment is outstripping outlays in some areas. We may be able to defer principle, but we have to pay interest. Anyone who’s had to make only minimum payments on credit cards knows that the interest will eat you alive, and that’s what’s happening with the Federal budget.
Blair–
Good point.
Interest rates have been artificially suppressed for essentially both of Obama’s terms, and the Fed is terrified of acting until after Obama leaves. Whomever is in Office next January, will face an interest-rate environment unlike anything we have experienced before.
(I had one of those 17% Mortgages in 1981, it was totally unreal. Thank god Reagan got a handle on Inflation and Interest Rates– but it wasn’t without a lot of pain for all concerned.)
I can already see the headlines next year, “Fed raises rates .25%, Woman, Poor, & Minorities hit hardest.”
The worst thing about it is that it is “financed” by the FED buying the debt and creating paper credits out of nowhere. That leads to huge mispricing and thus malinvestments throughout the entire economy, investments that transform more valuable inputs to less valuable outputs, crushing economic growth and redistributing wealth to the already rich who can receive these new credits. If the government could only borrow sound physical money which are already saved by others, the debt could never get this high, the lenders would require a steeply higher interest rate as the debt demand increases, putting a natural brake on the growth of government spending.
LocalFluff–
Good stuff! (You’ve definitely been reading up on Hayek & Mises!)
“Fear the Boom; Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) explained”
https://youtu.be/LPZvKv7uljc
“The Cluster of Errors – The Austrian Theory of Boom and Bust”
https://youtu.be/iBtzBb6rV1w
@wayne,
Perfect explanation by Lawrence H. White in your link! I’ll put him on my reading list.
Business and economics is where I have some academic education. But it took me several years, and the Lehman crash, to have a look outside of the school book and discover that Mises understands what an economy is. Isn’t it funny that one gets a masters degree in business/economics without understanding what money is? Like becoming a linguist without knowing what a letter is. The Austrian school was practically mainstream before Keynes. Then fascism took over. I’m afraid that neither Trump nor Johnson would change that substantially. But now the muslims’ war against us, the human kind, is the most important thing to fight back against.
I bet that Trump’s favorite dish to cook is omelette. If you’re familiar with the saying about what’s required to get it done.
Glad to see that you understand the obvious logic about our everyday social lives=economy too!