Economic Policy

ECONOMIC POLICY

KEVIN BROWN

PSC-142











            The national debt is at an astonishing 15 trillion dollars and has rapidly grown since the early 90’s.   The national debt grows at a rate of 4 billion dollars a day since 2007 and each citizens share is around $48,000. (Hall, 2011)     Even though are national debt is not something that most people worry about in our nation, it is very important to maintain and limit. Our government borrows money from other countries to support our programs, such as social security and welfare and that is causing our debt to raise continuously, our government hit its debt ceiling in the beginning of the summer.   The government needs to protect our countries credit so we continue funding the programs that every citizen uses.   The first thing to understand is the difference between the deficit and the actual debt of our country.
There is a big difference between national debt and deficit.   When the government spends money throughout the year on programs and other services exceeds the revenue the government earns in that year it is called a deficit (Amadeo, 2011).   Each year the deficit is added to the national debts, which are all the combined deficits since the beginning of the country.   The national debt of the United States has grown significantly since our country first began.   From 2000 to 2011 our national debt has gone from 6 trillion to 15 trillion dollars (Amadeo, 2011).   Our national debt seems to the concern of many American’s, in a recent poll 89% of American’s believed the debt ceiling should not be raised, but contradicted themselves in another poll with a majority of American’s wanting increase spending to jumpstart the economy (Wright, 2008).
There are several reasons as to why the deficit has increased over time.   One reason is that George Bush endorsed additional tax cuts in 2003 to help stimulate the economy (Wright, 2008).   That move led to an ever rising deficit.   With the wars...