What They Won't Tell You about the National Debt

It came down for 37 year, then the national debt went out-of-control the year the supply siders' took power. Are we trapped between national debt and recession. The patriots of World War II showed us the way.

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[hodoprime]

We actually have a $222 trillion debt if you count unfunded liabilities such as social security and medicare payments as corporations are required to do.

[Steven Stoft]

There is a slight difference between the US government "unfunded liabilities" and corporate liabilities. The government can just write a law and change its liability with the stroke of a pen. Corporations can. And the gov can do this any time it wants. So the above point is a right-wing scare tactic and nothing more. In fact is just as difficult if not more so to reduce military spending, which, unlike social security is 100% "unfunded." But the right never mentions that. Why not?

[ntdwm2011]

So what about the ballooning costs of Obamacare? Your solution is to have the government regulate more? Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but you are saying the solution for supply-side economics is for the government to collect more money, rather than spend less?

[Steven Stoft]

You should look up Obamacare before you talk about it. You will find it is peanuts compared to the military. Yes we should cut spending. How about bringing our troops home from Germany for starters. WWII has been over for a while now. At least Obamacare helps Americans. Obamacare is quite efficient compared with Bush's prescription drug subsidies. But this is not what the video is about.

[maximus78028]

Question Mr. Soft just for clarification not because I am for either side. 1. When you say Reagan and Bush raised the debt, wouldn't the outrageous spending of the cold war and the 9/11 wars of Afghanistan and Iraq contribute to the increases in debt? Not that it justifies it. 2. You said Obama couldn't stop the out of control train, but you mention before that Clinton did it in 3 years, what's different?

[Steven Stoft]

Yes, military spending is a huge contributor to the debt. The big debt number loved by Republicans is the debt of the General Fund. Social Security, other Federal Trust Funds, and the US Treasury loan it money. About half of that money is spent by the military, so about half of the Gross National Debt is due to the military.

[Steven Stoft]

Thanks, very much.

[SilentHunter7]

I just found this page on a random Google search looking for facts to disprove the trickle-down theory, and I think I've just found the mother-load.

Thank you, my friend! I'm keeping Z-Facts right at the top of my bookmarks bar, and I'm going to make sure everyone I know sees it.

[Steven Stoft]

Probably correct, due to rationing of the private sector. But in spite of doing all the things Republicans say will wreck the economy -- big borrowing, big spending, rationing, and price controls -- when this was over, the economy was far better off than before these policies. Also, Republicans claim that if the gov spends, that creates NO jobs because gov jobs crowd out private jobs. You just admitted that's not right. Total jobs & GDP went up. That's helps the unemployed.

[DemilichFan]

lol if u disaggregate the gdp data from the ww2 spending you'd see that although there is huge gdp growth the private sector was smaller during the war than during the great depression. u are wrong