Monday, October 25, 2010
Deficit vs. Debt
Yet another example of how politicians try to play on words. This is a typical article about how our federal government needs to cut the deficit. What should be the serious discussion is what to do about the debt. I don’t know who to blame, the politicians or the journalists who never mention this to them. At stake are your generation’s future austerity packages. As we learn in class, cutting the deficit every year will still result in increasing the national debt.
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Kimberly Flok MWF 2:00-2:50
ReplyDeleteIt seems that every presidency has to deal with issues of fixing some type of deficit or economic plight, or the issue of social spending. While many politicians could agree that cutting spending on social policies can reduce deficits it always tends to backfire whether with the economy or the lower-class and those in poverty. It seems that tax increases and budget cuts are always a go-to for most politicians yet they often encounter a stalemate of some sort when it comes to which side to support: the democratic liberal side or republican conservative. I'm not that big on politics so I don't personally know what is best but based on our current economic situation something needs to be done or our Social Security program might as well end when we get old.
After watching this i'm not sure why TARP even exists. Because these men offered and excepted TARP they lost their jobs. Lives of many Americans were changed because of this. Why Obama was the first man to step in and actually take control of the situtation with the banks is beyond me. It amazes me how a system like this could be to blame for the state our economy is in now. In my opinion this video painted the president in a more positive light then he has been shown in lately. I beleive he had to step in to stop the power of the major bank CEO's that are making way more money than they should be.
ReplyDeleteHattie Cheek
American Economy TR 8AM
N'keya Peters (Tue, Thur 8am-9:20am)
ReplyDeleteI think every president finds themselves in a tough situation when it comes to the national debt. As a social work student taking this economics course I constantly find myself facing difficulties when "thinking like an economists" and "thinking like a social worker" the national debt is huge and it must be dealt with. Tax cuts is not going to deal with the debt, as much as it sucks, tax increases need to take place. I feel bad saying that but its true. Its the only way to stop us from falling deeper in a hole. I'm not just throwing this out there. My family is relatively middle class and will be affected by tax increases but something's got to give. Government spending also has to decrease a little just until the debt is a little bit more controlled which would have harsh implications in my career and the agencies I choose to work for but until then we will just be setting ourselves up horribly for failure.
Many Americans confuse themselves between debt and deficit and politicians have been using the term deficit to represent the debt of the country. Although, politicians are usually in tight spot and finds them hard to contradict the national debt. Therefore, instead the politicians use strategies and console people that they were reduce the deficit of the budget. Currently, Obama probably faces hard time dealing with tax cuts and the recession. Hence, it would be very hard for him to even think about consolidating the national debt. It is also important for him to spend surplus than the revenue in the next year’s budget to get economy back on track. Pumping in more money in the economy would help create more jobs and eventually the national debt might reduce. It is better to decrease a little spend from government which would at least reduce the deficit of the budget.
ReplyDeleteMuktak Tripathi
MWF, 2:00 P.M.
I noticed this article talks a lot about cutting the deficit and how Obama speaks to the public about cutting the deficit. However, he continues to spend money. The article stated that the federal deficit in the past year was 1.3 trillion dollars which is an unbelievable high number. Recently, the deficit has not been cut significantly but it needs to start being cut and balanced. America's debt is large enough, we cannot afford to add to the deficit. The politicians have talked about cutting the 'deficit' but done nothing significant. America cannot have a deficit. We need to have a surplus in order to begin to reduce the tremendus debt.
ReplyDeleteJessica Catanese
I'm not surprised that politicians continue to use vague and easily mis-associated words to forward their agendas. The same applies when politicians throw around the word "socialism" or "welfare-state", yet the exact definition of these terms are lost to the public, possibly to the politicians as well. A factor in this also comes from the fact that American's, particularly the ones who still have their jobs, aren't really seeing just how the current economic situation is actually affecting their lives, as well as what implications it has for their futures. It reminds me of an economics joke: "If everyone else loses their jobs, its a recession. If you lose your job, its a depression." A big part of this issue is lack of education and information that is available specifically on basic economic policy and topics, something almost every American should understand, but, as the media-spin points out, doesn't. I think this country is going to be in a lot of trouble if more people don't start holding politicians accountable for deceptive rhetoric and spin.
ReplyDelete-Eugene Tsvilik M/W/F 2-2:50