Treasury will again borrow $1 trillion to pay for tax cuts, spending

[Mike Olson]

https://www.axios.com/treasury-borrowing-debt-government-spending-tax-reform-a5f699d6-31a9-41b1-861a-02329a744797.html

For the second straight year, the Treasury Department will have to borrow $1 trillion to pay for the government's growing budget deficit, a consequence of juiced government spending and smaller revenues as a result of the late 2017 tax cuts, Bloomberg reports.
The big picture: Treasury borrowing surpassed $1 trillion during President Obama's first term as government spending soared amid the stimulus to combat the 2008 financial crisis, but it has steadily declined in the years since, settling down to $519 billion in 2017 before nearly doubling last year.

[Guest]

I would think those blocking the vote on the USMC trade deal would want to get that pushed through to get some additional tax revenue flowing to try and offset some of this deficit spending.

[Guest]

Im all about capping spending or increasing taxes to pay for it. If we had to pay for what we spend we’d get our priorities straight. 

[Guest]

Cut spending you say, what a novel idea.

[Guest]

We live in a bizarro economic system, where new debt injects money into the economy, and paying off debt destroys money, however you can't pay off the interest on the debt with existing money.  Someone has to take on new debt to create the money to pay off the interest on existing debts.  On a societal level if new debt is being created, the amount of money in circulation increases and people have enough liquid money to go about their daily life.  If debt is being paid off, but no new debt is created, the amount of money in circulation decreases and the economy becomes restricted.  So you can control the economy by controlling how much debt is being created or how hard it is to create debt.  Easy access to credit and lots of debt stimulates the economy, while higher interest rates cause recessions.
Obama had quantitative easing, while Trump is spending a ton.  Both of these are economic stimulators.  Cutting spending would decrease governmental debt, so individuals and corporations would feel the struggle of not having enough money in circulation and they would have to take on either individual debt or corporate debt to keep things moving while overall trending towards recession.

You can see debt increasing over time.  Debt by all parties is increasing.  This is built into the system as there's never enough money to pay off the interest.

The only solution is to restructure our economy to not be based off of debt, or to have all interest payments returned to citizens instead of private banks (something like the state bank of north dakota does this)

You can read more about this in "Modern Money Mechanics" from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which describes how money is created.

[Guest]

Liberals are worried about gov't spending and the deficit?  Cue the R.E.M. song...
Seriously, though: I agree.  I just don't think that *some* people's concern over such things is genuine.  It kinda feels like they're just looking for something about which to criticize Trump.  I guess we'll see... the next time that a Democrat is in office.  Of course, the Dems are in control of the budget now... and I don't hear anyone (from the Left) criticizing their money management skills.

[Guest]

@pumpf said:
Liberals are worried about gov't spending and the deficit?  Cue the R.E.M. song...
Seriously, though: I agree.  I just don't think that *some* people's concern over such things is genuine.  It kinda feels like they're just looking for something about which to criticize Trump.  I guess we'll see... the next time that a Democrat is in office.  Of course, the Dems are in control of the budget now... and I don't hear anyone (from the Left) criticizing their money management skills.

It's not the spending or the deficit,  it's the tax cut that still has them spinning.

[Guest]

Pay for tax cuts?   

[Guest]

@JimmyinSD said:

@pumpf said:
Liberals are worried about gov't spending and the deficit?  Cue the R.E.M. song...
Seriously, though: I agree.  I just don't think that *some* people's concern over such things is genuine.  It kinda feels like they're just looking for something about which to criticize Trump.  I guess we'll see... the next time that a Democrat is in office.  Of course, the Dems are in control of the budget now... and I don't hear anyone (from the Left) criticizing their money management skills.

It's not the spending or the deficit,  it's the tax cut that still has them spinning.

Maybe this is what has us laughing:

Trump's campaign promise that these tax cuts would eliminate the deficit and wipe out our debt in 8 years.  Trump promised the tax cuts will lead to a $1.5 trillion dollar increase in tax revenue. 

Instead he more than doubled what Obama's spending was in 2017, which will hit $1 trillion in 2020.

And when every economist predicted this, yet Republicans insisted this new and improved version of trickle down economics was certain to work this time, and Trump's brilliant business acumen would prove them wrong.


The Republicans are Lucy, the economy is the football, and the GOP voters are Charlie Brown.... it's always the same result, and yet they never learn.  Predictable as clockwork and guaranteed to fall flat on their face with every attempt.

[Guest]

Charlie Brown never fell on his face.  But carry on torturing the analogy.