Posted on 03/13/2007 12:00:50 AM PDT by Steve Van Doorn
government to not surpass (I think it was) $6 trillion in national debt.
It was sighed by around 13 Governors. I can not remember what it was called and I can not find any information on it. The threat was of secession from the union.
thanks
Try this Google search
trillion + national debt
Here's a link from the first sight I hit that goes back to '99
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
thanks though.
OK, well do the Google search I gave you and you will probably get your answer.
The problem is that the debt is meaningless. The debt is a product of taxes and spending. When taxes are less than spending, the debt goes up. When taxes are more, the debt goes down. But, the tax rate isn't as meaningful as you think. If you raise taxes so that the debt doesn't go up, you have less money now, because taxes went up. If you don't raise taxes, you have more money now, but you owe in the future.
The point being, it is the spending that matters. Whether it is paid for now or later doesn't matter all that much.
One word: interest.
Not at all. The interest on the debt is the price of delaying paying for something. We would be no better off if we paid up front. We wouldn't pay the interest on the debt, but, we wouldn't have the $100 billion either, which would be invested in the economy at a higher rater than the low interest rate the fedgov borrows at.
It can work that way. The problem with the Keynsian approach--using deficit spending as an economic stimulus--comes precisely when it stops working because the cost of debt service (interest) itself becomes a drag on the economy.
Sounds like the Concord Coalition.
That's no what I am saying at all. What I am saying is that the debt is not a cost at all. It is a journal entry. The spending is the cost. If you take the money up front, or take it later, makes basically no difference. The interest paid every single year is netted out against earnings on the money that wasn't taken from the taxpayers. For every penny paid in interest there is a penny that is earned in the economy because the money wasn't taken by the government. It nets out. If you said "wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to pay interest on the debt right now"? The answer would be sure, except that the economy would be that much poorer if that money had been taxed in the first place.
Its the spending that matters. How it is paid for ia a minor, minor issue.
Yes I understand what the debt is and all that but I was more interested in the threat that the States issued not very long ago to the Union about secession from the union.
I did that longer then I care to admit. I can not find it.
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