Tentative Federal Budget Would Raise Spending by $320 Billion

The New York Times ^ | 22 July 2019 | Emily Cochrane and Alan Rappeport

[DoughtyOne]

Yep.

Spending continues to grow under a House controlled by Democrats. Where have we seen this before?

[Brian Griffin]

My $30 trillion cap idea is based on the 1808 slave importation cutoff date of the Constitution.

“already go into effect”

My idea doesn’t go into effect right away, which makes it, like the far off into the future slave importation cutoff, more politically palatable.

A slavery abolition date of 1860 could have been easily set into the Constitution in 1787.

“150%”

That’s 2.5 times the EU limit of 60%.

Federal debt is just an invitation for the squandering of federal funds. It should be minimized.

There’s really no good reason for the federal government to have much debt. Major wars are simply either a waste of money and lives (Iraq) or unthinkable US vs. China/Russia. And I don’t have to elaborate upon the federal support of defective lifestyles.

[Svartalfiar]

Yes, so with the current National Debt/GDP at $21-22T, that places your $30T hard number at the 150% level I mentioned. Which is why I mentioned that as an option instead of 100%, because the 150% mark wouldn’t go into effect right away either.

But you definitely want to tie it to a variable number - if we have a crazy depression or major event and GDP drops to $10T, your $30T number is now a HUGE amount the FedGov can borrow/spend. Likewise, if the economy balloons up to $100T, the hard number is now a small portion of GDP that doesn’t allow for the Gov to do much, relative to the size of the economy. I think something based on the variable GDP would be a good option.

Yes, 150% or even 100% is too high, But we’re already at 105%, and as you said, you gotta leave some current room for it to be politically palatable (or even possible).

FedGov Debt needs to be eliminated, but that is gonna be a long, painful process, and needs to have the actual backing of the politicians. As it is, Dems just want to spend more and more, and half the Repubs are perfectly happy to go along as long as they can squeeze their fingers into the pie. And unfortunately, Trump is a businessman, so debt isn’t always bad at all - it’s a tool used in business. And in a government with no consequences to unlimited debt, he really doesn’t have much incentive to fight that hard against it.