The debt that America owes is now six times higher than it was at the beginning of the 21st century!
This past week, the United States exceeded its legal borrowing limit of $31.4 trillion. But how?
Since the beginning of the 21st century, America's debt has increased by $25 trillion.
Rapid Growth of Debt
Over the next ten years, this is expected to increase by $1.3 trillion annually on average.
Interest payments alone will reach $5.4 trillion annually over the next decade as a result of the rising debt.
Consequences of Debt
The growth of the national debt is a governance issue.
Bad Governance?
It increased by over $7 trillion under Donald Trump, while it increased by $8.8 trillion under Barack Obama!
For decades, politicians have made a habit of,
Drivers of Debt
The crisis began in the 1990s when the end of the dot-com bubble ate into the US' tax revenues and the subsequent 9/11 terrorist attacks led to a sharp spike in military spending.
Drivers of Debt
Last year the direct cost of wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan exceeded $1.6 trillion.
A Massive Change!
By 2018, the debt had increased by $5.6 trillion as a result of temporary tax cuts implemented in 2001 and 2003, the majority of which Obama made permanent in 2012.
A Massive Change!
In FY22, a further round of tax cuts implemented by Trump in 2018 increased the debt by nearly $1.2 trillion.
Drivers of Debt
The government's stimulus spending, which totaled nearly $6 trillion in response to the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 global recession, was the other factor driving the debt.