The US National Debt, 2

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

 

bill (3)	stimulus	agreement
senate	an eighth	House (of Representatives)
vote	cover (2)	employee
jump	applaud	express (2)
suffer	inflation	ridiculous
fund	congress	performance
salary	request	essentially
borrow	adopt (3)	percentage-wise
option	employer	unemployment
belief	object (3)	hopelessness
default	order (3)	motion (2)
worth	prevent	bother (2)
federal	destroy	worry/worried
reduce	alarm (3)	compassionate
left (3)	bail out	run out (2)
goods	stuff (2)	eliminate
batch	right (5)	rise/rose/risen
cost	disaster	prosperous
invest	deal (3)	broadcast
default	issue (3)	make sure
cents	advisor	in order to
pile	preserve	mortgage (2)
raise	path (2)	irresponsible
wreck	drive up	long-term
scare	deal (2)	short-term
deficit	bankrupt	interview
vote	chase (2)	pandemic
bill (2)	regulate	speech (3)
redo	pack (2)	appropriation

 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

News Anchor: “The largest stimulus bill in US history. Trump thanks Republicans and Democrats for coming together.”

For once, Republicans and Democrats were in agreement.

Donald Trump, US Presidet: “It was 96 to nothing in the Senate.”

And the House didn’t even bother with a formal vote.

Speaker of the House of Representatives: “The motion is adopted.”

They applauded themselves.

Only a few expressed objections.

Mark Green (Republican), Tennessee Congressman: “$75 million to NPR, public broadcasting, ridiculous.”

Journalist at Press Conference: “$25 million worth of funding for the Kennedy Performance Arts Center. Yeah. Here in Washington, D.C. Shouldn’t that money be going to masks?”

Donald Trump, US President: “The Kennedy Center has suffered greatly because nobody can go there. It’s essentially closed, and they do need some funding. And I said, ‘Look . . . — that was a Democrat request. That was not my request.’ But you got to give them something.”

Something they got: $25 million for Congressional salaries. $50 million for a museum. Few politicians asked, “How do you pay for it? We’re going to borrow it from China, we’re going to borrow it from Russia? Are we going to print the money?”

Good questions. Our national debt is already almost $24 trillion. Now it will jump, percentage wise, to where Greece’s debt was just before unemployment there hit 27%.

News Reporter: “The feeling of hopelessness here seems to be spreading.”

Greece was bailed out by Europe. But the United States can’t be bailed out by others. So how can we pay off our debt?

There are really only three options: Default. Print money. Or raise taxes

Democratic Presidential Candidate: “Raise taxes on the rich.”
Political Commentator: “You can tax the billionaires.”
Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Presidential Candidate: “We need to tax the billionaires.”

But that wouldn’t solve the debt problem. Even if we took all billionaires’ wealth, it would cover only about an eighth of our debt! So others on the left now say, “Don’t worry about debt. Just print money!”

Video Presenter: “The US government can never run out of dollars. The federal government prints dollars.”

Bernie Sanders’ economic advisor says, “That debt clock shouldn’t alarm us! It’s meant to scare people, right? The national debt tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. There’s nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants to and paying it to someone.”

This belief, now called Modern Monetary Theory, has destroyed lives in many countries. Zimbabwe is a recent example.

The dictator just printed more money. That meant: “You had more money chasing the same goods. More money chasing the same goods meant you needed more dollars to buy the same stuff.

A batch of tomatoes will cost me $10 million Zimbabwe dollars and a pack of onions will cost me $30 million dollars. The faster prices rose, the more money the government printed. And, the faster prices rose.”

It got so bad that a one hundred trillion dollar bill was only worth about 40 cents. There was an economic disaster in the once-prosperous South African country. In flation also wrecked lives in 1920’s Germany, Argentina, Russia, and Venezuela.

Finally, there’s choice 3: America could just default. But that would eliminate the savings of everyone who invested in America. And it wouldn’t solve our problems.

When Argentina defaulted, its economy fell apart. Unemployment reached 21%. Once you’re deep in debt, none of the options is good. How did we fall so debt when for years Politicians have said they’d reduce our deficit.

Ronald Reagan, US President: “We have piled deficit upon deficit mortgaging our future and our children’s future. We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow.

Bill Clinton, US President: “We’ve got to deal with this big long term debt problem or it will deal with us.”

But they didn’t deal with it. They just talked about it.

Barrack Obama, US President: “Take out a credit card from the bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt that we are going to have to pay back. That’s irresponsible.”

Donald Trump, US President: “$20 trillion. It doubled under president Obama.”

And if you include the current stimulus, it’s increased even faster under Trump!

Warren Davidson (Republican) Congressman: “It’s not compassionate to bankrupt America, but that’s the path we’re on.”

Congressman Warren Davidson’s a Republican.

Reporter: “But that’s your party doing it.”

Warren Davidson (Republican) Congressman: “It’s not one party. You didn’t get $23 trillion in debt because one party is good on the issue and the other isn’t. Alright, it’s both parties.”

I interviewed Davidson before the pandemic.

Reporter: “You voted for some spending bills, billions for the FCC. Why do we even need an FCC?

Warren Davidson (Republican) Congressman: “Well, who else would be able to regulate speech if there wasn’t an FCC?”
Reporter: “Right, we don’t need an FCC, and you voted for this bill.”
Warren Davidson (Republican) Congressman: “Well, you don’t get a vote for precise things very often. There are things in these appropriations that do need funding.”

At least Davidson usually votes against big spending.

Warren Davidson (Republican) Congressman: “We are on a path to bankrupting our country.”

We are! But today most politicians only talk about spending more.

Joe Biden, US Presidential Candidate: “Making sure that we spend the kind of money we need to spend.”

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: “We have to do more.”
Bernie Sanders, US Presidential Candidate: “We need a new stimulus package.”
Donald Trump, US President: “$2 trillion, we redo our roads, our highways, our bridges.”

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Questions

Money. In the United States, the Democrats (Left, Liberal) spend more, expand government, bureaucracies and waste; while Republicans (Right, Conservative) shrink governments, trim and eliminate bureaucracy and waste. Is this entirely true, mostly true, in the middle, yes and no, mostly false or entirely false?

Debt, in the Red, in the Hole. Do politicians limit government spending to essentials like the justice system, defense, education, healthcare and welfare programs?

Borrow. If the US has financial problems, the EU, China, Russia and India will help. Is this right, wrong, both, in the middle? What are some possible options?

Loan. What are the consequences of each option? Are they viable?

Default. Are there historical precedence for financial crises?

Revenue. No American president has taken the US national debt seriously. Is this entirely correct, mostly correct, in the middle, yes and no, largely incorrect or completely incorrect?

Expenditure. Is reducing and eliminating debt is the top priority for all candidates and politicians?
 
 
 
Balanced Budget. Does your country have a balanced budget, national debt or a budget surplus?

Interest. What are the sources of revenue for the government? Does it vary among different countries?

Deficit. What are some of its main expenditures?

Budget Cuts. Is there a lot of debate, arguments and controversy about taxes and expenditures by politicians, journalists, economists, experts and ordinary citizens?

Reform. Do different people have strong opinions about taxation, expenditures and debt?

Lobby. What might happen in the future?

Inflation. What should people and governments do?