National Debt Dilemma: One Billion is Big, a Couple Trillion is Bigger


“A billion is a big number, a billion seconds ago it was 1982, a billion minutes ago Jesus was alive, a billion hours ago it was the stone age, a billion dollars ago in our national debt was eight hours and twenty minutes ago. So next time you hear a politician saying a billion causally think of this.” (Kelly 16) The problems with our nation begin with our national debt. It holds out economy back and causes most other economic problems. A normal person won’t keep spending when they are in debt, so why does the government? If we solve our national debt, we solve our economic problems. The U.S. should be eliminating debt because it limits our success as a nation. The changes would occur by lowering spending and increasing taxes on imports and high income citizens. We can tax imports, the wealthiest 1% of Americans, and reduce unnecessary spending.

What happens when you do not pay your car payment? It gets repossessed. Our government’s payment is long overdue. The government needs to spend like a responsible citizen. Citizens don’t go into debt as far as the government as far as the government. Our debt has been growing with no panic from citizens (Federal Budget 357-361). We need reduce spending on defense but not so much as to create a panic among the populous, so the solution is to do it slowly but also not to keep it hidden from the public eye. “China is the biggest holder of U.S. debt” (Preface to 'Is the Growing U.S. Debt a Threat to Americans?') probably because we see “made in China” on everything. Buying so many of their products is simply adding fuel to the fire, the fire that will burn the U.S. down, they use the money that they make from us, our money, to add to the deficit. That said frivolous spending will only decrease out quality of life in the long run.

Even though some say it is now too big and too late to pay back, and I understand their reasoning, it is hard to say that $16 trillion is small (Kelly charts) ; it will be hard but not impossible. These claims of impossibility are ill-founded. China, while being the main cause of the problem, could be our way out (Federal Budget 357-361). We can use their manufacturing prowess and need for a consumer for their products against them. If we simply raise taxes on imports coming from china, we would have a significant increase in income which we can channel towards paying off our country’s massive debt. Our wealthy could be another solution, especially those that use china as their main manufacturing place. First, we could offer incentives to their companies to move their manufacturing here which would, at the same time solve the unemployment issue. If we tax Chinese imports and offer incentives for the wealthy, we can not only solve the national debt, but also increase the United States’ power in the world.

Usually compromises solve problems better than one way or another. In the recent past there was a bill that’s proposal was that for every three dollars in spending cuts there would be one dollar of new tax revenue ("Introduction to The US Deficit: Opposing Viewpoints."). This would work great, both sides get what they want, the way they want it. In order to live you have to balance spending with income. It is the same way in government “when the government spends more than they make deficit happens” (Evens). This debt stays with us and keeps increaceing until we pay it off. The way I see it the major political parties need to cooperate with one another to reach their common goal.

The U.S. should be getting rid of debt because it halts our progress as a nation. We can change only when we are ready to raise taxes and lower spending. There is a plethora of ways to do this. We can cut spending on things where we over-budget like defense, increase taxes on imports, or, the best solution, use a combination of both. We need to increase taxes on Chinese imports. We can only get rid of our debt when each of us is ready to sacrifice a little bit for the greater good.