Is the US capable of paying off the National Debt?

[Kludge]

And if not, why are we bothering to try and "help" it?

If so, why are we protesting taxation more than excessive expenditure?

 

[akihabro]

Yes, just not the current way we are spending. But now I think our currency is a debt system so its impossible to pay off. Ok can I change my answer?

 

[Andrew-Austin]

And if not, why are we bothering to try and "help" it?

I guess for the sake of pointing out that it is unsustainable and insane.

 

[EddieG]

No way, unless "paying it off" means massive inflation and changing the rules midstream on Social Security, Medicare, etc.

You answered your question. Big government spending is the root of the problem, and the Fed is the main mechanism for pulling off the crime. Taxes are a very important but secondary matter. Every dollar in spending will be paid for, it's just a question of who will foot the bill. 1.5T in tax receipts (or whatever it's at now) won't ever pay off a 65T debt fair and square, particularly when you're spending several times that. The govts creditors will foot the bill. Those who are expecting gov't services will foot the bill. Everyone who has been forced to throw money down the SS rathole will foot the bill. We'll foot it with a lower (possibly much lower) standard of living.

The reason no one talks about spending is that few want to cut it, and those who know it needs to be done won't do it because they won't get reelected.

 

[enjerth]

We would have to reverse the trade deficit to even begin to address the foreign debt. It's not like we can just give them cash, because that money represents our debt to them. It can only be paid through production.

I don't foresee that ever happening.

 

[DFF]

The only way the national debt ever gets payed off is through the repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and a return to the gold standard. Now if you mean can we can get it down to a level that's manageable under our current keynesian monetary system, yes. Like Ron Paul said, the debt will be liquidated thorough inflation.

 

[axiomata]

We do not necessarily have to pay back our national debt and its highly unlikely that we ever will.

It is however, very important to reduce our deficit and bring our debt in line so that we can afford to service our debt. At the pace we are going our creditors will lose faith in our ability to pay interest (or pay the interest in dollars of value).

 

[ItsTime]

What do you think hyper inflation is for?

 

[DirtMcGirt]

they will pay it back by selling all of us to China for a couple thousand yuan per person

 

[mrsat_98]

Stamp a coin for the amount of the debt and pay it off and then go back to gold.

 

[raystone]

they will pay it back by selling all of us to China for a couple thousand yuan per person

 

[RonPaulCentral]

Learn Chinese

chinesepod.com

Get used to the idea

 

[LibForestPaul]

Define US, debt, national and paying off?

srsly

 

[Kludge]

Define US, debt, national and paying off?

srsly

Is the United States government capable of collecting enough revenue to pay face value of all securities issued to both citizens and foreigners?

(is "fixing" the government a lost cause?)

 

[Zippyjuan]

Theoretically we certainly could pay off our debt. The closest we got was under Clinton when a couple symbolic payments on the debt were made but overspending has exploded since. The problem is that it would take quite a bit of time and require fiscal responsibility for many years if not decades which Congress is incapable of doing. They don't like to see money doing nothing when they could be buying votes with it via government programs. I would have liked to have seen the Balanced Budget Amendment passed along with the Line Item Veto. The Line Item Veto was passed once but ruled unconstitutional. George H. W. Bush (senior) had a program where any new budget program had to include financing for how it was going to be paid for but that did not last long either. Obama talks about wanting to reduce the deficit but so far is making it go the wrong direction.

One problem with it is that as it grows, the interest payments on it become a bigger slice of the total budget which makes any efforts to reduce spending in the future more difficult.

 

[idiom]

Can it be paid of? Yes. Realistic probability of that happening? 0%.

Far more likely, hyper-inflation or Default leaving us to pick up the pieces.

 

[Danke]

With the Federal Reserve System, hard to imagine. The money is debt based, loaned into existence, payable back with interest. So when they pay off debt, the "money" comes from more debt. The money for making the interest payments on the debt doesn't exist until more money is borrowed, thereby creating...more debt.


So just default.

 

[LibForestPaul]

debt , say is 100 dollars...dollars of what ...Federal Reserve Notes? United Treasury Notes?

P.S. What is the debt measured in ...i.e. when the US Treasury issues I suppose a T-Note, what are the obligations

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/58020
http://goldprice.org/bob/2005/07/gold-certificate-ratio.html


In other words, paying off the national debt held by the US treasury is similar to saying if the FED fells a tree on your farm, and no one is around to make it into paper with some chloroform, does it have any value.

 

[krazy kaju]

Paying off the debt would be relatively easy. We could eliminate payroll, capital gains, and corporate taxes, greatly simplify and reduce the income tax, and replace all trade quotas and prohibitive tariffs with a single, low, flat tariff on all goods, while at the same time eliminate Social Insecurity, MedicAIDS, Medikkkare, the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Education, and pretty much everything else. The debt would be repaid in a few years.

 

[JdotRdot]

i don't know why so many people here think it can't be done...willing & able are too different things

could be paid off easy in a matter of 2-3 years...but will it be?? doubtful
no inflation needed, just get rid of the Fed & fiat money. government would have to cut spending automatically