{"id":93,"date":"2011-12-24T18:07:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=93"},"modified":"2014-06-14T12:30:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T19:30:58","slug":"ccm-u-s-debt-be-bridled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=93","title":{"rendered":"Can U.S. Debt Be Bridled?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>Third in a Series<\/strong><\/p>\n

President\u00a0Reagan is committed firmly\u00a0to halting\u00a0deficit spending and balancing\u00a0the federal\u00a0budget, he hopes\u00a0by 1983.Ironically\u00a0though, he had to ask Congress to raise the borrowing limit to $985 billion to\u00a0cover spending commitments\u00a0by the previous\u00a0Carter Administration through Sept. 30,\u00a0the end of fiscal ’81.<\/p>\n

Most\u00a0of the 31\u00a0debt limit\u00a0increases of the past two decades had been voted perfunctorily,\u00a0with conservative lawmakers, mostly from the Republican minority,\u00a0registering protest votes.<\/p>\n

Not so this\u00a0year with\u00a0a GOP majority in the Senate. Democrats, who had controlled both houses of Congress for a quarter century, forced a lengthy debate before yielding\u00a0to the Republicans. The vote was 73-18 in the Senate: 304-104 in\u00a0the House.<\/p>\n

They accomplished the spending authorization – raising the debt limit\u00a0by $50 billion\u00a0so the government could pay its bills. But debate also provided insights\u00a0on deficit financing under which the budget has been balanced only twice\u00a0in the past 24 years – 1960 and 1969.<\/p>\n

Sen. William Roth. R-Del. summarized: “The plain fact is that we now mast pay the bill for the extravagance of the past.”<\/p>\n

Registering his continuing opposition to raising the debt celling, Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis. declared massive borrowing results in “higher interest, more inflation, and bigger spending and deficits.”<\/p>\n

“Just in the last four years,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch. R-Utah. “the federal budget has jumped from a little over $400 billion to $739 billion ( Carter\u00a0budget for fiscal 1983);\u00a0the national debt from a little over $650 billion to almost a trillion dollars; and interest on the debt from $42 to $100 billion in just four or five years \u2026”<\/p>\n

(The national\u00a0debt is projected to reach $1 trillion in November or December, about $4,415 per capita.)<\/p>\n

Sen. Strom Thurmond,\u00a0R-S.C., said a balanced budget “is a goal we\u00a0absolutely must move toward … with unwavering discipline. The\u00a0future\u00a0economic\u00a0survival of our nation depends on it.”<\/p>\n

Thurmond told of Reagan’s\u00a0desire to end red ink\u00a0spending and quoted the\u00a0President as saying: “I intend\u00a0to be the first president in history to come to Congress and ask a reduction in the debt ceiling.”<\/p>\n

The veteran senator said inflation\u00a0is caused “by monetization\u00a0of the debts\u00a0– excessive creation of\u00a0money through the Federal\u00a0Reserve System purchase\u00a0and\u00a0handling of federal\u00a0debt instruments.”<\/p>\n

Sen. William\u00a0Armstrong,\u00a0R-Colo., sold the $50 billion\u00a0debt limit\u00a0increase amounts to “half\u00a0of everything Americans will\u00a0save this\u00a0year.” To dramatize the interest\u00a0burden on the debt, Armstrong said it would require\u00a0all taxes paid\u00a0this year by 26\u00a0states (which\u00a0he named) to meet the Interest obligation.<\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia,\u00a0in a subsequent statement, explained that the public\u00a0debt has declined in terms of the country’s\u00a0gross national product.<\/p>\n

“In 1960,\u00a0with the national debt at 56.9\u00a0percent at the GNP, the entire\u00a0productive capacity of our economy would have had to work more than six\u00a0months to retire the debt,” Byrd said. “In 1980\u00a0the debt stood at about 35\u00a0percent of the GNP\u00a0and theoretically it could be retired\u00a0in just over four months.<\/p>\n

Sen. David L. Boren, D-Okla. expressed concern at the heavy\u00a0outlay for interest\u00a0on the debt and said\u00a0it interest\u00a0rates go higher the burden\u00a0could reach levels beyond the governments reasonable ability\u00a0to pay.<\/p>\n

He quoted economist Richard\u00a0Russell as saying: “If the U.S. government were a corporation\u00a0it would be bankrupt.”<\/p>\n

In the House, Rep. William\u00a0Dannemeyer,\u00a0R-Calif., observed that some trivialize\u00a0long-standing conservative concern with\u00a0the debt,\u00a0suggesting, “We only owe it to ourselves.” This type of thinking\u00a0ignores “the rising\u00a0cost of servicing\u00a0the debt and the profound\u00a0economic consequences of federal borrowing,” he said.<\/p>\n

(Interest on the debt is projected at $94.1 billion\u00a0for the present fiscal year and at $106.5 billion for fiscal ’82. Figures from Carter Administration\u00a0estimates of Last January.)<\/p>\n

Rep. Clarence Brown. R-Ohio applauded “rediscovery” of supply side\u00a0economics and said: “To fight inflation, unemployment and rising debt we need a program that casts aside old-school Keynesian economics and puts in its place incentives to work, save, invest, and produce …”<\/p>\n

Rep. Elliott Levitas, D-Ga. opposed debt ceiling increases and commented: “We are indeed\u00a0charging fur coats to our grandchildren.”\u00a0Levitas added: “The time has come to say enough is enough.”<\/p>\n

Next: Exploring solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third in a Series President\u00a0Reagan is committed firmly\u00a0to halting\u00a0deficit spending and balancing\u00a0the federal\u00a0budget, he hopes\u00a0by 1983.Ironically\u00a0though, he had to ask Congress to raise the borrowing limit to $985 billion to\u00a0cover spending commitments\u00a0by the previous\u00a0Carter Administration through Sept. 30,\u00a0the end of fiscal ’81. Most\u00a0of the 31\u00a0debt limit\u00a0increases of the past two decades had been voted perfunctorily,\u00a0with… Continue reading Can U.S. Debt Be Bridled?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}