Samuel Studer
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Bernie Sanders draws thousand of people to his rallies. When Sanders talks at these rallies, he tries to make easy jokes and small talk, but he gets right down to business when he’s talking about American politics, as he showed during Tuesday night’s debate. He has said he understands the United States is facing a serious budget deficit. Yet his proposals are still expected to be extremely expensive. Clearly, Sanders does not fully understand the debt crisis the United States is facing.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States Treasury will run out of money in the first half of November if the borrowing limit is not raised. In an interview with “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sanders said he would fund his expensive agenda — $1 trillion for infrastructure and Medicare for all — through higher taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations. According to U.S. census data, 3.8 million households that make more than $200,000 a year. However, this group represents 32.5 percent of earned income in the U.S.
According to Forbes, the U.S. budget deficit for fiscal 2015 was $435 billion. This is smaller than the deficit in 2014, which was $483 billion.
To finance the debt, the Treasury sells bond and other types of securities. Anyone can buy these bonds and will get repaid with interest. This may be shrink, but the gross federal debt has risen to 103 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. As what we owe rises, a large portion of what the government could use for spending is instead being used to pay off our deficit. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates in order to reduce the growing debt.
The United States accumulated a lot of debt during the economic recession. The national recession has ended, but we have to give the economy time to rebound. In times of booming economy, debt tends to decrease. If politicians such as Sanders continue to spend money, we will not have time to get out of the hole we’ve dug. The United States must focus on repaying the money we have borrowed and take drastic measures soon in order to get off the road that we are heading down.
Once that money is paid off, then we can focus on new programs. Because we are rebuilding our economy at this time, we cannot afford to spend trillions of dollars on new programs. These ideas are beneficial to the United States, but they need to be implemented slowly. The economy would look too different for what the United States needs to be successful. Sanders’ programs would spook the market and throw the economy off balance. A balance must be met to maintain changing programs and pay off debt. His ideas are too liberal for the stability that is needed in the United States. Sanders has great ideas that could help the U.S., yet he is not the right person for the White House. We need someone who will help to combat the crisis that we already face.