US national debt tops $34T for first time in history
(share.newsbreak.com)
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The people who are supposed to be smart enough to figure this out proved once again how completely out of touch and inept they are:
"The U.S. national debt topped $34 trillion for the first time ever, crossing a critical milestone at a time when government spending is already under scrutiny.
The national debt – which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — hit $34 trillion as of Friday afternoon, according to new data published by the Treasury Department. By comparison, just four decades ago, the national debt hovered around $907 billion.
"We are beginning a new year, but our national debt remains on the same damaging and unsustainable path," said Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which advocates for fiscal sustainability.
The historic debt level comes as Congress races to finalize critical funding bills in order to prevent a government shutdown.
The national debt is expected to nearly double in size over the next three decades, according to the latest findings from the Congressional Budget Office. At the end of 2022, the national debt grew to about 97% of gross domestic product.
Under current law, that figure is expected to skyrocket to 181% at the end of 2053 – a debt burden that will far exceed any previous level.
"Though our level of debt is dangerous for both our economy and for national security, America just cannot stop borrowing," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Even more worrisome is that the spike in interest rates over the past year and a half has made the cost of servicing the national debt more expensive.
That is because as interest rates rise, the federal government's borrowing costs on its debt will also increase. In fact, interest payments on the national debt are projected to be the fastest-growing part of the federal budget over the next three decades, according to the CRFB.
Payments are expected to triple from nearly $475 billion in fiscal year 2022 to a stunning $1.4 trillion in 2032. By 2053, the interest payments are projected to surge to $5.4 trillion.
To put that into perspective, that will be more than the U.S. spends on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other mandatory and discretionary spending programs."
The one question no one ever asks... Who is the U.S. indebted to?
Debt is an asset. The bottom line beneficiary and trustee of every asset always falls to a Natural Person, and never a corporation (there may be corporations in the chain, but it always lands on a real person). So really, what Natural Person(s) is the U.S. indebted to?
Maybe if people realize that they should start asking that question, the precipice will be reached.
Ok. You said a lot there. I know a lot of countries hold US debt, but also many individuals in the form of bonds, etc.
Are you saying that if there is no natural person to collect the debt (bc it's held by a corporation or a gov) it's not a true asset? And, therefore uncollectible?
Debt owed is a liability. Investment in debt (bonds) is an asset, no?
By Trust Law, "ownership" of all assets on the planet can be broken up into two categories, the beneficiary, and the controller (or "trustee"). The primary bond holder for U.S. bonds are banks and corporations (all types of corporations, including governmental corporations), But these can't actually be either the beneficiary or the trustee because they are not Natural Persons, they are legal fictions, they don't actually exist.
The trustee (controller) part of this system is the more important part to understand to see the fuckery. The Beneficiary of a bond is a less important metric (though still meaningful). For example, in the case of a U.S. bond "held by the public," such as our Social Security system, the beneficiary of the U.S. Bonds held by that agency is We The People (at least ostensibly), but the controller, the Trustee, is all sorts of Natural Persons, including people like the Queen of England (or King now I suppose).
All the fuckery of our Modern Economy is run through this separation of beneficiary and trustee, and putting corporations in front of the Natural Persons that those things fall on.
Yes. Look at what people actually control the bonds (trustee's of the asset) and you will appreciate who rules the world.
Having said that, who the beneficiaries are is also of non-trivial importance. The beneficiaries (those who receive the interest payments) are also primarily banks and corporations. They are the vampires who suck the life-blood from the productive power of the American People. But there are a lot of bonds that don't seem to be such a bad thing (like the several trillion in bonds held by the SSA), but in reality, because even if some of the beneficiaries are still We The People, the entire rest of the possible means of utilization of the system is both under control and under custodianship of the PTB.
This also brings up an important point on the SSA. The SSA pays benefits through it's gained interest on U.S. Bonds. So the SSA began life by taking a loan from the Fed, indebting We The People. We The People then put mandatory money into that system to buy more bonds (about 15% of all income per person per year). The interest on these bonds then goes back to We The People in the form of benefits, but the interest is also PAID FOR by the other income taxes paid. Or it is rolled over and the debt accrues (both happen).
It is a system that is guaranteed to crush the economy at some point, where the interest is more than the total possible income. It was a fraud to begin with, made "necessary" by the Great Depression, which was itself a fraud to begin with, a planned event, to set up exactly that indentured servitude system for all Americans.
In the custodianship aspect, the Fed or one of their affiliates is the custodian of all U.S. debt assets. They determine who can buy a bond. They determine who can sell a bond. All bond transactions go through the Fed, and they can cherry pick benefits for buying and selling these assets in different regions, so in reality, the Fed (or really the Bank of International Settlements (or really the Natural Persons who control the Bank of International Settlements)) is the controller of ALL U.S. debt through their custodianship.
Corporation debt
I have no idea what you intend to mean with that.
The corporation is bankrupt..not the repubkic