What is the reason for our country's gigantic amount of debt?

1. 69

   Cat Rposted 12 years ago

   What is the reason for our country's gigantic amount of debt?
   
   What do you think causes the most 'damage'?
   - Illegal Immigrants and the loss of taxes/amount of money paid to them for welfare type programs (that are not covered by the taxes they pay since they don't pay taxes)?
   - The money spend on unnecessary programs or misused programs?
   - The salaries of our 'leadership' such as the members of Congress and our president?
   - The money it costs to supply soldiers and such we send overseas to handle international conflicts, etc.?
   - The care for all the benefits prisoners receive in American jails?
   - Money spend on elections/campaigns?
   - Other reasons?

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2. 81

   pstraubie48posted 12 years ago

   M I S M A N A G  E M E N T...wasteful use of the gazillions of dollars that come in each year.....too many overpaid government officials in Washington...someone wrote on here that life is not complex and it isn't.
   National debt is not complex...it is summed up best in that one word..mismanagement and no committee to insure it is used correctly..there is a committee for everything else but the one that is supposed to do so doesn't.

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3. 83

   tonymead60posted 12 years ago

   Greed is the problem, bankers and big business pushing the envelope too far. Excuse me for saying, but the reasons you mention are mostly the common myths of where the waste is, it is the 'let's blame someone syndrome' which is a common cause of violence and hatred, all too often that leads to war and insurrection.

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4. 73

   JamesPoppellposted 12 years ago

   irresponsible politicians. Their priorities are always wrong. If it were a business they would have been fired a long, long time ago.

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5. 61

   GNelsonposted 12 years ago

   The Bush tax cuts, two wars, and medicare part D paying drug companies full price for drugs.  All done under a republican administration.

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6. 68

   Terri Meredithposted 12 years ago

   crony capitalism has become the method of achieving personal wealth among politicians.  There is no such thing as true competition anymore.  Now, it's about the advance knowledge of legislation that will affect an industry, capitalizing on that advance knowledge through insider trading, having the power to affect the direction the proposed legislation will go, and then reaping the benefits.  The rest of us would be brought up on charges for any one of these activities.  Not so for those who are in charge of making AND enforcing law.

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7. 81

   Becky Katzposted 12 years ago

   Sorry excuses for politicians that will do anything to get re-elected, they pass programs to get re-elected, regardless of whether it is good for the country or not. I believe that if they did their jobs properly, the national debt would be a lot lower. All  of the listed things and many more cause excessive debt. There has to be a balance, but they are not interested in finding it. If we ran our households in the same manner as they run our country, we would all be in jail.

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8. 60

   lostdogrwdposted 12 years ago

   the history of this country until 2000, not even a trillion dollars in debt and a surplus that the U S would have been debt free in four years. Now Former President Bush and Homeland Security, Medicare Plan b, Land give to oil companies, the very rich get to paid little to NO TAXES, two invasions, DEFENSE CONTRACTOR ,Halliburton, Black water, banks bail out, A I G bail out,money to the people just for gas to go up every time one was given. in other word. THE U S PEOPLE WAS ROB BY CONGRESS, WALL STREET, AND THE OIL COMPANIES, THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES AND 9 11 THE SET UP FOR ALL THAT WAS DONE.  the U S people was rob. and the sooner that the people get this, the better this country will be

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9. 0

   pcoachposted 12 years ago

   Simple answer...Liberals/progressives, entitlements (and by that I do not mean social security, medicare, etc. that we have paid into all our lives), illegal immigration promoted solely for the purpose of votes for the democrat party. And leave us not forget the billions now lost on Solyndra and the like. And borrowing money from China so we can give, yes, give money to other countries who don't even like us. How doggone stupid is that?

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10. 60

    Druid Dudeposted 12 years ago

    one for instance: In our previous wars, the army had among it's ranks, cooks. Not so in Iraq. A civilian cook could make one hundred thousand dollars to go to Iraq and cook for the army, employed by a civilian company. If an army cook could have made 15,000 in the same period, then that means that the overall difference is evident of gross mis-management. Using civilian companies as an outsource is supposed to be cheaper. I think their adding machines are broken.

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11. 83

    Freeway Flyerposted 12 years ago

    Asking for shared sacrifice is not a winning political strategy. It is easier instead to push for tax cuts and/or to continue popular government spending programs such as Medicare and Social Security. We essentially want the government to keep paying for things but to not take too much of our money to pay for them.
    
    It is also the product of history. Social programs were created in the past in response to circumstances, and in a society of interdependent people impacted by forces that we cannot entirely control, it became clear that some form of government aid and regulation was necessary. Unfortunately, once the government starts giving aid, the people receiving do not want to give it up. And since old people are the most powerful political faction in the country, the government does not want to mess too much with their welfare programs.
    
    Also, the United States took on the role of world policeman after World War II, and most policymakers (and Americans) are nervous about giving it up. So the military budget remains high, and people who talk about significant cuts to defense or drawing back our global presence are either labeled as soft or Un-American.
    
    The simple fact is that it is easier to talk about cutting the deficit in theory than it is in practice. And the only areas that ever seem to get cut are those where not much money was being spent anyway. It's easier to cut programs that have smaller, less powerful constituencies benefiting from them.

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12. 66

    Chris Krossposted 12 years ago

    The election process is fraudulent for one, as evident in this year's GOP election.  The men who make it into powerful positions are beholden to those who got them elected.
    
    Goldman Sachs, for instance, donated over 8.5 billion dollars to the 2008 elections.  In my mind, this is a blatant conflict of interest.  It is no wonder that the chairman of the Fed is always a former GS guy.  Example: Greenspan, Bernanke, and Geithner.  Believe me, there are more.
    
    Illegal immigration and high congressional salaries are small fries compared to the real problems that plague this country - the international banking cabal.  It is no wonder why Andrew Jackson stated that the greatest accomplishment of his lifetime was that he "killed the bank."
    
    He was, of course, talking about denying the renewal of the central bank charter.  He would be ashamed with what we have let these banks get away with today.  They are the ones who create these booms and busts in the business cycle, and they are the ones who have scientifically caused each depression since 1913 and many before that time.
    
    It is unnecessary to pay the Fed interest on money printed, and it's unconstitutional.  The income tax and the IRS exist for the sole purpose of collecting that interest from the people.  They are both also illegal and unconstitutional.
    
    There are many documentaries explaining this injustice, but I recommend "America: Freedom to Fascism" or "Money Masters."  Both are free to watch on youtube and other video hosting sites.

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13. 96

    cat on a soapboxposted 12 years ago

    Here's a chart to show the breakdown: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_budget_pie_chart

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14. 68

    viquarposted 12 years ago

    United States' Gigantic Debt has continued to grow enormously and doesn't seem to go back to normal in the near future. In this article we discuss one of the factors that affect the debt. read more

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15. 69

    Cat Rposted 12 years ago

    There was an article on President Obama's budget on CNN.com. Considering where he is cutting budget, it looks like the low-income people will be effected the most!

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16. 82

    Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

    What causes the most damage is the mental defect concerning failure to treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself.
    
    In other words - if I loaned you money, would you prefer that I not charge you interest?
    
    OF COURSE you'd prefer not being charged interest!
    
    You see, business is the pride of man and the notion that an individual's ego supersedes his value to the whole of humanity.  When the whole world honours business over doing what they know to be the right thing to do as a human community member - you get the kind of world that we now live in.
    
    Look, the Earth has FINITE resources - all of this debt is merely someone's pipe dream, and some other person's nightmares.  It's not real, it's imaginary.
    
    People forever want what they want, and usually under value the things that they have and actually need.
    
    It's the battle between the flesh and the spirit, the ego and the role of an individual in the collective whole of humanity.
    
    Every eight days the US military spends the amount of money that would be needed to feed the hungry of the Earth for an entire year.

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17. 61

    NiaLeeposted 12 years ago

    Bad management, lack of responsibility of the ones who make the decisions and spend... bi partisan system that have people try to reward support or motivate future support by spending where it is a mistake, etc...

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18. 88

    alifeofdesignposted 12 years ago

    Greed, mismanagement and moral deterioration are the primary reasons for our country's debt and continued spiral downward. It is more important to appear wealthier than we are, to be someone we are not, to have that which we have not earned. I think it is a sad truth that so many are swallowed up media hype directing us to own that, wear this, look like them. Common sense has been replaced by political correctness. If something is the 'right' thing to do-we should do it.
    
    How is it that low income folks can balance their checkbooks and contribute to their community and be law abiding and yet our government can not? Curious......

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