Friday, January 19, 2024

Today's Bee Letter: About National Debt

RE the Bee's (republished Bloomberg) editorial 1/17/24 "US Debt is now $34 trillion, but don't worry. Seriously." p. 10B

Finally, the Bee published an editorialist who is not a deficit scold! Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist reminds us that "[t]he government can service its debt because of its unlimited taxing authority and ability to issue more U.S. Treasury securities to repay maturing securities. Conversely households can't just increase their incomes to a desired level at will...."

"Politics is the real threat, not the level of borrowing. A country that prioritizes the size of the federal debt  has bad priorities."

This means the hand-wringing about Social Security and Medicare, all the doomsaying about how this debt will crush future generations is baloney.  It marks a new era when people understand that government can actually help people. After all, 65% of retired seniors have only Social Security and Medicare to fund their retirement, and there is literally no obstacle to increasing those benefits and lowering the FICA payroll tax.

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