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Kathianne
02-14-2010, 06:23 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100214/ap_on_bi_ge/us_deficit_crunch;_ylt=AtY2Nf7psI9Plv3mORNj8Xys0NU E;_ylu=X3oDMTNoZzVlaGhvBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMjE0L3V zX2RlZmljaXRfY3J1bmNoBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb 3MDMwRwb3MDOQRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9 yeQRzbGsDdXNkZWJ0d2lsbGtl


US debt will keep growing even with recovery

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
15 mins ago

WASHINGTON – It's bad enough that Greece's debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world's largest economic and military power, there's a far more serious debt dilemma.

For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario — a full recovery and a return to prerecession employment levels.

The government already has made so many promises to so many expanding "mandatory" programs. Just keeping these commitments, without major changes in taxing and spending, will lead to deficits that cannot be sustained.

Take Social Security, Medicare and other benefits. Add in interest payments on a national debt that now exceeds $12.3 trillion. It all will gobble up 80 percent of all federal revenues by 2020, government economists project...

KarlMarx
02-14-2010, 09:59 AM
There are two possible outcomes to this.

1. The nations re-evaluate decades old thinking and begin to reduce their nanny-state mentality. Governments get smaller, do less, and rely on the private sector to accomplish things that it used to do. This is happening in India. It has begun moving away from a socialist economy towards a free market economy and with much success. Unfortunately, this requires some hard choices. Politicians will have to find other ways to woo voters than with government programs to cater to their whims.

2. The nations continue down the road they're on. This is the more likely of the two outcomes. If this is the case, then these nations will surely default on their loans and trigger a world wide depression.