The federal budget deficit swelled to $1.8 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September, an enormous sum that significantly increases the national debt as Washington barrels toward a potential 2025 showdown over spending and taxes.
The Congressional Budget Office warned in a Tuesday report that interest payments on the debt reached $950 billion, larger than the size of the Pentagon budget.
As of Friday, the United States had accumulated a [public debt of $35.7 trillion](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny). The CBO projected in June that the debt would exceed $50 billion by the end of this decade. The nation’s debt compared with the size of the overall economy, a key metric of fiscal stability, is projected to exceed its all-time high of 106 percent by 2027.
Americans have outstanding mortgage debt of roughly $12 trillion. Â Â
The average mortgage interest rate in 2023 was around 6-7%, so the interest payments can be roughly estimated at about $700-840 billion per year.
If mortgage interest was used as a public good through public banks, rather than as tribute paid to private parasites/kleptocrats (including the banks we should have nationalized in 2008 after jailing the bankers), the US could offset the tax burden on the public by over $700 Billion dollars per year.Â
At the moment, instead of taxing our ruling parasites/kleptocrats, we’re paying them massive amounts of interest (roughly $900 Billion in 2023) on all the wealth they’ve stolen.Â
Banking used to be a political issue, though nowadays the corporate propaganda machines keep it out of the public’s awareness and off the public’s agenda of things to be dealt with. Â Â
We can and should bring it back as a political issue. Â Â
It matters whether your mortgage interest is going to benefit you and your community (and offset your tax burden), or whether it’s paid to Wall Street parasites/kleptocrats, who use that interest to “lobby” against your interests, at an exponentially growing rate.Â
Roughly 7.6 Trillion of our $35.7 Trillion in national debt is owned by foreign nations, including China owning $830 Billion of the US national debt.
If we started using our 12 Trillion in mortgage debt as a public good, we could start to pay off the national debt and make our politics less toxic across the board.
One of the major differences between a toxic and dysfunctional society and a generally happy and harmonious one is widely shared prosperity.
We can and should engineer for that.
Narrow-Abalone7580 on
Incoming arguments for more austerity for the poor and more tax cuts and investments for the rich. The poor are poor because they deserve it, that’s why. /s
jba126 on
Add a trillion to the debt every 100 days. No wonder they’re pushing MMT. Socialism is very expensive.
4 Comments
The federal budget deficit swelled to $1.8 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September, an enormous sum that significantly increases the national debt as Washington barrels toward a potential 2025 showdown over spending and taxes.
The Congressional Budget Office warned in a Tuesday report that interest payments on the debt reached $950 billion, larger than the size of the Pentagon budget.
The next president is likely to face key decisions, along with Congress, about whether and how to tackle the debt and skyrocketing interest costs. Neither former president [Donald Trump](https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5) nor Vice President [Kamala Harris](https://www.washingtonpost.com/kamala-harris/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5) has made deficit reduction a key plank of their campaigns for the White House.
As of Friday, the United States had accumulated a [public debt of $35.7 trillion](https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny). The CBO projected in June that the debt would exceed $50 billion by the end of this decade. The nation’s debt compared with the size of the overall economy, a key metric of fiscal stability, is projected to exceed its all-time high of 106 percent by 2027.
Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/08/federal-budget-deficit-financial-health/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/08/federal-budget-deficit-financial-health/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Americans have outstanding mortgage debt of roughly $12 trillion. Â Â
The average mortgage interest rate in 2023 was around 6-7%, so the interest payments can be roughly estimated at about $700-840 billion per year.
If mortgage interest was used as a public good through public banks, rather than as tribute paid to private parasites/kleptocrats (including the banks we should have nationalized in 2008 after jailing the bankers), the US could offset the tax burden on the public by over $700 Billion dollars per year.Â
At the moment, instead of taxing our ruling parasites/kleptocrats, we’re paying them massive amounts of interest (roughly $900 Billion in 2023) on all the wealth they’ve stolen.Â
Banking used to be a political issue, though nowadays the corporate propaganda machines keep it out of the public’s awareness and off the public’s agenda of things to be dealt with. Â Â
We can and should bring it back as a political issue. Â Â
It matters whether your mortgage interest is going to benefit you and your community (and offset your tax burden), or whether it’s paid to Wall Street parasites/kleptocrats, who use that interest to “lobby” against your interests, at an exponentially growing rate.Â
[https://publicbankinginstitute.org/](https://publicbankinginstitute.org/)
This is also a national security issue.
Roughly 7.6 Trillion of our $35.7 Trillion in national debt is owned by foreign nations, including China owning $830 Billion of the US national debt.
If we started using our 12 Trillion in mortgage debt as a public good, we could start to pay off the national debt and make our politics less toxic across the board.
One of the major differences between a toxic and dysfunctional society and a generally happy and harmonious one is widely shared prosperity.
We can and should engineer for that.
Incoming arguments for more austerity for the poor and more tax cuts and investments for the rich. The poor are poor because they deserve it, that’s why. /s
Add a trillion to the debt every 100 days. No wonder they’re pushing MMT. Socialism is very expensive.