As Deficit Soars Toward $1 Trillion, Congress Shrugs and Keeps Spending
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress on Tuesday to raise the federal government’s statutory borrowing limit and said Washington must soon grapple with the mounting federal debt, just as lawmakers are embarking on a significant spending spree.
Annual deficits are creeping up to $1 trillion a year and the national debt has topped $20 trillion. On Monday, Treasury said that the United States will need to borrow $441 billion in privately-held debt this quarter, the largest sum since 2010 when the economy was emerging from the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
Yet the need to deal with the federal debt seems to have taken a back seat to other priorities, including the $1.5 trillion tax cut increased defense and domestic spending, and an expected infrastructure request from President Trump.
“The president is very much concerned about the rate of increase of the debt and particularly the rate that it grew over the last eight years,” Mr. Mnuchin said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. “Over time we need to figure out where we can have government savings to deal with the deficit.”
He dismissed suggestions that the tax cut, which is projected to add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over a decade even with economic growth, would only worsen the problem.
Mr. Mnuchin’s request to raise the debt limit stems from the simple fact that federal spending is far outpacing revenue. The Treasury must borrow money from private investors but needs congressional approval to go above the $20.5 trillion debt limit that caps the United States debt load.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/as-deficit-soars-toward-dollar1-trillion-congress-shrugs-and-keeps-spending/ar-BBIulsl?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp
2008 all over again
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