Part One: America’s Issues With Debt

The federal government now approaches a whopping 28 trillion dollars in debt. 2020 caused the largest deficit in the nation’s history at 3.2 trillion. Each American taxpayer would have to pay over $220,000 just to undo the federal debt. 

That does not include the over 158 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities of the federal government. Medicare and Social Security account for over 53 trillion of the 158, and a majority of Americans support expanding both the programs. To fund these liabilities, each citizen– not merely each taxpayer– would have to pay almost half a million dollars. 

None of these numbers include any sort of defense, education, infrastructure, or other service the government provides to citizens on a daily basis.

However, America’s problem with debt extends far past its government. 

With healthcare, debt was already an issue, and the pandemic only made it worse. Combined with job and income loss, medical debt continues to pile up. Half of Americans who have medical debt have no other form of debt.  

Healthcare costs have been out of control since ObamaCare was put into place. The Obama legislation failed to do all that it intended to– lower costs for all middle-class and working people. Trump did next to nothing in this regard as well. 

Biden now inherits a disaster of a healthcare system that lacks affordable coverage and is piling up enormous amounts of debt. Unfortunately, his plan consists of nothing more than piling on ObamaCare policies that already failed in the past.

As over 7.7 million Americans lost coverage as a result of job loss caused by the pandemic, the ability of many to pay their health care costs will continue to spiral out of control in the foreseeable future. 

Student loan debt is another controversial issue in the country. The issue with educational loans does not lie in the fact that over $1.7 trillion is owed. It doesn’t even lie in the fact that the average student owes almost $40,000. The problem is that the federal government backs all student loans. 

Federally-backed student loans were supposed to bring additional educational access to lower-income students. Instead, they have allowed colleges to inflate their prices with no incentive to bring a competitive rate to students, allowing the IRS to dock money from paychecks to pay back loans.

Unlike all other types of debt in U.S. law, individuals cannot default on their student loans if they are federally backed. This debt will continue to hang over the borrower until it is paid off. 

Thus, a massive problem is created, as millions of students are not able to pay back their loans, especially with the current unemployment rates. With millennials being the best educated generation in history with a heavy student debt burden, this issue will continue to worsen. In 2012, student debt hit 1 trillion. Nine years later, that number has almost doubled.

Many of America’s issues with debt came from the federal legislations over the last 50 years. Since a large number of the leaders who introduced such legislations are still in power, the concern must be raised about our government’s ability to fix these issues.