How will we pay back the 8.5 trillion National Debt.?

During WWII the top tax bracket was taxed at 80%. Since it is the top tax bracket that benefited the most from the tax cuts and the Iraq occupation maybe we should raise that bracket back up to 80% again.

To be honest the debt is really not high as the numbers suggest.

8.6 trillion dollars definitely seems like a lot of money, but there are two things that have to be considered when measuring the actual debt. The first is the time value of money, the actual value of money decreases each year at the rate of inflation, on average this is 3 percent. This basically means that for every year of time that passes, each dollar is only worth on average 97% of what it was worth the previous year. So, $100 dollars in 1966 had the same buying power as $335 does today. So, the raw dollar amount being higher today than 10 or 20 years ago is not only meaningless, but should be excepted, unless spending is cut or revenue increased.

The second and most important thing to consider is the National debt as a percentage of GDP, Gross Domestic Product. GDP is essentially the size or wealth of a given economy. At the end of 2005, the National Debt as a percentage of GDP was 64.7%, which is high, but not as high as it was at its height during the Clinton Administration. And no where near its all time high of over 120%, which was during the 1940s when all of the social programs started by FDR and WWII debt pushed this percentage to new heights.

By taking these facts into consideration, the National Debt is clearly NOT out of control.

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Edit:

I assume what you mean when you say "our national debt was balanced when Bush took office" is that we had no national debt when Bush took office?

This is a false statement, our national debt was nearly 6 trillion dollars when Bush took office in January of 2001. It is true we had a balanced budget in 1999 and 2000 resulting in a small budget surplus of $1.9 million and $86.4 million, respectively. But that surplus did not eliminate all of the previous debt.

Having a balanced budget is not the same thing as having no national debt. Please read the "A brief history of the debt" section of the link I provided below.

I am afraid you are a victim of political manipulation of the truth. The debt has increased by about $2.5 trillion dollars under President Bush, but he is not responsible for the entire 8.5 trillion.

The yearly budget in the U.S.has run a 100 billion dollar deficit

17 times

16 of those were by GOP presidents

the other (1) was by Bill Clinton his first year in office

(it was left over from first Bush admin)

BTW the Bush Family holds the record for the top 8 defecits ever

2 by sr and 6 by jr

in the last 40 years the budget has been balanced 5 times

all by Democrats

you can look it up anywhere

It's not a matter of "paying back the debt." Much of the debt is locally held, through savings bonds and the like. That's very healthy debt. And it's probably good for our country to have run a deficit (like right after 9/11, and in the early 2000s when there was an economic crunch). But interest on the debt is chewing up a larger and larger chunk of our budget, so beginning to pay some off is crucial, soon!

You have actually asked two separate questions. Balancing the budget is much easier as it only involves reducing spending/increasing revenues (taxes) suffciently to ensure that they balance each other in a given year. As for paying back the national debt it is not likely to happen anytime soon. Governments have no motivation to do so. Politicians are only motivated by getting re-elected and paying off the debt is not a sexy issue. You can pretty much guarantee that they US will have a huge accumulated debt pretty much forever.

it is why you're a liberal pothead. The nationwide debt is funds from the sale of U.S. Treasury Bonds to banks or whoever will purchase them. in many cases it truly is made up funds. convinced! Made up funds! it truly is been the biggest scam going and your fellow liberal democrats personal a large number of inventory in banks. They blame republicans at the same time as they're those scamming off of our personal authorities's debt. The Rockefeller kin is one social gathering. The Federal Reserve Banking gadget desires to be abolished. call me one usa who buys our Treasury Bonds who doesn't borrow the money contained in the first position? that is a large shell activity and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is the issue alongside with our authorities's skill to maintain borrowing funds and paying the banks activity by technique of borrowing more beneficial funds and merely including it to the debt. that is so stupid! How does the authorities pay off those bonds at the same time as they're $a million trillion in debt each and every twelve months? They promote even more beneficial bonds and get more beneficial 'made up' funds from their fellow bankers. it truly is rather humorous how human beings are so ignorant about this idea. that is a large circle-jerk between the banks and our Federal authorities. keep in mind that our guidelines and income taxes assure all funds of activity and idea to the banks.

yes the republicans have disappointed me with out of control spending but you are very wrong about the tax cuts adding to the deficit. It was just report not too long ago that because of the tax cuts the government coffers are getting more than they thought and because of that we are paying down the deficit faster then projected. the war is a nessasary evil we have to defend ourselves and help the free world rid the world of terrorits. By their words and actions they want to kill me and you and they don't value their lives much here on earth as they will kill themselves to kill you and me. I value my little life here and don't want to die from the hands of some camel breathed scum sucker who is crazy. Why do you all blame the war on Bush and not the terrorists?

Well I thought that Clinton fixed the debt! Oh no he just twisted the numbers by adding Social Security tax into the general fund!

By reducing the amount of tax paid by those who pay the largest portion...yeah, I don't see how that's going to work either.

You have the worries of the whole world on your shoulders.

Us working people just have to worry about the Democrats starving us out by raising taxes on us.