{"id":638,"date":"2021-02-16T04:04:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T04:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/?p=638"},"modified":"2021-02-16T04:04:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T04:04:42","slug":"what-happens-to-the-united-states-debt-post-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/2021\/02\/16\/what-happens-to-the-united-states-debt-post-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to the United States\u2019 Debt Post-COVID-19?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The federal debt is nearing $28 trillion, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/usdebtclock.org\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/usdebtclock.org\/\">US Debt Clock<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States\u2019 federal debt has been growing dramatically for decades and is poised to surpass the country\u2019s GDP this year. The debt\u2019s growth has been accelerating, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought this acceleration to a new level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/5305728\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on the national debt, and it\u2019s not over. Biden\u2019s administration has plans for another COVID-19-relief bill, with a $1.9 trillion price tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can be hard to visualize the difference between large numbers &#8211; like $1 billion compared to $1 trillion. Think about it this way&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/MoneyLength-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/MoneyLength-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/MoneyLength-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/MoneyLength-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/MoneyLength-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/02\/MoneyLength.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The party in power does not seem to have significant impact on the debt. The last president to leave the White House with a smaller debt than when he entered was Calvin Coolidge, in 1929.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-hierarchy\" data-src=\"visualisation\/5305394\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Lowering the debt is possible, but how would one go about doing it today? There are two major options \u2013 raise taxes or cut spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The newest COVID-19 relief bill can provide some insight into the federal governments tendencies when it comes to spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 100%;\"><div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; padding-top: 0; height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"1200px\" height=\"675px\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/view.genial.ly\/602adcfbf8e9720d2697f9a0\" type=\"text\/html\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" scrolling=\"yes\" allownetworking=\"all\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Referring to the bill as something like the \u2018The COVID Relief Bill\u2019 is misleading in itself. Only two out of 32 sections are directly related to the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of it like this: someone offers you a bowl of M&amp;Ms, and then gives you a bowl of trail mix instead. Yes, there are M&amp;Ms in the bowl, and most people would agree that they are the most important component, but they make up far too small a percentage to call the whole thing \u2018M&amp;Ms\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill included many unrelated expenses, which contributed to its colossal length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/5308425\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether or not each item is a wise use of money is irrelevant. Putting multiple unrelated bills under the \u2018COVID-19 Relief Package\u2019 name ends up being misleading and expensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The federal debt is nearing $28 trillion, according to the US Debt Clock The United States\u2019 federal debt has been growing dramatically for decades and is poised to surpass the country\u2019s GDP this year. The debt\u2019s growth has been accelerating, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought this acceleration to a new level. The COVID-19 pandemic has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[108,29,107,110,109],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-debt","tag-government","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}