National debt to hit 19.6 trillion by 2015

by Kirk Maltais

According to a new report by the Treasury Department, given last Friday to Congress, the national debt in the United States will rise to 102 percent of the gross domestic product by 2015, up from the current 93 percent, totaling out at $19.6 trillion.

According to University of Maryland Professor Carmen Reinhart, who recently testified in front of a bipartisan fiscal commission created by President Obama to curb national debt, a debt of over 90 percent of the GDP would slow economic growth.

The report also said that the debt owned by investors, which include nations such as Japan and China as well as wealthy individuals, will rise to an estimated $9.1 trillion by 2015, a 21 percent increase from the 7.5 trillion this number was at last year.

Having a larger debt than GDP would cost millions of jobs for the U.S, and would echo the financial meltdown in Greece, where their national debt right now is 125 percent of their GDP. In order to prevent this, unbridled spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, corporate bailouts, and other unnecessary government programs, must be cut and contained, and Congress must adopt a policy of fiscal responsibility.

(Source: Reuters.com)