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Debt and Deficits debate desk
Was the National Debt Caused by Tax Cuts Rather Than Spending? Tax cuts add to deficits, but spending has grown faster than revenue for decades; the gap is mostly a spending problem with a revenue side. Do Deficits Not Matter Because We Owe the Debt to Ourselves? Much of the debt is held by foreign buyers, and even the domestic share must be repaid with interest out of taxes that people would otherwise keep. Should Medicare and Social Security Never Change at All? Both programs face funding gaps under current law; changing them for younger workers while keeping promises to retirees is the responsible path. Can a Country That Prints Its Own Currency Never Go Broke? A government that prints can always pay in nominal dollars, but the bill arrives as inflation, as 2022 showed; the limit is real resources. Is Social Security Fine and Does It Add Nothing to the Federal Debt? Social Security's trust fund runs short in the 2030s, and benefits would fall by about a fifth without changes; reform now is gentler than reform later. Can Taxing the Rich Alone Close the Federal Budget Deficit? The arithmetic does not work: even very high rates on top earners raise a fraction of a trillion-dollar deficit, and the base moves when rates climb.