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U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

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Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#141

Post by rayiner »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #136
rayiner wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to waste money bombing Iran either, but the total cost of the operation has been $37.5 billion. Meanwhile, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security each grew around $100 billion in the last year.

Direct costs are ~$113B as of June 16th, 2026 (per the Pentagon's briefing to Congress, counter stopped on that date): https://iran-cost-ticker.com/ Iran War Cost Tracker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237080 - March 2026 (446 comments) Pentagon Tells Congress First Week of Iran War Cost More Than $11.3 Billion - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-war... | https://archive.today/Q4oDX -…

[flagged]

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#142

Post by ericmay »

8note wrote: post #131
ericmay wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"All organizations waste money, therefore organizations should keep wasting money and it's actually fine" doesn't sound very compelling to me.

the talk of waste is in service of thw question "is the government well funded enough?" and so far it does not appear that reducing waste would properly fund the government? a couple patriot missiles worth is not the debt, and would not allow for much more efficient single payer health care - the single biggest opportunity the US government has to reduce waste in american society

Again you can do both - you can cut these wasteful programs, you can have a well-funded government that's already well-funded with trillions of dollars, and then also reform healthcare all without raising taxes. Use your imagination.

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#143

Post by itsdesmond »

rayiner wrote: post #141
toomuchtodo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct costs are ~$113B as of June 16th, 2026 (per the Pentagon's briefing to Congress, counter stopped on that date): https://iran-cost-ticker.com/ Iran War Cost Tracker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237080 - March 2026 (446 comments) Pentagon Tells Congress First Week of Iran War Cost More Than $11.3 Billion - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-war... | https://archive.today/Q4oDX -…

[flagged]

They uh… they were open. They were open before we started bombing. We bomb because we bombed. As a consequence of us murdering we are murdering.

> "American" is a label for a group of consumers living within a defined border, who want to get their oil and foreign goods shipped to that location.

Holy shit.

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#144

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #141
toomuchtodo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct costs are ~$113B as of June 16th, 2026 (per the Pentagon's briefing to Congress, counter stopped on that date): https://iran-cost-ticker.com/ Iran War Cost Tracker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237080 - March 2026 (446 comments) Pentagon Tells Congress First Week of Iran War Cost More Than $11.3 Billion - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-war... | https://archive.today/Q4oDX -…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#145

Post by halJordan »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #136
rayiner wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to waste money bombing Iran either, but the total cost of the operation has been $37.5 billion. Meanwhile, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security each grew around $100 billion in the last year.

Direct costs are ~$113B as of June 16th, 2026 (per the Pentagon's briefing to Congress, counter stopped on that date): https://iran-cost-ticker.com/ Iran War Cost Tracker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237080 - March 2026 (446 comments) Pentagon Tells Congress First Week of Iran War Cost More Than $11.3 Billion - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-war... | https://archive.today/Q4oDX -…

A common conceit in these arguments is that you have sole ownership to "what a government is for." Which implicitly denies the opposite argument without addressing it, and attempts to legitimize your own. But social service outlays are absolutely, incontrovertibly a huge & increasing reason for the deficit. All the doge/ Trump/project 2025 cuts have paled in the face of the absolute juggernaut that is domestic spending. And then you realize that state govts spend as much money as the federal govt, while having absolutely no defense budget at all.

For you to deny that social spending is problem (especially for what it does buy) totally denigrates you and your position.

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#146

Post by jmpman »

juujian wrote: post #3

Upsetting how we are reaching these lows while the administration is accusing everyone else of wasting taxpayer money except for themselves. At least under previous administrations you would get something for your money, like science funding and healthcare for the needy, not just bombing runs and posturing.

As much as people may dislike Regan, his goal for reducing taxes on the wealthy was based upon the laffer curve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

The hypothesis is that lowering taxes rates will actually increase government revenues.

The Trump cuts don't feel like they're laffer optimal. Instead they feel like political capture by the wealthy class. A cumulative of left of laffer optimal tax strategies over the past years have resulted in a deficit growing at rates which now exceed what a laffer peak rate would now support.

- the rich got their tax breaks, and have contributed to deficits for decades. Now they complain that social security entitlements must be cut to keep within our means.

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#147

Post by Jcowell »

halJordan wrote: post #145
toomuchtodo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct costs are ~$113B as of June 16th, 2026 (per the Pentagon's briefing to Congress, counter stopped on that date): https://iran-cost-ticker.com/ Iran War Cost Tracker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47237080 - March 2026 (446 comments) Pentagon Tells Congress First Week of Iran War Cost More Than $11.3 Billion - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-war... | https://archive.today/Q4oDX -…

A common conceit in these arguments is that you have sole ownership to "what a government is for." Which implicitly denies the opposite argument without addressing it, and attempts to legitimize your own. But social service outlays are absolutely, incontrovertibly a huge & increasing reason for the deficit. All the doge/ Trump/project 2025 cuts have paled in the face of the absolute juggernaut that is domestic spendi…

What does it buy

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#148

Post by bhelkey »

rayiner wrote: post #130
notfromhere wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that half the political system thinks you can cut taxes and grow revenues. Which is an intentional strategy to repeal social programs that they’d never get the votes to do so via legislation

> The problem is that half the political system thinks you can cut taxes and grow revenues. And the other half thinks you can pay for a European-style welfare state without European-style middle class taxes. Americans are Disney adults.

The US spends $2 Trillion dollars on Medicare + Medicaid a year [1][2].

Given that the US has a population of 342.7 million people [3], those two trillion dollars divides out to $5800 per resident per year.

The UK's universal healthcare system costs ~$4700 per person per year (~£3,500)[4].

If we could spend healthcare dollars as efficiently as the UK, the current government spending in the US is enough to support a single payer healthcare system covering every resident without raising taxes.

[1] https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-repo...

[2] https://www.kff.org/medicaid/medicaid-financing-the-basics/#...

[3] https://www.census.gov/popclock/

[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy7zvp5xrqo

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#149

Post by joquarky »

jmpman wrote: post #146
juujian wrote: post #3

Upsetting how we are reaching these lows while the administration is accusing everyone else of wasting taxpayer money except for themselves. At least under previous administrations you would get something for your money, like science funding and healthcare for the needy, not just bombing runs and posturing.

As much as people may dislike Regan, his goal for reducing taxes on the wealthy was based upon the laffer curve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve The hypothesis is that lowering taxes rates will actually increase government revenues. The Trump cuts don't feel like they're laffer optimal. Instead they feel like political capture by the wealthy class. A cumulative of left of laffer optimal tax strategies over…

> Now they complain that social security entitlements must be cut to keep within our means.

That's the Starve the Beast strategy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Re: U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 123%

#150

Post by rayiner »

bhelkey wrote: post #148
rayiner wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that half the political system thinks you can cut taxes and grow revenues. And the other half thinks you can pay for a European-style welfare state without European-style middle class taxes. Americans are Disney adults.

The US spends $2 Trillion dollars on Medicare + Medicaid a year [1][2]. Given that the US has a population of 342.7 million people [3], those two trillion dollars divides out to $5800 per resident per year. The UK's universal healthcare system costs ~$4700 per person per year (~£3,500)[4]. If we could spend healthcare dollars as efficiently as the UK, the current government spending in the US is enough to support a s…

> Given that the US has a population of 342.7 million people [3], we could have single payer healthcare for every resident without raising taxes if it cost less than $5800 per person per year. The UK's universal healthcare system costs ~$4700 per person per year (~£3,500)[4].

Except we couldn't. For the same reason our public schools can't get Finland's test scores while spending $3,000 less per student pear year than the U.S. For the same reason our public transit systems can't build subways for $100 million per km, like Spain.

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