As a citizen of this country, we should all be concerned with the national debt. At some point, the United States is going to figure out a solution to pay back the debt quickly, which will in turn impact every American. As you watch the National Debt Clock, the numbers just keep going up. They never stop or go backwards. The national debt may have started at a bit over $19,000,000,000,000 when this course was developed, but it certainly hasn’t seen a decrease since then. Everyone is always playing the blame game when it comes to debt, whether it be the Republicans fault or the Democrats, each party has their own agendas, and they are just going to keep spending. Nobody likes to pay back debt, because, just like a credit card, it is easy to
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Total government spending is around $6.89 trillion for the fiscal year of 2017 (Chantrill, 2016.). 22% is health; 20% pensions; 15% education, 12% defense; remainder is 31% (Chantrill, 2016.). Federal spending is at $4.15 trillion with 28% health; 25% pensions; 21% defense; 9% welfare; 17% remainder (Chantrill, 2016.). The one concern would be the “remainder” in both breakdowns. Increasing taxes won’t do anything but increase the poverty level, which is currently at 14.5%, and 9% of spending goes toward welfare. Things are getting out of control because there are not enough mandates on things, such as health care. For example, a story that was pretty big back in 2015 was a drug that went from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. The drug, Daraprim has been around for about 62 years and being used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection (Pollack, 2015.). It was acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals, and a month later, the price jumped. Their excuse for the increase was that they were going to use the money for research in alternative drugs that could be used. Better monitoring and budgeting needs to be taken place, and if the mandates are not met, then there needs to be an explanation and an audit. Most places, such as hospitals, do get some sort of funding from the state or government especially when it comes to grants for
Total government spending is around $6.89 trillion for the fiscal year of 2017 (Chantrill, 2016.). 22% is health; 20% pensions; 15% education, 12% defense; remainder is 31% (Chantrill, 2016.). Federal spending is at $4.15 trillion with 28% health; 25% pensions; 21% defense; 9% welfare; 17% remainder (Chantrill, 2016.). The one concern would be the “remainder” in both breakdowns. Increasing taxes won’t do anything but increase the poverty level, which is currently at 14.5%, and 9% of spending goes toward welfare. Things are getting out of control because there are not enough mandates on things, such as health care. For example, a story that was pretty big back in 2015 was a drug that went from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. The drug, Daraprim has been around for about 62 years and being used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection (Pollack, 2015.). It was acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals, and a month later, the price jumped. Their excuse for the increase was that they were going to use the money for research in alternative drugs that could be used. Better monitoring and budgeting needs to be taken place, and if the mandates are not met, then there needs to be an explanation and an audit. Most places, such as hospitals, do get some sort of funding from the state or government especially when it comes to grants for