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[AP통신] 미 의회 국가채무 상한선 인상 찬성
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[AP통신] 미 의회 국가채무 상한선 인상 찬성
  • KNS뉴스통신
  • 승인 2011.04.14 12:18
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Both parties helped run up US $14 trillion debt

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two centuries after America's birth, the national debt was a bit under $1 trillion when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. Just three decades later, it has soared above $14 trillion, and accusations of blame are flying. Both Republicans and Democrats played major roles in driving the figure sky high.

If the tab were divided up now, it would come to roughly $47,000 for each man, woman and child in the United States.
In what is shaping up as the next bruising economic battle, Congress is being asked by President Barack Obama to authorize fresh borrowing once the nation's fast-growing debt slams into the current debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion — something the Treasury Department says will happen no later than May 16.

Leaders of both parties acknowledge that failing to raise the limit could force the government to begin defaulting on some of its obligations — for instance making interest payments on Treasury bills and bonds — with severe adverse consequences, including possibly pushing the economy back into recession.

Creative accounting may help forestall the crisis for a few additional months. But then the effects could be severe, or as the White House warns, "like Armageddon, in terms of the economy."

Republicans like to blame Obama and congressional Democrats, citing heavy spending that they claim has done little to end the recession or create jobs. Democrats argue that the stage for fiscal ruin was set by Republican President George W. Bush, with large tax cuts that favored the wealthy, two wars and a vastly underfunded prescription drug program for the elderly. They accuse Bush of squandering a budget surplus handed him by President Bill Clinton.

"We lost our way" during the Bush years, Obama suggested on Wednesday as he laid out his own prescriptions for taming the nation's long-term budget woes, a move the administration hoped would also smooth the way for a debt-ceiling vote.

In fact, spending far outpaced revenues in both the Bush and Obama years. And the main culprit in addition to war spending was the devastating 2007-2009 recession, which not only prompted hundreds of billions of dollars in downturn-fighting spending by both the Bush and Obama administrations, but also resulted in a sharp dip in tax revenues due to sagging individual and corporate incomes.

The main reasons for big increases in the national debt in the years ahead are fast-growing obligations for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs as tens of millions of baby boomers reach retirement age.

Congress has raised the debt limit ten times in the last decade alone, most recently in February 2010. But this year, the stakes are higher than usual, with Republicans and some Democrats warning Obama that they will not vote to raise it unless he agrees to mandatory restraints on future spending.

It was against this backdrop that Obama on Wednesday countered Republican budget plans with a series of his own proposals that he held out as better balanced. They included wide-ranging spending cuts, tax increases aimed at the wealthy and a "debt failsafe" trigger for additional across-the-board spending cuts and tax hikes if deficits are not headed down by 2014.

"That should be an incentive for us to act boldly now, instead of kicking our problems further down the road," Obama said. Still, his plan faced difficulties ahead, with Republican Party opposition to new tax increases and complaints from some Democrats that his spending cuts are too drastic.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt. Its bonds are viewed as among the safest investments in the world. In addition to millions of Americans, many foreign governments and investors have vast holdings in Treasury securities, with China leading the pack.

The Republican Party now is in the majority in the House of Representatives after mid-term elections last November that many victors and tea-party activists viewed as a mandate for deep spending cuts.

"My members won't vote to increase the debt limit unless we're taking serious steps in the right direction," says House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

After a White House meeting with Obama on Wednesday to preview the speech, Boehner said, "I think the president heard us loud and clear." He agreed that passing a debt-limit extension is highly important. "Not meeting our debt obligations is a very bad idea," he said. But Boehner also insisted that higher taxes not be part of any debt relief deal.

The national debt is the total accumulated indebtedness of the U.S. government. As of Wednesday, it stood at $14.27 trillion. Of this, $14.21 trillion is subject to the debt limit. For various mostly technical reasons, several small governmental programs are not counted.

The national debt should not be confused with the federal budget deficit, which is only a one-year slice. The deficit is the difference between what the government spends in a given year and what it takes in. In the budget year that ends Sept. 30, the deficit is expected to be a record $1.5 trillion. At that level, for every $1 the government spends, it must borrow about 42 cents.

Only a few times in the nation's history has the government run a budget surplus. The most recent was in the early 2000s, when for several years the government took in more than it paid out. That helped take a nick out of the national debt, then hovering between $5 trillion and $6 trillion. Soon deficits returned and the national debt resumed its relentless climb.

"America's finances were in great shape by the year 2000. We went from deficit to surplus. America was actually on track to becoming completely debt-free, and we were prepared for the retirement of the baby boomers," Obama said. "But after Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed."

The national debt began when President George Washington and Congress agreed to take on debts incurred by the states for fighting the Revolutionary War.

It broke through the $1 trillion mark (that's a $1 followed by 12 zeroes) in 1981, the first year of the Reagan's presidency. But despite Reagan's vow to balance the budget, the debt tripled during his two terms, to just over $3 trillion under the weight of a recession, large tax cuts and increased spending.

When his successor, President George H.W. Bush, left office in early 1993, the debt was over $4 trillion. Clinton's eight years in office took it to nearly $6 trillion, despite those fleeting budget surpluses. When George W. Bush finished his two terms the debt had pushed through the $10 trillion mark.

A celebrated national debt "clock" near Times Square had to be rebuilt to allow for the extra digit.

In just 2½ years under Obama, the debt has grown to where it stands today.

Of the $14.27 trillion national debt, some $4.62 trillion is money the government owes itself — mostly money borrowed from Social Security revenues. Without it, the "debt held by the public" is $9.65 trillion.

According to Obama administration figures, just over $3 trillion of the $14.27 trillion debt can be attributed to Bush-era tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Medicare prescription drug program. Stimulus spending by Obama and tax cuts he signed into law accounted for about $600 billion through last Sept. 30.

If there are no changes in government policies, the debt will soar to $18.76 trillion by 2014 and $20.8 trillion by 2016, according to administration projections.

(기사내용)
미 의회 국가채무 상한선 인상 찬성

미국독립 200주년 되던 1981년 레이건대통령 취임당시 1조 달러였던 미국 재정적자는 30년이 지난 현재 14조 달러로 급증했다. 미의회 양당 정치인들이 이 문제에 대해 공방을 하고 있지만 공화당과 민주당의 모두가 부채증가의 큰 목에 책임이 있다.

이 숫자를 미국인 전체인구로 나누면 한 사람당 47,000달러의 빚을 지고 있는 것이 된다.

현재 양당 간에 경제전쟁의 전조가 보이는 가운데, 빠르게 늘어나는 부채로 미재무부가 5월 16일로 예상하는 상한선인 14조 3천억 달러에 달하게 되면 오바마대통령은 의회에 상한선을 늘려달라는 요청을 하고 있다.

의회의 양당 지도자들이 부채상한선을 늘리지 않는다면 당장 정부는 재무부가 발행한 국채의 이자상환을 이행하지 못하는 것과 같은 사태가 발생하고 결국 경제는 불황으로 빠질 것으로 보인다.

미 백악관은 임시조치로 몇 개월은 버틸 수 있을 지라도 최후의 경제적 파멸사태가 벌어질 것이다고 말하고 있다.

당파적인 경제운영이 국가부채 증가의 근본원이 된 것으로 보이는데 공화당은 오바마대통령이 경기활성화 조치에도 불구하고 불황에서 탈출하지 못하여 고용을 창출하지 못했다고 비난하는 반면 민주당은 공화당 부시대통령의 부자 감세정책으로 클린턴대통령에게서 넘겨받은 예산 잉여금을 탕진했다고 비난하고 있다.

적자예산의 주범은 전쟁비용과 별도로 2007-2008년의 경기불황에서 찾을 수 있는데 부시와 오바마 대통령 모두 경기불황에 대처하기 위해 수천억 달러를 퍼부었으나, 경기불황으로 세입이 대폭 감소했었다.

앞으로 수년간 국가부채증가의 요인으로 수백만 명의 베이비붐 세대가 퇴직하면서 사회보장비, 메디케어, 메디케이드등에 필요한 채무의 급증을 들 수 있다.

과거 의회는 최근의 2010년 2월의 증액을 포함해서, 이전 10년 동안 국가부채상한선을 10번이나 증액해 왔는데, 의회양당은 올해 오바마대통령이 지출을 의무적으로 감축시킨다는 보장이 없으면 상한선을 올리지 않겠다고 경고하고 있다.

이에 대해서 오바마 대통령은 광범위한 지출감소, 부자 세금인상과 2014년 적자축소를 목표로 하는 전반적인 지출감소를 포함하는 조치를 내 놓았다.

미국은 과거에 부채상환에 실패한 역사가 없기 때문에 세계에서 가장 안전한 투자처로 인정되며, 중국이 그 목의 가장 큰 부분을 차지하고 있고 수백만 미국인, 해외의 정부와 개인 투자가들이 미재무부 채권에 투자하고 있다.

의회의 당파적 경제정책으로 오바마대통령은 애로에 봉착할 것으로 보이는데 공화당은 세금인상에 반대하는 한편 민주당은 예산삭감이 너무 많다고 비난하고 있는 것이다.

금년 9월 30일 회계연도 말까지의 연방 재정적자 규모는 1조 5천억 달러로 정부지출이 1달러 늘어나면 42 센트를 빌려와야 한다.

국가채무는 역사적으로 볼 때 조지워싱턴 대통령시절 미국 독립전쟁으로 거슬러 올라간다. 레이건대통령 취임시 1조 달러에서 3조 달러로 증가했고 끌린턴대통령의 6조 달러, 부시대통령재임 말에는 10조 달러로 늘어났고 오바마대통령 2년 반 동안에 현재의 14조 달러가 되었다.

현재의 상태가 그대로 진행된다면 2014년의 미국 채무는 18조 7천 6백 달러, 2016년에는 20조 8천억 달러에 달할 것으로 미국 행정부는 예측하고 있다.

 

 

KNS뉴스통신 kns@kns.tv


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