THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 3
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018
ON CAMPUS
Students ponder US budget deficit By ERIC RYNSTON-LOBEL
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Ahead of the November midterm elections, Daily reporters are speaking to students about issues they’ll take to the polls. In this article, students and faculty take on the United States’ budget deficit. The United States federal budget deficit was $779 billion for the 2018 fiscal year, a 17 percent increase from the previous year. This has prompted uncertainty among Americans over how much longer the deficit can continue to increase without devastating consequences. The deficit fluctuated during the Obama presidency, but has increased significantly during the period in which President Donald Trump has been in office, despite numerous promises he made during his campaign to pare it down. “I think Trump is finding it’s a lot harder to carry out what he intended to,” Weinberg Source: Andrew Harnik/Pool/Sipa USA/TNS freshman Hitesh Juneja said. “The deficit is so large and has been a problem for so long Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on August that it’s going to take a long time before it’s 31, 2018. McConnell blamed the deficit on failure to contain spending on entitlements like Medicare, solved.” though he predicted a solution to reducing the gap wouldn’t come soon. One major factor in the significant increase in the deficit is due to GOP sponsored tax the president is not necessarily to blame for solution to reducing the gap wouldn’t come cuts, which will add an estimated $3.8 tril- the increasing deficit. soon. lion to the deficit over the course of the next Weinberg freshman Sonia Bhattacharyya Regardless of the reason, the deficit con10 years. said she’s “not sure how much partisan poli- tinues to grow. Economics Prof. Mark Witte said the econ- tics” has to do with the issue. She thinks Social In terms of what this growing deficit means omy is in “very good shape in most measures,” Security and the increase in the population of in the long run, Witte said what economists and that the tax plan wasn’t necessarily to older Americans is a bigger problem. are concerned about is the debt to GDP ratio. stimulate the economy. As the Baby Boomer generation grows Because the ratio can help indicate whether With the economy at a peak, Witte believes older, the number of people qualified for a country has the means to pay back its debts, it is a “pretty good time to push towards a Social Security is steadily increasing. This economists consider this figure more impormore balanced fiscal position and try to con- puts considerable strain on the system. tant than the dollar value of the debt itself. tain and even reverse the growth of debt.” Bhattacharyya’s comments echoed those of “If the debt grows forever, but at a slower “What the US is doing seems to go the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell growth rate than the GDP, there’s no problem opposite from textbook economics,” Witte (R-Ky.), who earlier this week blamed the at all,” Witte said. added. deficit on failure to contain spending on entiHowever, there are some who believe that tlements like Medicare, though he predicted a ericrynston-lobel2022@u.northwestern.edu
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