The U.S National Debt !!

I think most people who live in America know that the biggest problem with American society today is economic issues.  Although I am an international student and just have lived here a couple years, I have heard many times about America’s economic issues. And I think people everywhere in the world are paying much attention to America’s economic problems.

I was surprised by the huge debt number when I came to search for the U.S national debt. I could not think that it would be this much. Even though, the debt amount is already big, it is still growing by second. According to the national debt clock, the public debt today is $13,640,057,838,912. So, with the growing of the US population of 310,567,744, each citizen’s share of this debt is $43,920. The total national debt is including debts of federal, state, and local governments, international, and private debt, which includes: households, business and financial sector debts, and federal debt to trust funds. Thus, every U.S citizen has contributed to this debt; no matter if you are rich or poor.

The U.S spends too much money. One of the reasons of the growing debt is that people spend more money than they have. Today, individuals want more money than before. They are taking out loans more often when they need it. Then, they have trouble paying off those loans. Additional, companies are spending more money but not making as much. Therefore, they are also going into debt, and when companies and individuals go into debt, they have to ask the banks for help. However, if the banks are having trouble to help them out, they all create a new amount of debt. The second reason of the growing debt is that the Government has spent too much money on the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, and they are not over yet. First, the Government needs to spend money to train their new soldiers ,and spend money to create or buy their new weapons. Moreover, we have lost so many soldiers in this war, and when a soldier is injured or killed, that is another increase in cost, from hospital costs, to costs to send out a new soldier in their place. According to the national priorities project, U.S total cost is $1,089,409,937.652 on the war since 2001. I do not think the US Government should spend that much money on wars.

Most people are now concentrating on this issue ,and the US. Economy and the Governments are trying to fix the problem. Since the U.S. debt is much bigger than other countries, it is not easy to fix this problem. From my point of view, I think that the U.S. government should increase the tax rate for well-off people. Nowadays, rich people are still rich (and even getting richer) ,and poor people are still poor.  Thus, the income distance between the rich and the poor are larger.  The US Government should try to boost the well-off people to contribute their money (the extra money that they do not really need) to the national economy.  Moreover, in order to reduce national debt, the U. S should try to stop the war and withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible. All Americans need to pay more attention to the national debt ,or it will be too late for the United States to get out of it. Americans should know that their debt would become a very dangerous thing.  Thus, they should limit their spending and choose to buy only what is necessary for them. Moreover, the U.S Government should pay more attention to the social welfare program, and unemployed, and should spend more money to help the poverty. 

The Shame of the Food Stamp Program ?!?

I found an article about food stamps that I am interested on The Smirking Chimp. We all know Food Stamps, which are known as the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are a Government assistance program to help low income people to pay for foods. The amount of SNAP per household get depends on their income, size, house expense, and child support expense. Also, the average benefit for each person is three dollars a day or 21 dollars a week.  The writer mentioned that eating on three dollars a day might be hard to do while the price of everything has gone up. Thus, it is impossible for food stamps household to eat healthy diet.  According to the article, the writer said that with 21 dollars a week, low-income American usually consumes foods with low nutrition and not much meats or fresh fruits and vegetables.

Additional, the writer talked about several members of House of Hunger Caucus want to participate the Food Stamps Challenge to see how difficult it is to avoid hunger, afford nutritious foods, and stay healthy. The author thought that it is not right when there always seems to be money available for war, but not for social welfare program.  

From my point of view, I agree with all the points that the writer mentioned. I know what it is like to have hanger pang, but I really do not worry how I afford food to the last minute. I think that health problems are a likely result of the food stamp diet because the cheapest foods are crabs; hence it is easy to understand why type 2 diabetes is an epidemic in America. The diabetic and overweight people can make wise foods choices, but for the poor, wise choices are not as available. It is just not fair that wealthy people wasting their money on their luxuries and do not have to worry about their next meal while low- income people always worry about how to budget their food expenses on every single meal. Moreover, low-income American may find it hard on economic as they lose their freedom to choose what and when to eat. Or low-income people might also lose their social impact when they usually turn down their social invitation because it may be difficult to reciprocate. I think Government should pay more attention to the social welfare program and spend more money to help the poverty instead of wasting money and killing people on war. I do agree with the author and believe that: “A truly nation just ensures that no one goes hungry”.