KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Republican lawmakers are expressing concerns about a bill that would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt, despite the party's previous stance on reigning in spending.
The latest version of the bill would increase the national debt, even with proposed cuts, as the government would still need to borrow money to cover tax cuts extended to corporations and upper-class Americans, as well as spending for immigration reform and border wall construction.
"The way I used to describe it is it's like having a chronic disease. You know you're not facing a heart attack, you're not gonna die of this, but you are sort of limited. You know, there are things you could do if you weren't running this huge deficit and there are some things that would be paramount," said Chris Kuehl, an economist with Armada Corporate Intelligence.
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While the increasing debt won't crash the economy, Kuehl points out that the U.S. is already spending between $400-$500 billion annually on debt service.
"Could we have fixed the airline infrastructure? Could we have repaired all the bridges? Could we have, you know, the list is endless. But we couldn't because, well, we had to pay off the people who bought our bonds," Kuehl said.
Despite concerns about the growing debt, Kuehl noted that U.S. bonds remain attractive to investors compared to other countries, many of which face similar debt challenges. The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio stands at about 145%, which is high but still lower than China at 280% and Japan at 260%.
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