1. BORROWING MONEY AND PUBLIC DEBT

2. HOW DOES THE GOVERNMENT BORROW MONEY?  Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2 gives congress the power to “borrow money on the credit of the United States”  Once congress approves a budget that we do not have the revenue to pay for, they must authorize the Department of Treasury to do the borrowing  The Department of Treasury then borrows the money a variety of ways through investors, either domestic or foreign  The most common means of borrowing the money on Treasury notes or Federal bonds, both of which yield interest to the investors after a fixed amount of time

3. WHY DO WE BORROW MONEY? The largest reasons the United States has to borrow money stems from Federal Entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal pensions, and other social welfare problems The United States often borrows money to pay for yearly budget expenses it does not have the revenue to cover In fiscal year 2014, the federal government spent about 66% of the budget on Federal entitlements

4. DEFICITS AND SURPLUSES Every fiscal year that the federal government must spends more than the amount of revenue they are able to collect, they have run up a deficit If by some stroke of luck, the government does the responsible thing and spends less money than they are able to bring in, they have run a surplus In the last 46 years the government has run a surplus a total of 4 surpluses (between FY 1998 and FY 2001) The sum of all our budget deficits combined is known as Public Debt (or national debt)