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What is the purpose of the states in bearing the burden of lowering the deficit?

1) To make US citizens responsible for lowering the deficit
2) To share the responsibility for government debt reduction
3) To take all of the responsibility for government debt reduction
4) Cannot be determined

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The states share the responsibility for reducing the federal government's debt by issuing securities like Treasury bonds, notes, and bills. This helps to manage deficits without solely relying on taxation or dramatic spending cuts.

Step-by-step explanation:

The purpose of the states in bearing the burden of lowering the deficit primarily is to share the responsibility for government debt reduction. When the federal government runs a deficit, it means that the government's expenditures exceed its revenues in a given fiscal year. To manage this, the government may issue Treasury bonds, notes, and bills to borrow funds. These borrowed funds can either be used to pay down the national debt or be refunded to the taxpayers.

Deficit spending is sometimes considered necessary to stimulate economic growth, especially during periods of recession or economic turmoil. Moreover, it is possible for a nation to run budget deficits while seeing its debt/GDP ratio fall, which happened in the United States from the end of World War II to about 1980. The decline in the debt/GDP ratio implies that the economy is growing faster than the debt is increasing.

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