Government Borrowing

1
Government Borrowing

• Social Studies/Economics

2
Descriptive Overview

• Our two major political parties regularly
  debate the national debt. Students will conduct
  online research on the national debt and
  investigate the impact of that debt on
  individuals.

3
Lesson Objectives/Goals

• Students will
• explain how the government raises money
• describe the size of the national debt and how it
  has increased.
• investigate how government bonds are distributed.

4
Key Questions

• How does government borrowing affect individuals?
  
• What is the difference in debt and deficit?
• Should the United States push for a balanced
  budget?

5
Terminology/Vocabulary

• Deficit
• Debt

6
Government Borrowing

• .What is a bond?
• What is one way the government can raise money?
• What is the national debt as of today?
• What is the difference between deficit and debt?
• .What was the deficit in
• 1992? 1988? The end of World War II (1945)?
• The year of the stock market crash (1929)?
• 1901?

7
Government Borrowing

• Summarize the history of the national debt for
  the last 10 years
• How does the government borrowing money affect
  you?

8
Debt Argument Notes

• Arguments for Maintaining Debt
• Most of the borrowed money is owed to ourselves
  and we receive interest payments.
• We can afford the debt even though the debt is
  increasing, it is declining as a percentage of
  the gross national product.
• The real cost of the debt is the interest
  payment. We have low interest rates on the
  loans.

9
Arguments for Eliminating Debt

• The percentage of interest payments going to
  foreign investors ids increasing.
• The tax burden, due to interest being paid from
  taxes, may increase.
• Federal spending, due to the freedom to increase
  debt, may encourage waste.