this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5 the US debt/budget and how come it seems like I give you 10 dollars and I get two back? I just don't get how its not a regular checking acount situation? How can we be trillions in debt? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter. Just like pants on a toll booth operator.

But seriously, if congress doesn’t implement ways to “save” money (aka not spend up to whatever we say the debt ceiling is) and elect to just print more money, the value of the dollar plummets even more. So then we can’t get shit done without spending more tax revenue on our loans (and republicans don’t want to recoup taxes). It’s a vicious cycle.