The USA Federal Debt-to-GDP Ratio and The Unified Budget Act’s Lack of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Abstract

Here in the beginning of 2021, two of the truly relevant federal public finance issues are presented in this article. One is the Debt-to GDP Ratio. The second topic is the true nature of deficits, surpluses and future liabilities treated in budgets constructed via the Unified Budget Act. Two graphs on these issues are included. This article shows that the present Debt-to-GDP ratio is relatively high, as if the nation similar to when the United States was in a period of a major war. This graph is shown in this article’s Figure 1. There has been evidence in the macroeconomic literature that indicates a high Debt-to-GDP ratio can possibly result in some degree of slowed economic growth. Though the literature is varied on that point. The reason for the possible crowding out effect has to do with the competition for loanable funds. There is competition from both the public and private demanders of those loanable funds. Furthermore, there is the reality that all federal trust fund balances of the United States must be used to hold U.S. Treasury bonds. For figure 2, two categories on U.S trust funds are shown. One category is the combined total of Social Security. Medicare, Disability and related funds. This is shown in a red line. All the other federal trust funds are indicated in a blue line. There is a graph that shows these two lines. The graph is of the percentage share between the two categories. As a result, the red and blue lines are inverse functions of each other. Over the eighty-year period (1940-2020), there has been variation if both the red and blue lines. The goal of this articles is for leaders and government analysts to be more aware of the issues of the USA Federal Debt to GDP Ratio and the Unified Budget Act’s lack of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.