Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: We should be looking at the real interest cost of the national debt

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the state of Russia's war on Ukraine, a proposal to use earnings from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, state of the U.S. economy, strength of the labor market, inflation outlook, the swelling national debt, and more.

[jamesresnick]

“More than half of it is in defense, it’s really not possible to get cuts there.” Absurd statement, it is possible.

[RoboPalInc]

Maybe it is time to implement Mr. Buffet’s recommendation. Pass a bill of no re-election for any congress member if deficit does not go down by a certain percentage every 2 years. 😉 accountability promotes efficiency.❤️

[mattmccracken]

How can she possibly encourage Congress to reduce debt levels when she kept interest rates, i.e., the price of borrowing money, at zero? In other words, the ability to borrow money without cost. What else do you think Congress, or businesses and individuals, would do for that matter but pile up debt? For all her experience and education she is one of the most incompetent Treasury Secretary we have ever had.

[Mostly_bad]

Ummm. Let's cut defense. I can think of a few hundred billion dollars going to Ukraine and Israel I would cut.

[mannydavidcastillo]

This is some unbelievable stuffs…. She literally said forget about the debt just worry about the interest

[harrymills]

$1.2 trillion deficit during supposed peacetime.

[ssuwandi]

😂 grandma is lecturing the interest costs are killing the discretionary spending😊 Not Transitory eh

[raymak]

How can citizens be comfortable with someone like this in her position. The people deserve better. Better government.

[RockawayBeachNY]

Unrealized gains, she is out of her mind!!

[btcberg]

BITCOIN OR GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP, THESE PEOPLE RUNNING THINGS ARE CLOWNS

[ronsmith]

When Janet was the Fed head, she drove sitting on 2 phone books, and couldn't see over the dashboard. She should have raised to normalize rates while she was in charge.

[htas]

It is a good idea to request that people who make a high amount, say a few million a year before taxes to pay a flat percentage before calculating taxes. This would keep people from being very high earners and paying no taxes because very high earners are able to shift their monies to minimize taxes in practical terms.

[johnjones-ucni]

We're all really interested in it. What is Yellen doing about it?

[urosuros]

*Dear Americans*, on June the 9th 2024 Saudi Arabia BROKE the Petrodollar agreement with the US!!! :O

[ezyryder]

3:06 no, unrealized capital gains are not a source of income. If you want to fix the step-up basis, fix the step-up basis.

[TroyHanson-chnm]

Who care 6 months from now y'all will be fired anyhow IMO

[htas]

Here is an example: this year you are making 20k and you borrow 5k, that is a lot of debt for you. following year you make 50k, and you still owe the 5 k your borrowed last year. It is now a very low debt for you, and the cost of borrowing it nor very much either. How the debt looks changes based on the income.

[colinfryett]

They want more taxes to fund other countries' wars 😅

[quartytypo]

In President Biden's next term, he must do with the national debt what he did with student loans, forgive it.

[TheKid-ctis]

1.2 Trillion dollar Deficit
How about the National Debt 34 Trillion
How about the Social Security and Medicare Bill 200 Trillion owed.

A billion vs a trillion
32 Years vs 32, 000 Years it would take to pay.

What happened to the American taxpayers money?